Ademin Piçleri
Tam orada dur insanoğlu
Aşağı in
Konuşalım.
Bir güneşi göremiyoruz sayende dipteyiz
En dipte.
Hani sen çağdaşsın ya!
Ne olur aşağı in
Petrol yakıp yarattığın aydınlığından bahset
Sik gibi Demokrasinden falan
Yahut biz televizyonlardan izleyelim,
gazetelerden okuyalım
Pankarklar açıp meydanlarda, el altından
sırtını sıvazlayalım
Kör olduk biz insanoğlu, burada petrole
ve kana bulandı gözlerimiz
Eskiden dünyadaydık,
Kimsesiz tertemiz ve sessiz…
Sen orada kal insanoğlu aşağı falan da inme,
İstemem!
Sivillerin uykada olduğu bir gecede
Bir bomba daha patlat birkaç bomba daha
Yoksa nasıl çıkar karanlıklar aydınlığa!?
By Batuhan Dedde
Adam's Bastards
Stop right there, mankind
Come down and we’ll talk
We can’t see the sun
Thanks to you we’re at the bottom
At the very bottom.
So you’re supposed to be modern!
Please come down
Talk about the enlightenment you created and the petroleum you burned
Or about fucked-up Democracy etc.
Or we could watch a little TV,
read the papers
Carry some protest signs,
rub your back when no one’s looking.
We’ve gone blind, mankind,
our eyes are covered
in petroleum and blood here
We used to be in the world
Alone, clean, and quiet …
Stay there, mankind, don’t come down or anything,
I don’t want you to!
Explode another bomb, do it at night while civilians are asleep,
A few more bombs,
Otherwise how will the darkness become the light?
translated by Donny Smith
By Batuhan Dedde
Batuhan Dedde was born in Istanbul in 1987. He has published several books, including the poetry collection Morfinsiz Çekilen Düş Sancıları, in 2013. His work brings together the sensibilities of the American Beats and the Turkish Second New.
Donny Smith’s book translations include Pigeonwoman / Üvercinka by Cemal Süreya (with A. Karakaya), I Too Went to the Hunt of a Deer by Lâle Müldür, and If Cutting Off the Head of the Gorgon by Wenceslao Maldonado. He teaches at a high school in Istanbul.