Rumeli
By John Casquarelli,
Translated by Sevda Akyuz
Decades of similes flooding
from fingertips to the Black Sea
like a luminescence from the
Rumeli Feneri lighthouse. An old
fisherman promising two cats
a little food or a single act
of kindness between gusts
and longitudes. I was there
when mermaids sang to
sailors, when friends sipped
Yeni Raki and told epics of
starfish that crowned oceans
like a million suns ablaze
throughout Andromeda.
Why did I conceal my
imagination when Sarıyer
opened her arms in fog
and mist? Would I ever
have a story to tell that
did not include my death?
Baklava’s sugar glazing
your lips, çay held delicately
at the rim as if all reality
was a dream fashioned
from the waves in your hair.
Rumeli
Parmak uçlarından Karadeniz’e
on yıllar boyu taşan mecaz
Rumeli Feneri’nden yayılan ışık gibi tıpkı.
Yaşlı bir balıkçı
iki kediye biraz yiyecek vadediyor
veya iki rüzgar arası tek bir iyilik.
Denizkızları denizcilere şarkı söylerken
oradaydım ben,
dostlar Yeni Rakı yudumlarken,
Andromeda boyunca
milyonlarca güneş gibi yanan,
okyanusları taçlandıran denizyıldızı
hikayeleri anlatırken.
Hayal gücümü niye sakladım
Sarıyer siste kollarını açtığında?
Kendi ölümümü içermeyen
bir hikaye anlatacak mıyım ben günün birinde?
Baklavanın şurubu dudaklarında parlarken,
ve usulca yudumlarken çayını
sanki tüm gerçeklik
saçındaki dalgalardan esinlenen
bir rüya idi.
*
John Casquarelli is the author of two full-length collections: On Equilibrium of Song (Overpass Books, 2011) and Lavender (Authorspress, 2014). He is an Instructor of Academic Writing at Koç Üniversitesi in Istanbul. John is also a Poetry Editor for a New York City journal, StatORec. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University—Brooklyn. He was awarded the 2010 Esther Hyneman Award for Poetry, 2016 Kafka Residency Prize in Hostka, Czech Republic, and a 2017 residency at the Writer’s Room of The Betsy Hotel on South Beach. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Teaching as a Human Experience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Pilgrimage Magazine, Suisun Valley Review, Expound Magazine, Peacock Journal, The Poetry Mail/RaedLeaf Foundation for Poetry and Allied Arts, Marathon Literary Review, Black Earth Institute, and Boarder Senses.
Sevda Akyuz studied English and American Literature in college. She is bilingual in Turkish and English. She reads in Italian and Spanish as well. She has been teaching English and Academic Writing for 30 years in prestigious universities in Turkey. She has also taught Western Civilizations, Film, and History of Drama. She has translated and edited books, theses, academic articles, art catalogs, stories, movie scripts, plays and poems. She writes scripts for TV, movie scripts, plays and essays.