Free Verse
The Valley
of the Culprits
In the valley of the
culprits
be patient.
Remain planted on your legs
to be struck
by the newcomers and leaving them
never look behind you,
so that each one can see
the hairstyle on the nape of your neck.
In the valley of the culprits
while insults fuse
do not say anything, especially
make like the nightingale which ate a blackberry
while the human one depreciates.
The bump at the end of your nose
must not have an impact on your spirit.
Know that your language burns if you eat while pricking
and your backyard burns if you speak bitterly.
Above all
forget your mother, and your father.
It is not necessary to worry about their fate
or that they are weakened physically
and drag themselves along.
Do not say anything.
Drop...
Let your efforts break down.
Let the mast be reversed...
Carry on your way simpering.
If you see a fallen friend
above all have no feeling
no pity
and if you have envy, give him another kick.
Do you know that nobody is thinking of you at this moment?
If you come across a large turkey
cut its throat without saying anything to anybody
and eat it!
Have no panic, remain still
where you are well hidden!
In any event
You are in the valley of the culprits.
You will be viewed badly if you work much.
You will be driven out if you speak the truth.
You will be crushed
if you go the way of love.
You will be beaten in various ways
if you resist tyranny.
You know
that there are things not to be neglected.
In any event
you are in the valley of the culprits
Be pitiless!
You know that integration is spoken about uniquely,
that at least your indentity card is like theirs.
One demands it from you insistently.
If in spite of all you do not like
all that I have just said
do what you want, act according to your desires
as well as your accomplishments.
One never knows
Perhaps you will be accepted!
Paris, le 04.11.2004
French free verse translated into English free verse by Joneve
McCormick
Go Now...Come
Back Later
Do not stay
in front of my troubles
And rattle my private feelings
Hereafter, do not touch my ideas
Do not revive my memories
Leave me to myself
Go now...
Come back later!
Me, I depend on my loneliness...
I do not let other people trample
My love so easily
Leave me to myself
Go now...
Come back later!
Me, I am accustomed to the sky's irony
It is of no importance
That I am discovered in my sleep...
I climb my trees myself
I water my flowers myself
Leave me to myself
Go now...
Come back later!
Do not stay in front of my troubles
And rattle my private feelings
Hereafter, do not touch my ideas
Do not revive my memories
Leave me to myself
Go now...
Come back later!
Ankara,
06.06.1979
French free verse translated into English free verse
by Joneve McCormick, 22.02.2006
The Marketplace
Still Attaches Your Fool To Money
One does not
sell
broken pottery,
look for profitable business.
A hump on her back
your wife Zâra
beats the wool
Let your hungry children
and your animals that wait for fodder
not cause you to brood;
the marketplace is always there
attaching your soul to money.
You sell your merchandise,
you make money,
you will not go to *Nigde...
You remain without hope
in the marketplace.
Your customers hearing your voice
say "Halil is still here..."
Sell your apples
snatched from their branches
hope they are all eaten;
the marketplace is still there
attaching your soul to money.
You sell your merchandise,
you make money,
you will never go to Nigde...
Let indifference
not change you,
the shenanigans
and acrobatics
of all sorts -
let all that
from one direction
not tire your mind.
The marketplace is always there
attaching your soul to money.
You sell your merchandise,
you make money,
you will never go to Nigde...
French free verse
translated into English free verse by Joneve McCormick - 2002
*Nigde is a prefecture of Turkey and Bor is a sub-prefecture of
Nigde.
Darkness in the
Third Degree
The chain
reaction
of hatred's contradictions
decays into emptiness.
The details,
now coloured in, hang
on the edge of prejudice.
Word strung together on the fly
have become strained and
find themselves trapping
the bright summer light,
splitting it in two.
Friendship is so enfeebled that
even at first light’s meeting
there is no greeting.
The cloak of egotism
is falling away.
It is time to review
our basic postulates.
But the great schemes of self-interest
are now harvesting their greed.
All has been gathered up.
The wheel has turned.
Against the cold
The heart still beats.
At the dawn of
darkness in the third degree,
the wind drives
in one direction only.
Paris, 20.05.2001
French free verse translated into English free verse by Adam
ABDELNOOR
Third Darkness
In hatred's
contradictions
it is a chain
passing by emptiness.
Figures
in color
are at the brink of prejudice.
As one goes along
words become strained,
trapped,
the light of July
split in two.
Friendship was so slight
without greeting
at the beginning of the morning.
The mask of egoism
has fallen now.
It is time to evaluate
the worth of theory
in the fields of interest.
Greed's harvest
has been taken away.
The wheel has turned
against the cold
some heartbeats
from the morning,
from the third darkness.
The winds have blown
with unique meaning.
Paris, 20.05.2001
French free verse translated into English free verse by Joneve
McCormick
Ekphrastic Free Verse: Abysses
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