Poems by Levent Karataş
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KOALA
Your kiss smells of eucalyptus This is what I say unwittingly Whilst I bid you farewell. As always we talked We love with weary clauses And with habits my dear Like the wish trees. My identity card is worn and torn too Doctors prepare epicrisis meticulously I became an uncle forty three times Besides I grew up to become myopic Besides I grew up to become crow. Today I warmly clad for you I sought out my pullover Burled by birds and flowers As I stir up the wardrobes I thought you’ll suddenly show up Amid from the garments With a teddy koala in your arms And say “Surprise my dear.” Such a madness, you had gone. The Kitchen Those who know everything are in the kitchen, those who know nothing are in the living room I . I brought this solitude here My nothingness, my absence is this The refrigerator is poem now It’s space is Attila József’s cry It’s fulness is a big- Italian family prayer II. I brought this solitude here To the monitorial kitchen, to the industrial districts 4 Levent Americanist Ahmet, is a poem now Table from lemon boxes, Muslum [1] Sounds of hammer, rhythm of Latin America III. I brought this solitude here To the cell houses’ Stalin walls Revolution is a poem now Travelling around the world like a ghost, The ballad of Atahualpa Yupanqui Son Jesus’ last supper- A shepherd’s song played by double caval IV. I brought this solitude here To the ‘Top Secret Rooms’ of labyrinth talks ‘West Study Group’ is a poem now Seated on a Mediterranean dinner table with fish An officer with a cloak, zeibek of Salonica Hugging his woman, ‘jazz form of the city’ V. I brought this solitude here And the birds carrying love in the letters in their beaks Istanbul is a poem now A wife puts her handkerchief on earth, Nikriz Peshrev Message in a bottle left from the shore of the Bosphorus’s water to the eternity- “I suffered the pangs of love once” [2] tango VI. I brought this solitude here To the Borges’s Tanka Notebook Library is a poem now Frosty angels’ orbit, operetta A book read through the silence in a chateau looking over a lowland, Valse of the rain VII. I brought this solitude here Without stepping over my shadow’s lines Loneliness is a poem now A dervish slept in his cilehane, begging Look of a boy who drew a bird, Cemal Sureya’s very good [3] VIII. I brought this solitude here To the ‘Homeland Hotel’s [4] window looking over trains Country is a poem now Winter fair’s iridescent scene, 'Rain of quails’ [5] Matinee of the ‘Kosk Cinema’ Anastasia, The Eagle Dance IX. I brought this solitude here New York/ 42nd Avenue/ four o’clock at night No gangsters’ footsteps are quiet Manhattan’s dead-ends are a poem now The City Lights ‘Lookin for some happiness’ Looking to the shopwindows of ‘Q Boutique’ Juliette’s- sadness funky silence. X. I brought this solitude here To the funeral homes’ grey backyards Death is a poem now Carrying a coffin with fortitude, chamber music Scattering her ashes to the Pasific waters is her will- Chansons of her maidenhood… [1] There is an allusion here to the popular Turkish singer Müslüm Gürses [2] Popular Turkish tango. Original name is "Ben de gönül çektim eskiden" [3] There is an alluison here to one of the poem of famous Turkish poet Cemal Sureya. [4] ‘Homeland Hotel’, original name ‘Anayurt Oteli’ is a book by Turkish writer Yusuf Atılgan. [5] 'Rain of quails’ original name ‘Bıldırcın Yağmuru’ is Zeki Muren’s book who is a famous Turkish classical music singer. Translated by Hande Dipligunes |
Levent Karataş was born in 1972. His first poetry book named “I’m falling Galileo” was published in 1992. Afterwards his poetry collections of “Tale,” “An Eastern Slumber,” “Pretty Saturday,” “Piano Factories,” “The Distance of an Earthling,” and “The Last Vision” were published. His poems and prose has appeared in magazines such as “Varlık,” “Adam Sanat,” “Gösteri,” “Kitap-lık,” “Sombahar,” “Yasakmeyve” “Şiir-lik,” Şiir Atı,” Şiir Oku,” “İblis,” Şairin Atölyesi,” “Yeni Yüzyıl,” “Cumhuriyet,” “Cumhuriyet Kitap.” The poet lives in İstanbul.
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