Hikmet, Nazim

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type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#the_blue_eyed_giant_the_miniature" TITLE="Hikmet, Nazim"><U><B>The blue-eyed giant, the miniature woman and the honeysuckle</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#today_is_sunday" TITLE="Hikmet, Nazim"><U><B>Today is sunday</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#on_living" TITLE="Hikmet, Nazim"><U><B>On living</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#things_i_didn_t_know_i_loved_" TITLE="Hikmet, Nazim"><U><B>Things I didn't know I loved</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#autobiography_" TITLE="Hikmet, Nazim"><U><B>Autobiography</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_blue_eyed_giant_the_miniature"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>The blue-eyed giant, the miniature woman and the honeysuckle</B><B> </B></div> <bR> <div> He was a blue-eyed giant,</div> <div> He loved a miniature woman.</div> <div> The woman's dream was of a miniature house</div> <div> with a garden where honeysuckle grows</div> <div> in a riot of colours</div> <div> that sort of house.</div> <bR> <div> The giant loved like a giant,</div> <div> and his hands were used to such big things</div> <div> that the giant could not</div> <div> make the building,</div> <div> could not knock on the door</div> <div> of the garden where the honeysuckle grows</div> <div> in a riot of colours</div> <div> at that house.</div> <bR> <div> He was a blue-eyed giant,</div> <div> He loved a miniature woman,</div> <div> a mini miniature woman.</div> <div> The woman was hungry for comfort</div> <div> and tired of the giant's long strides.</div> <div> And bye bye off she went to the embraces of a rich dwarf</div> <div> with a garden where the honeysuckle grows</div> <div> in a riot of colours</div> <div> that sort of house.</div> <bR> <div> Now the blue-eyed giant realizes,</div> <div> a giant isn't even a graveyard for love:</div> <div> in the garden where the honeysuckle grows</div> <div> in a riot of colours</div> <div> that sort of house...</div> <bR> <div> -----------------------------------------------------------------</div> <div>  <A NAME="today_is_sunday"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>Today is Sunday</B></div> <bR> <div> Today is Sunday.</div> <div> For the first time they took me out into the sun today.</div> <div> And for the first time in my life I was aghast</div> <div> that the sky is so far away</div> <div>           and so blue </div> <div>           and so vast</div> <div>               I stood there without a motion.</div> <div> Then I sat on the ground with respectful devotion</div> <div> leaning against the white wall.</div> <div> Who cares about the waves with which I yearn to roll</div> <div> Or about strife or freedom or my wife right now.</div> <div> The soil, the sun and me...</div> <div> I feel joyful and how.</div> <bR> <div> --------------------------------------------------------------</div> <div>  <A NAME="on_living"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>On Living</B></div> <bR> <div>                 I</div> <bR> <div> Living is no laughing matter:</div> <div>         you must live with great seriousness</div> <div>                 like a squirrel, for example-</div> <div>         I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,</div> <div>                 I mean living must be your whole occupation.</div> <div> Living is no laughing matter:</div> <div>         you must take it seriously,</div> <div>         so much so and to such a degree</div> <div>       that, for example, your hands tied behind your back,</div> <div>                                 your back to the wall,</div> <div>         or else in a laboratory</div> <div>                 in your white coat and safety glasses,</div> <div>                 you can die for people-</div> <div>              even for people whose faces you've never seen,</div> <div>              even though you know living</div> <div>                 is the most real, the most beautiful thing.</div> <div>         I mean, you must take living so seriously</div> <div>              that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees-</div> <div>              and not for your children, either,</div> <div>              but because although you fear death you don't believe it,</div> <div>              because living, I mean, weighs heavier.</div> <bR> <div>                </div> <div>               II</div> <bR> <div> Let's say you're seriously ill, need surgery -</div> <div> which is to say we might not get</div> <div>             from the white table.</div> <div> Even though it's impossible not to feel sad</div> <div>             about going a little too soon,</div> <div> we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,</div> <div> we'll look out the window to see it's raining,</div> <div> or still wait anxiously</div> <div>             for the latest newscast ...</div> <div> Let's say we're at the front-</div> <div>       for something worth fighting for, say.</div> <div> There, in the first offensive, on that very day,</div> <div>       we might fall on our face, dead.</div> <div> We'll know this with a curious anger,</div> <div>     but we'll still worry ourselves to death</div> <div>     about the outcome of the war, which could last years.