Nazim Hikmet

[AsgjëSikurDielli]

14 December 1945

Damn it, winter has come down hard...
You and my honest Istanbul, who knows how you are?
Do you have coal?
Could you buy wood?
Line the windows with newspaper.
Go to bed early.
Probably nothing's left in the house to sell.
To be cold and half hungry :
here, too, we're the majority
in the world, our country, and our city...

tr. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk

[AsgjëSikurDielli]

On Living

I

Living is no laughing matter:
you must live with great seriousness
like a squirrel, for example--
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
I mean living must be your whole occupation.
Living is no laughing matter:
you must take it seriously,
so much so and to such a degree
that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,
your back to the wall,
or else in a laboratory
in your white coat and safety glasses,
you can die for people--
even for people whose faces you've never seen,
even though you know living
is the most real, the most beautiful thing.
I mean, you must take living so seriously
that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees--
and not for your children, either,
but because although you fear death you don't believe it,
because living, I mean, weighs heavier.


II

Let's say you're seriously ill, need surgery--
which is to say we might not get
from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
for the latest newscast ...
Let's say we're at the front--
for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
we might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.
Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We'll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind--
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die.


III

This earth will grow cold,
a star among stars
and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet--
I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space ...
You must grieve for this right now
--you have to feel this sorrow now--
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived" ...



Trans. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk (1993)

[angeldust]

Da: "Lettere dal Carcere a Munevver"

1942

Il più bello dei mari
è quello che non navigammo.
Il più bello dei nostri figli
non è ancora cresciuto.
I più belli dei nostri giorni
non li abbiamo ancora vissuti.
E quello
che vorrei dirti di più bello
non te l'ho ancora detto.

[angeldust]

Da: "In esilio"

Prima che bruci Parigi

Parigi, 1958


Finchè ancora tempo,mio amore
e prima che bruci Parigi
finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
finchè il mio cuore è sul suo ramo
vorrei una notte di maggio
una di queste notti
sul lungosenna Voltaire
baciarti sulla bocca
e andando poi a Notre-Dame
contempleremmo il suo rosone
e a un tratto serrandoti a me
di gioia paura stupore
piangeresti silenziosamente
e le stelle piangerebbero
mischiate alla pioggia fine.

Finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
e prima che bruci Parigi
finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
finchè il mio cuore è sul suo ramo
in questa notte di maggio sul lungosenna
sotto i salici, mia rosa, con te
sotto i salici piangenti molli di pioggia
ti direi due parole le più ripetute a Parigi
le più ripetute, le più sincere
scoppierei di felicità
fischietterei una canzone
e crederemmo negli uomini.

In alto, le case di pietra
senza incavi nè gobbe
appiccicate
coi loro muri al chiar di luna
e le loro finestre diritte che dormono in piedi
e sulla riva di fronte il Louvre
illuminato dai proiettori
illuminato da noi due
il nostro splendido palazzo
di cristallo.

Finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
e prima che bruci Parigi
finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
finchè il mio cuore è sul suo ramo
in questa notte di maggio, lungo la Senna, nei depositi
ci siederemmo sui barili rossi
di fronte al fiume scuro nella notte
per salutare la chiatta dalla cabina gialla che passa
- verso il Belgio o verso l'Olanda? -
davanti alla cabina una donna
con un grembiule bianco
sorride dolcemente.

Finchè ancora tempo, mio amore
e prima che bruci Parigi
finchè ancora tempo, mio amore.

[leci]

Nazim Hikmet poeti qe me mbush zemren me dashuri dhe mallengjim.

