Sami Baydar’s Painting
By Necmi Zekâ
Translated by Erik Mortenson
he possesses the power of swan-porcupine languages solves problems of intersection by using La Fontaine kisses retires to a corner at once
like a puppy with a sparrow’s timidity
in very ancient theaters we must have spotted
those who listen to fairy tales with a faint heart
we must have watched humble masters of drawing
in the role of colorful seagulls
these bull’s eyes are a lost continent heading towards the peace market
the academy’s a dog the academy’s blind but immortals are sworn not to cross anyone’s path
pantomime-like painting - an absent-minded lover always windswept - like a truthful smile always left alone
to be the perfect secret is to express memories in terms of love
Sb’nin Resmi
kuğu-kirpi dillerinin kudretine sahip kesişim
sorularını la fontaine öpücükleri ile çözer bir
köşeye çekilmek gerektiği için hemen
kuçu kuçu serçe temposuyla
çok eski tiyatrolarda fark etmiş olmalıyız
korka korka masal dinleyenleri debdebesiz
desen ustalarını
renkli martı rolünde görmüş olmalıyız
bir kayıp kıta
barış pazarına yönelmiş - boğa gözleri
akademi köpek akademi kör
ölümsüzler - kimsenin yoluna çıkmamaya yeminli
dalgın sevgilidir - pandomim resim hep
rüzgarlı - kendi haline bırakılır hilafsız
gülümseme
sırların en mükemmeli olmak anıların
aşk cinsinden ifadesidir
*
Necmi Zekâ is one of the foremost avant garde poets working in Turkey. After finishing Istanbul’s German High School, he graduated from the Department of Political Science at Boğaziçi University before completing his M. Phil degree at Leicester University and conducting doctoral work at Northwestern. He has published nine books of poetry over the last twenty years. Zekâ has also edited two books, and is a multi-media artist whose work has been showcased in six solo exhibitions. In 2003, he received the city of Antalya’s Golden Orange Poetry Award, which led to a symposium on his poetry, the proceedings of which were published in Turkish as The Poetry of Necmi Zekâ (2005). His work has appeared in translation in Turkish Poetry Today, Berlin Quarterly, and Two Lines: World Writing in Translation. Zekâ currently lives and works in Istanbul.
Erik Mortenson is a translator, literary scholar, and writer. After earning a PhD from Wayne State in Detroit, Mortenson spent a year as a Fulbright Lecturer in Germany and a decade at Koç University in Istanbul where he helped found the English and Comparative Literature Department. Mortenson is an avid translator who was invited to participate in the prestigious Cunda International Workshop for Translators of Turkish and whose work has appeared in journals such as Asymptote, Talisman, The Adroit Journal, Berlin Quarterly, Two Lines, and Turkish Poetry Today. He is also the author of three books, all from Southern Illinois University Press: Capturing the Beat Moment: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Presence, which was selected as a Choice outstanding academic title in 2011; Ambiguous Borderlands: Shadow Imagery in Cold War American Culture (2016); and most recently, Translating the Counterculture: The Reception of the Beats in Turkey (2018). He is currently working on a book-length translation of Zekâ’s selected poetry.