</div> <div> Let's say we're in prison</div> <div> and close to fifty,</div> <div> and we have eighteen more years, say, </div> <div>            before the iron doors will open.</div> <div> We'll still live with the outside,</div> <div> with its people and animals, struggle and wind-</div> <div>               I mean with the outside beyond the walls.</div> <div> I mean, however and wherever we are,</div> <div>     we must live as if we will never die.</div> <bR> <bR> <div>          III</div> <bR> <div> This earth will grow cold,</div> <div> a star among stars</div> <div>      and one of the smallest,</div> <div> a gilded mote on blue velvet-</div> <div>      I mean this, our great earth.</div> <div> This earth will grow cold one day,</div> <div> not like a block of ice</div> <div> or a dead cloud even</div> <div> but like an empty walnut it will roll along</div> <div>      in pitch-black space ...</div> <div> You must grieve for this right now</div> <div> -you have to feel this sorrow now-</div> <div> for the world must be loved this much</div> <div>             if you're going to say ``I lived'' ...</div> <bR> <bR> <div> --------------------------------------------------------------</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="things_i_didn_t_know_i_loved_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>Things I didn't know I loved</B><B> </B></div> <bR> <div> it's 1962 March 28th</div> <div> I'm sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train</div> <div> night is falling</div> <div> I never knew I liked</div> <div> night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain</div> <div> I don't like</div> <div> comparing nightfall to a tired bird </div> <div> I didn't know I loved the earth</div> <div> can someone who hasn't worked the earth love it</div> <div> I've never worked the earth</div> <div> it must be my only Platonic love </div> <div> and here I've loved rivers all this time</div> <div> whether motionless like this they curl skirting the hills</div> <div> European hills crowned with chateaus</div> <div> or whether stretched out flat as far as the eye can see</div> <div> I know you can't wash in the same river even once</div> <div> I know the river will bring new lights you'll never see</div> <div> I know we live slightly longer than a horse but not nearly as long as a crow</div> <div> I know this has troubled people before</div> <div> and will trouble those after me</div> <div> I know all this has been said a thousand times before</div> <div> and will be said after me </div> <div> I didn't know I loved the sky</div> <div> cloudy or clear</div> <div> the blue vault Andrei studied on his back at Borodino</div> <div> in prison I translated both volumes of War and Peace into Turkish</div> <div> I hear voices</div> <div> not from the blue vault but from the yard</div> <div> the guards are beating someone again</div> <div> I didn't know I loved trees</div> <div> bare beeches near Moscow in Peredelkino</div> <div> they come upon me in winter noble and modest</div> <div> beeches are Russian the way poplars are Turkish</div> <div> "the poplars of Izmir</div> <div> losing their leaves. . .</div> <div> they call me The Knife. . .</div> <div> lover like a young tree. . .</div> <div> I blow stately mansions sky-high"</div> <div> in the Ilgaz woods in 1920 I tied an embroidered linen handkerchief</div> <div> to a pine bough for luck </div> <div> I never knew I loved roads</div> <div> even the asphalt kind</div> <div> Vera's behind the wheel we're driving from Moscow to the Crimea</div> <div> Koktebele</div> <div> formerly "Goktepé ili" in Turkish</div> <div> the two of us inside a closed box</div> <div> the world flows past on both sides distant and mute</div> <div> I was never so close to anyone in my life</div> <div> bandits stopped me on the red road between Bolu and Geredé</div> <div> when I was eighteen</div> <div> apart from my life I didn't have anything in the wagon they could take</div> <div> and at eighteen our lives are what we value least</div> <div> I've written this somewhere before</div> <div> wading through a dark muddy street I'm going to the shadow play</div> <div> Ramazan night</div> <div> a paper lantern leading the way</div> <div> maybe nothing like this ever happened</div> <div> maybe I read it somewhere an eight-year-old boy</div> <div> going to the shadow play</div> <div> Ramazan night in Istanbul holding his grandfather's hand</div> <div> his grandfather has on a fez and is wearing the fur coat</div> <div> with a sable collar over his robe</div> <div> and there's a lantern in the servant's hand</div> <div> and I can't contain myself for joy</div> <div> flowers come to mind for some reason</div> <div> poppies cactuses jonquils</div> <div> in the jonquil garden in Kadikoy Istanbul I kissed Marika</div> <div> fresh almonds on her breath</div> <div> I was seventeen</div> <div> my heart on a swing touched the sky</div> <div> I didn't know I loved flowers</div> <div> friends sent me three red carnations in prison </div> <div> I just remembered the stars</div> <div> I love them too</div> <div> whether I'm floored watching them from below</div> <div> or whether I'm flying at their side </div> <div> I have some questions for the cosmonauts</div> <div> were the stars much bigger</div> <div> did they look like huge jewels on black velvet</div> <div> or apricots on orange</div> <div> did you feel proud to get closer to the stars</div> <div> I saw color photos of the cosmos in Ogonek magazine now