Anima mia

Anima mia
chiudi gli occhi piano piano
e come s'affonda nell'acqua
immergiti nel sonno
nuda e vestita di bianco
il più bello dei sogni
ti accoglierà
anima mia
chiudi gli occhi piano piano
abbandonati come nell'arco delle mie braccia
nel tuo sonno non dimenticarmi
chiudi gli occhi piano piano
i tuoi occhi marroni
dove brucia una fiamma verde
anima mia

[leci]

Ciò che ho scritto di noi

Ciò che ho scritto di noi è tutta una bugia
è la mia nostalgia
cresciuta sul ramo inaccessibile
è la mia sete
tirata su dal pozzo dei miei sogni
è il disegno
tracciato su un raggio di sole

ciò she ho scritto di noi e tutta verità
è la tua grazia
cesta colma di frutti rovesciata sull'erba
è la tua assenza
quando diventa l'ultima luce all'ultimo angolo della via
è la mia gelosia
quando corro di notte fra i treni con gli occhi bendati
è la mia felicità
fiume soleggiato che irrompe sulle dighe

ciò che ho scritto di noi è tutta una bugia
ciò che ho scritto di noi è tutta verità

[leci]

Adormentarsi adesso

Adormentarsi adesso
svegliarsi tra cento anni,amore mio.

No
non sono un disertore
del resto,il mio secolo non mi fa paura
Il mio secolo pieno di miserie e scandali
il mio secolo coraggioso grande ed eroico.
Non ho mai rimpianto d'esser venuto al mondo troppo presto
sono del ventesimo secolo e ne son fiero.
Mi basta esser là dove sono,tra i nostri,
e battermi per un mondo nuovo.

Tra cento anni,amor mio.
No
prima e malgrado tutto
il mio secolo che muore e rinasce
il mio secolo
i cui ultimi giorni saranno belli
la mia terribile notte lacerata dai gridi dell'alba
il mio secolo splenderà di sole,amor mio
come i tuoi occhi.

[shigjeta]

Amo in te

Amo in te
l'avventura della nave che va verso il polo
amo in te
l'audacia dei giocatori delle grandi scoperte
amo in te le cose lontane
amo in te l'impossibile
entro nei tuoi occhi come in un bosco
pieno di sole
e sudato affamato infuriato
ho la passione del cacciatore
per mordere nella tua carne.

amo in te l'impossibile
ma non la disperazione.


I tuoi occhi

I tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
che tu venga all’ospedale o in prigione
nei tuoi occhi porti sempre il sole.

I tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
questa fine di maggio, dalle parti d’Antalya,
sono cosi, le spighe, di primo mattino;

i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
quante volte hanno pianto davanti a me
son rimasti tutti nudi, i tuoi occhi,
nudi e immensi come gli occhi di un bimbo
ma non un giorno han perso il loro sole;

i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
che s’illanguidiscano un poco, i tuoi occhi
gioiosi, immensamente intelligenti, perfetti:
allora saprò far echeggiare il mondo
del mio amore.


I tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
Così sono d’autunno i castagneti di Bursa
le foglie dopo la pioggia
e in ogni stagione e ad ogni ora, Istanbul.


I tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi i tuoi occhi
verrà giorno, mia rosa, verrà giorno
che gli uomini si guarderanno l’un l’altro
fraternamente
con i tuoi occhi, amor mio,
si guarderanno con i tuoi occhi.

[AsgjëSikurDielli]

ANGINA PECTORIS

If a half of my heart is here
the other half is in China, doctor.
In the army flowing towards
the Yellow river.

Then, every dawn, doctor,
every dawn, my heart,
is shot in Greece.

Then, every night when the prisoners fall asleep
and the infirmary is deserted
my heart is in an old large house at Chamlicha,
every night
doctor.

Then, after these ten years,
to offer my poor people
I have only one apple in my hand, doctor,
a red apple :
my heart...

Not arteriosclerosis, not nicotine, not prison,
that’s the reason, my doctor, that’s the reason
of my angina pectoris....

I am looking at the night through the bars
and in spite of the pressure on my chest
my heart beats with the most distant star...

