ROSETTA_MAGAZINE_201303

158
LILAC
as heavy bodies filled with air ascend
creatures that explosive electric relies on
by the river’s waltzing shore the waters turn
before the girl’s choir knit with needles
they are going to cook little children for the hungry djinns
and the full moon that has its say upon the season
scattering the possibility of death
paying in advance my corpse to the earth!
I’m an innocent captive since the old jazz murder
served on a platter of many a doubt, I have been saddened sad
am I the moon melted to flow, holding onto earth,
the satiated djiin now became a story for the kids.
the satiated djiin now blanketed the kids.
he would come like a postman taken unawares at night
he would write bad tidings in letters unsigned, eerie
dwelling much on the subject of “us” and “captivity”
the earth he discovers is from himself
which is more appealing
I was a poor explorer in that ferris wheel city:
the first djinn, as heavy bodies filled with air ascend
like a lover who is filled with Autumn
he hit my darkness!
mirror oh mirror to whom I have once offered my face as a secret
would steal my face and run to the river, the river froze on the mirror!
it was a lie that I tricked the kids to eat them
if it is only their skins I flay
if they are to be chilled with one goodbye
it is that they feel the cold deeply!
and if
love is to dismiss the lilacs
so as to caution you against imitations!
the live story-dealer of that port for instance
the nebulous auspices for instance
the maroon tinged upon your eyes like lead for instance
my twin eternity
and my recurrent forests
and as if I have left an uninvited guest in these my recurrent forests
my soul stuck to your life now that it’s out of the sheath that is the
body
Translated by
Pelin Batu
the wind that comes pulling tulles upon its shoulders, swirling
so what if my eyelids crumble in Autumn, let it be
your name was first writ in the journals of a forgotten angel
they called you lilac and you became lilac
a lilac tinted leopard
a lilac tinted warrior
a lilac tinted deep city you became
lovers and sages came to you to die
spoons were their hearts
water were their thoughts;
a bedouin kneels on the current’s recesses.
they called you lilac they invoked you as lilac
and you became lilac
a lyre is jealous of a violin only when it is night
with the coming of each winter god
sacrificed an angel for himself
you: whose hands are jewels
you: whose gaze is a sermon
you! always a different description with all your gazes, evermore!
neither strawyellow nor annabel lee nor elsa
and if you really have a name
and if you are to have a name from now on
I, who as a poet carry an honorable name
am granting you this name!
I have only granted you my image
you who has to reach hell
on that coach driven by mad galloping horses!
you beautiful whore who slaps armageddon!
you my heart’s repeated boil!
you whom I have strangled with the bed sheets we made love on
smelling of ginger, smelling of thyme, my cotton smelling son!
neither strawyellow nor annabel lee nor elsa
and if you truly have a name
and if you are to have a name from now on
I, who as a poet carrying a miserable name
am granting you this name!
forgive me my child lilac!
forgive me!
at least today, only you forgive!
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