don't</div> <div> be upset comrades but nonfigurative shall we say or abstract</div> <div> well some of them looked just like such paintings which is to</div> <div> say they were terribly figurative and concrete</div> <div> my heart was in my mouth looking at them</div> <div> they are our endless desire to grasp things</div> <div> seeing them I could even think of death and not feel at all sad</div> <div> I never knew I loved the cosmos </div> <div> snow flashes in front of my eyes</div> <div> both heavy wet steady snow and the dry whirling kind</div> <div> I didn't know I liked snow </div> <div> I never knew I loved the sun</div> <div> even when setting cherry-red as now</div> <div> in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors</div> <div> but you aren't about to paint it that way</div> <div> I didn't know I loved the sea</div> <div> except the Sea of Azov</div> <div> or how much </div> <div> I didn't know I loved clouds</div> <div> whether I'm under or up above them</div> <div> whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts </div> <div> moonlight the falsest the most languid the most petit-bourgeois</div> <div> strikes me</div> <div> I like it </div> <div> I didn't know I liked rain</div> <div> whether it falls like a fine net or splatters against the glass my</div> <div> heart leaves me tangled up in a net or trapped inside a drop</div> <div> and takes off for uncharted countries I didn't know I loved</div> <div> rain but why did I suddenly discover all these passions sitting</div> <div> by the window on the Prague-Berlin train</div> <div> is it because I lit my sixth cigarette</div> <div> one alone could kill me</div> <div> is it because I'm half dead from thinking about someone back in Moscow</div> <div> her hair straw-blond eyelashes blue </div> <div> the train plunges on through the pitch-black night</div> <div> I never knew I liked the night pitch-black</div> <div> sparks fly from the engine</div> <div> I didn't know I loved sparks</div> <div> I didn't know I loved so many things and I had to wait until sixty</div> <div> to find it out sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train</div> <div> watching the world disappear as if on a journey of no return</div> <bR> <bR> <div> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="autobiography_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>Autobiography</B><B> </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> I was born in 1902</div> <div> I never once went back to my birthplace</div> <div> I don't like to turn back</div> <div> at three I served as a pasha's grandson in Aleppo</div> <div> at nineteen as a student at Moscow Communist University</div> <div> at forty-nine I was back in Moscow as the Tcheka Party's guest</div> <div> and I've been a poet since I was fourteen</div> <div> some people know all about plants some about fish</div> <div> I know separation</div> <div> some people know the names of the stars by heart</div> <div> I recite absences</div> <div> I've slept in prisons and in grand hotels</div> <div> I've known hunger even a hunger strike and there's almost no food</div> <div> I haven't tasted</div> <div> at thirty they wanted to hang me</div> <div> at forty-eight to give me the Peace Prize</div> <div> which they did</div> <div> at thirty-six I covered four square meters of concrete in half a year</div> <div> at fifty-nine I flew from Prague to Havana in eighteen hours</div> <div> I never saw Lenin I stood watch at his coffin in '24</div> <div> in '61 the tomb I visit is his books</div> <div> they tried to tear me away from my party</div> <div> it didn't work</div> <div> nor was I crushed under the falling idols</div> <div> in '51 I sailed with a young friend into the teeth of death</div> <div> in '52 I spent four months flat on my back with a broken heart</div> <div> waiting to die</div> <div> I was jealous of the women I loved</div> <div> I didn't envy Charlie Chaplin one bit</div> <div> I deceived my women</div> <div> I never talked my friends' backs</div> <div> I drank but not every day</div> <div> I earned my bread money honestly what happiness</div> <div> out of embarrassment for others I lied</div> <div> I lied so as not to hurt someone else</div> <div> but I also lied for no reason at all</div> <div> I've ridden in trains planes and cars</div> <div> most people don't get the chance</div> <div> I went to opera</div> <div> most people haven't even heard of the opera</div> <div> and since '21 I haven't gone to the places most people visit</div> <div> mosques churches temples synagogues sorcerers</div> <div> but I've had my coffee grounds read</div> <div> my writings are published in thirty or forty languages</div> <div> in my Turkey in my Turkish they're banned</div> <div> cancer hasn't caught up with me yet</div> <div> and nothing says it will</div> <div> I'll never be a prime minister or anything like that</div> <div> and I wouldn't want such a life</div> <div> nor did I go to war</div> <div> or burrow in bomb shelters in the bottom of the night</div> <div> and I never had to take to the road under diving planes</div> <div> but I fell in love at almost sixty</div> <div> in short comrades</div> <div> even if today in Berlin I'm croaking of grief</div> <div> I can say I've lived like a human being</div> <div> and who knows</div> <div> how much longer I'll live</div> <div> what else will happen to me</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>