April 1948

tr. by Fuat Engin

[angeldust]

http://www.rnw.nl/taal/assets/images/Hikmet175.jpg

Things I Didn't Know I Loved

Translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

it's 1962 March 28th
I'm sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain
I don't like
comparing nightfall to a tired bird

I didn't know I loved the earth
can someone who hasn't worked the earth love it
I've never worked the earth
it must be my only Platonic love

and here I've loved rivers all this time
whether motionless like this they curl skirting the hills
European hills crowned with chateaus
or whether stretched out flat as far as the eye can see
I know you can't wash in the same river even once
I know the river will bring new lights you'll never see
I know we live slightly longer than a horse but not nearly as long as a crow
I know this has troubled people before
and will trouble those after me
I know all this has been said a thousand times before
and will be said after me

I didn't know I loved the sky
cloudy or clear
the blue vault Andrei studied on his back at Borodino
in prison I translated both volumes of War and Peace into Turkish
I hear voices
not from the blue vault but from the yard
the guards are beating someone again
I didn't know I loved trees
bare beeches near Moscow in Peredelkino
they come upon me in winter noble and modest
beeches are Russian the way poplars are Turkish
"the poplars of Izmir
losing their leaves. . .
they call me The Knife. . .
lover like a young tree. . .
I blow stately mansions sky-high"
in the Ilgaz woods in 1920 I tied an embroidered linen handkerchief
to a pine bough for luck

I never knew I loved roads
even the asphalt kind
Vera's behind the wheel we're driving from Moscow to the Crimea
Koktebele
formerly "Goktepé ili" in Turkish
the two of us inside a closed box
the world flows past on both sides distant and mute
I was never so close to anyone in my life
bandits stopped me on the red road between Bolu and Geredé
when I was eighteen
apart from my life I didn't have anything in the wagon they could take
and at eighteen our lives are what we value least
I've written this somewhere before
wading through a dark muddy street I'm going to the shadow play
Ramazan night
a paper lantern leading the way
maybe nothing like this ever happened
maybe I read it somewhere an eight-year-old boy
going to the shadow play
Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather's hand
his grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat
with a sable collar over his robe
and there's a lantern in the servant's hand
and I can't contain myself for joy
flowers come to mind for some reason
poppies cactuses jonquils
in the jonquil garden in Kadikoy Istanbul I kissed Marika
fresh almonds on her breath
I was seventeen
my heart on a swing touched the sky
I didn't know I loved flowers
friends sent me three red carnations in prison

I just remembered the stars
I love them too
whether I'm floored watching them from below
or whether I'm flying at their side

I have some questions for the cosmonauts
were the stars much bigger
did they look like huge jewels on black velvet
or apricots on orange
did you feel proud to get closer to the stars
I saw color photos of the cosmos in Ogonek magazine now don't
be upset comrades but nonfigurative shall we say or abstract
well some of them looked just like such paintings which is to
say they were terribly figurative and concrete
my heart was in my mouth looking at them
they are our endless desire to grasp things
seeing them I could even think of death and not feel at all sad
I never knew I loved the cosmos

snow flashes in front of my eyes
both heavy wet steady snow and the dry whirling kind
I didn't know I liked snow

I never knew I loved the sun
even when setting cherry-red as now
in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors
but you aren't about to paint it that way
I didn't know I loved the sea
except the Sea of Azov
or how much

I didn't know I loved clouds
whether I'm under or up above them
whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts

moonlight the falsest the most languid the most petit-bourgeois
strikes me
I like it

I didn't know I liked rain
whether it falls like a fine net or splatters against the glass my
heart leaves me tangled up in a net or trapped inside a drop
and takes off for uncharted countries I didn't know I loved
rain but why did I suddenly discover all these passions sitting
by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
is it because I lit my sixth cigarette
one alone could kill me
is it because I'm half dead from thinking about someone back in Moscow
her hair straw-blond eyelashes blue

the train plunges on through the pitch-black night
I never knew I liked the night pitch-black
sparks fly from the engine
I didn't know I loved sparks
I didn't know I loved so many things and I had to wait until sixty
to find it out sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
watching the world disappear as if on a journey of no return

19 April 1962
Moscow