Poems by ​Süreyya Aylin Antmen

Birth

in the garden of long utterances
oh world i am every facet of you

i don all the grace my birth has bestowed
in the small window of my heart
by the light of sun
this sweet cold is all that the good knows
while the birds are ready while the sky is ready
with every facet of the earth eternity
waits

in the garden of long utterances
oh world i am every facet of you






The Rose is in the Body

when the angels bow down before the roses
with a force equal to that of the wave
the rose is in the body

pulling the stars out of dark nests
down into the deeps, the beds of moonlight
the voices that announce her,
the crimson within pain and faith-filled nights.

in everthing within everything
within no place in nothing
your heart an unheard and solitary collision
down in the depths of the ocean
but burning a thousand times carries the rooted fires
under skies where you
desired everything, where you thirsted.

whatever it is you craved to hear, or the hunger
dragging on from that first day craved to eat
is there, where the angels bow down;
and the roses is in the body.

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Translated by Patrick Neil Doherty

Süreyya Aylin Antmen wrote her first poem when she was 13 years old. She attended Anadolu University (AOF) at Department of Philosophy and Sociology. She has published poetry and prose. Antmen’s first published poem appeared in Patika poetry review in 2004. Her poems and articles were published in the reviews Şiir Ülkesi, Patika, Öteki-siz, Damar, NO Edebiyat, Muaf, Varlık, Cumhuriyet Kitap, Özgür Edebiyat, Cin Ayşe and Yeni E. “Sonsuzluğa Kiracı” her works were found “remarkable” in 2008 Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Awards. Her poems have been translated in English, Zaza, Urdu, Kurdish and French languages.

Books:
*Sonsuzluğa Kiracı (Tenant to Eternity), Şiirden Digraf Books, May 2011 (First Edition).
Ve Publishing House, October 2016 (Second Edition).
** Geceyle Bir, Ve Publishing House, October 2016.
***Ateş Sözcükleri, Ve Publishing House, September 2018.

Other:
1. Turkish Poetry Today 2017, Red Hand Books, 2017. (England)
2. Mantis Journal, Stanford University Press, 2019. (USA)

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