Münzevi

Ataerkil bir yalnızlıktan geliyorum

Münzevilikten helak olmuş bir kavmin

Kalan son kahramanıyım.

Çığırından çıkmış bir hayalin arkasında koşarken

                                                                     sokak kopekleri gibi

Kalbimde gerdiğim telden aşağı atlıyor bütün hokkabazlar

Tanrının acısı damlarken yüzüme göğün en grisinden

Yüksek desibelli bir ayrılık senfonisi kulaklarımı tırmalıyor;

Aptallar yağmur diyorlar.

Bir insana yakışmayacak şekilde sevdim ben seni

Bir insana yakışmayacak kadar duru ve net

Savaşın soğuk yüzünden kalan kanlı tankları

Pembe düşlere boyayabilecek kadar idealisttim

Bütün üvey erotizmleri bir yetimhanenin kapısına bırakarak

Tahsili yüksek acıların gözünün içine baka baka

Aforoz edilmiş bir Katolik kaygısıyla

Farzlara, sünnetlere aykırı sevdim ben seni.

By Batuhan Dedde

Recluse 

I come from a patriarchal solitude

I am the last hero remaining from a tribe whose reclusiveness extinguished it.

I run like a street dog after a dream that went too far

While all the conjurers are jumping off the tightrope I stretched across my heart.

God’s suffering drips on my face from the grayest of heavens

While a high-decibel symphony of separation claws at my ears:

The idiots call it rain.

I loved you in a way no human being should

I loved you with inhuman clarity and purity

I was so unrealistic I could have painted all the bloody tanks left over from the cold face of

                                           war with pink dreams

Leaving all this step-eroticism at the door of an orphanage;

Looking right into the eyes of the greatest sufferings, and those sufferings’ good credit;

With the apprehension of an excommunicated Catholic;

Against all religious duties and the Prophet’s teachings, I loved you.

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.

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