BIO
Sedat Umran (1925–2013, real name Osman Sedat Öcal) was a Turkish poet who spent his youth in Istanbul. He studied German language and literature, and worked as a commercial translator for various companies in the city of Izmir. He authored many books of poetry, culminating in 2000 with the publication of his collected poems, Sonsuzluk Atı [Infinity Horse]. Umran’s work is characterized by an ability to write honestly and lyrically about tragedy and loss, and to create an imagined inner world for inanimate objects.
Sedat Umran’s poems are translated from the original Turkish by Aron Aji, Gülsen Beyatli, and Zack Rogow.
Aron Aji is the director of the MFA in Literary Translation Program at the University of Iowa. He received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Translation Fellowship in 2006 and 2016, and a National Translation Award in 2004.
Gülsen Beyatli is a translator, interpreter, and poet, living in Istanbul. She has taught both Turkish and Arabic. She earned a BA in English at the University of Baghdad. Beyatli has used her language skills at the United Nations headquarters and other venues.
Zack Rogow was a co-winner of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award for Earthlight by André Breton, and winner of a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award (BABRA) for his translation of George Sand’s novel, Horace.
Scissors
He was thinking about scissors, their tough job:
cutting, sizing, trimming everything;
the pain had made him forget how to smile
his heart hard as stone, its scream turned to steel.
I wish I could try it on myself, to
cut short the eternity inside me,
to be the toughest, the most fearless,
to sever the worst from the best.
If I was a pair of scissors,
I would cut the endless distress in half,
trim my sadness and loneliness, even my hopes;
then I’d snip and size my death just how I wanted.
Makas
Makas düşünüyordu: ne çetindi görevi,
kesmek, ufaltmak, kırpmak her şeyi;
unutmuştu acımaktan gülümsemeyi
taş kesilmiş yüreğin çelikleşen çığlığı.
Ben de isterdim kendimde denemeyi,
bölebilmek içimdeki uzunluğu, sonsuzu;
varlıkların en serti, en korkusuzu,
doğramak ne varsa kötü ve iyi.
Makas olaydım,
bölerdim uzayan can sıkıntısını,
umutlarımı, ürkekliğimi, yalnızlığımı da;
ölümümü kendime göre keser, biçerdim.
.
When You Left
When you left, loneliness grew like a mountain
Now you stand on both sides of this desolation
And right in the middle: your absence absence absence
When it wants to speak it speaks, when it’s silent you’re silent
You left tossing stones into my sea
Circle by circle the memories lingered
Filling my most private chambers, never leaving
Suddenly, life slowed to a crawl
When you left all the joy drained out of me
Oh teach me how to live without you
Gittin
Gittin, dağ gibi büyüdü yalnızlık
Issızlığın iki ucunda şimdi sen varsın
Tam ortasında: yokluğun yokluğun yokluğun
O konuşsa konuşur, sussa susarsın
Gittin, taş atarak denizlerime
Halka halka genişleyen anıların kaldı
Girdin çıkmamak üzere dehlizlerime
Birden yaşamanın hızı azaldı
Gittin, boşandı içimde sevincin yayı
Kim öğretecek bana ah, sensiz yaşamayı
.
Defeat
I tried loneliness again,
hanging by its unbreakable thread,
I scared off the birds of the clouds,
bound only by the line of infinity.
One day, out of desperation,
I fortified the armies of oblivion,
I crossed the swamp of death, my rancor drying it out,
I built bridges with beams of despair.
With my astonishing strength, I stopped time
and set the stilled clocks of silence.
And once, surrounded on all sides,
I tried once again to count on myself;
my oceans now so far and wide,
I moved my islands in place
and learned to live without coast or harbor.
Bozgun
Bir kez daha denedim yalnızlığımı,
içimin kopmayan ipinde sallandım,
ürküttüm bulut kuşlarını gökyüzünün,
sonsuzun çizgisiyle sınırlandım;
bir gün çaresizlik içinde kalmışken
hiçlik ordularımı çoğalttım kendimden,
geçtim ölüm bataklığını hıncımla kurutarak,
köprüler kurdum umutsuzluğumun putrellerinden.
Ben zamanı müthiş gücümle durdurarak
kurdum sessizliğin duran saatlerini,
Birgün her yanımdan kuşatılmışken
bir kez daha denedim kendime tutunmayı;
öyle genişlettim ki denizlerimi
ben koydum yerli yerine adalarımı
ve öğrendim kıyışız, limansız yaşamayı.
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