Poems by Asuman Susam ​

Mary’s mystery
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For a while
the wriggling woodworms kept me busy

You were like rain
awakening or sacred spring
would we be free once it’s stopped
would we forget once it’s over
I shadow-puppeted my questions onto walls 
had my lungs blossom with white lilies
I rose up holding on to my tendrils
did deepfreezer maths
for the corpses, I sought out the voice of god

I said
Let me be the sigh of a mountain
the din of a bud
I was open to trying out
I snatched you off space
the moment a million-year-old
no past, no future, now is human 
no whisper of permanence
I wasn’t the one turning the pages



I was like rain
the partly me
how could you know who was talking to you
I had my ear to the ground
listened to the unheard
the dead were unable to safeguard their integrity
son kept asking 
dad, why did you leave me
The silence Mary grew up in her flesh
I imprinted on my soul
we were the rain
tentatively treading the earth 
we were the wind 
that fire played
in tune with air

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 Translated by Şebnem Susam-Saraeva



Hot Stone                      

I.

the stones i saved hot as the palms of my hands 
on your aching parts i'll leave them to work in their charm  
fearing you'll turn into a stone carving
i'll kiss your eyes, your cheekbones
be a leopard listening to the water's story
put you to sleep with the rustling of my blood
they'll call me barbarian, never mind
at the end of the road we'll be nothing but bone
i’m no one of wisdom
so don't stand by my word in vain

i read the forest at my leisure
look at the trunks seeing the roots
the trees in their linear adventure 
in the meadows of this country I feel good 
i gather bitter herbs for hard times
i stand as healer at the edge of your mouth
that single breath you call a jade horse 
shoots by shaking the plain
they think it's a dream, pulse of the earth
a breathless horse drenched in sweat
take it as love's implication, present time expanding

II.

if the world had been left out there    or 
if we hadn’t been hurled over here ---
i forget this while the stone’s hot my palm’s on fire ---
if i could sleep, i say, in the mounds of the plain
till the grass turned pale and dry to remember
the song that would then arrive and pull out the arrow 
in the heart of darkness, if i could become 
a prey to the north winds if i shed my self 
in an animal graveyard and could weep 
till i'm left a bone among bones. 


Translated by Saliha Paker

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Asuman Susam was born in Izmir and studied Turkish Language and Literature at Ege University. Her first poems appeared in Milliyet Arts Magazine in 1989, and the Young Poets Anthology in the same year. In addition to poetry, she also writes on literature and cinema, and her articles have appeared in various magazines. Her collection of poems is Kemik İnadı (2015) for which she was awarded the first Ruhi Su Prize for Poetry in 2016. The poet's last published book is 'the Placenta' (2018). 

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