Because I am a Rose

Mehmet Erte

Because I am a rose.
Through being a rose, I've explained my selfishness,
and my having been loved. When I heard the crackling sound
of the searing question of my fate, I said, it is because I am a rose.
I walked to clearly see what I might call my fate,
I walked a good amount. If you ask what I gained:
an unsatisfying explanation of the past,
a poor prediction for the future. I've known nothing,
I've seen nothing.  Just a fragrance, drifting from my breast...
I lost my mind in those breathing deep in me. I am a rose,
I did not hear those sweet expressions, I did not understand what I lived
         through.
If you ask what happened: I must have been loved.
That is all that happens to a rose and what will happen to it.

Everyone has beautiful eyes when you look at them closely enough,
every lip has a fine curve once you have kissed it,
everyone utters a nice pair of words if you talk to them for awhile
Yet if you are a rose like me, then things are different;
the rose is unknowing and does not understand whys...
They say that what will be will be, I cannot guess at all
the moment to come. To be loved, be loved, always be loved
if this is my foremost fate, I want to learn my color now,
I want to understand what happened. I am tired,
I am tired of being a rose. When I am just about to wither
a deep sobbing changes everything.

They say: fate makes its nets. I do not understand at all such expressions.
I would braid my hair when I was young. Where and when was it untied
not to be braided again? Is it God or the wind that flipped
the pages so swiftly? What I call my life is a rustle.
What happened yesterday was forgotten, what happens today will happen
         tomorrow again.
Do not ask as to where we'll end up, I do not know, I am just a rose,
It is beyond me. A rose resides in a rose, if you have not gotten this yet,
Then let Fortune's wheel turn again.
                       To be able to enjoy being loved to the fullest
             I've loved you.

translated from the Turkish by Abbas Karakaya and Elizabeth Raible