Gökçenur Ç

Ghazal with Bread

by GÖKÇENUR Ç.

how many summers apart from you, in search of bread
home: bread, school: bread, wine: bread

I labored under the sun hot
not as July, as much as you, as much as bread

I was young, thought it wouldn’t pass, it passed
as though time, as though we’ve eaten, as though bread

we sopped our pain in each other’s sauce
but pain was like stone, is like bread

school is over, the house is over, hush now, love is over
now life, now stale, like bread

Translated from Turkish by the author

Ekmek Gazeli

senden uzak nice yaz ekmek peşinde
ev ekmek, okul ekmek, şarap ekmek

koşturdum durdum güneşin altında sıcak
değil temmuz, kadar senin, kadar ekmek

gençtim, geçmez sandım geçiverdi
sanki zaman, sanki yedik, sanki ekmek

bana bana acımızı birbirimizin suyuna
ama acı, gibiydi taş, gibi ekmek

okul bitti, ev bitti, susalım artık, aşk bitti
şimdi hayat, şimdi bayat, sanki ekmek

Author: Gökçenur Ç

Gökçenur Ç. is a poet, translator, and editor based in Istanbul. He has seven poetry books in Turkish, eleven in translation, and his poems have been translated into 30 languages. He has translated the works of Wallace Stevens, Paul Auster, Ursula Le Guin, and many others into Turkish.

Gökçenur is the editor of the Turkish magazine Çevrimdışı İstanbul (İstanbul Offline), co-editor of the Turkish domain of Poetry International,  and is on the editorial board of the Macedonian-based international literary magazine Blesok. He is a member of Cunda International Workshop for Translators of Turkish Literature; curator and co-director of Word Express; co-director of international poetry festivals Offline Istanbul, Mosaic of Methahors Gaziantep, and Turkish American Poetry Days,  and board member of Nilüfer International Poetry Festival and Kritya International Poetry Movement.

 

Plume: Issue #106 June 2020