from Neynur

Nurduran Duman

Verse 1


Bişnev ez-ney çün şikâyet mî koned / Ez-cüdâyîhâ hikâyet mî koned
Şikâyet ettiği zaman neyi dinle, belki şikâyet etmiyor, ayrılıkları anlatıyor.
Listen to the reed flute’s complaint, its mourning might explain the separation.


the earth’s face equals longing

to tell Ney fall onto earth’s face, open your eyelashes and write:
it exists of course. listen. hear the branding between sky and ground
learn the air and fire the land that blackens my shell, you know yourself from me
i considered its secret where does the thing come, where who what it is

the one who comes forty steps to our one step oh
who becomes unknown as we know more grows as it grows
who what where were you i fractured from your light
as we approach the universe keeps expanding

to tell Nur we fell onto earth’s face, it would be right if i desired
the one who completed her breath and continued on her way





Verse 2


K’ez neyistân tâ merâ bobrîde end / V’ez nefîrem merd ü zen nâlîde end
Beni kamışlıktan kestiklerinden beri, erkek kadın herkes feryadımdan inledi.
Since they cut me from the reed bed, men women everyone lamented my cries.


acceptance is the time to disentangle and disperse

my Ney is my acceptance what is circulating in my core
to my awl it’s home what with why
the membrane is shed the shell is cracked
the curtains multiply me as they are drawn in front of me

oh who cuts harvests sews up and seals, who likes to be known oh
the more you appear, the more remnants are cleared from my eyes
my orbit that says myself

my Nur is my acceptance to live a cause
walk run Gökaltı Tunnel doesn’t end
I am traveling flow through its whiteness its blackness
the intelligent one has many unknowns
heart with one answer





Verse 3


Sîne hâhem şerha şerha ez-firâk / Tâ be-gûyem şerh-i derd-i iştiyâk
Aşk derdini açabileceğim, ayrılıktan parçalanmış bir gönül isterim.
I need a heart broken from separation, so that I can open my own heartbreak.


ash held in the mind is an invitation

with Ney i’ll call the receiver where i have uncertain songs
the left keys blazing away between their chest and forehead
if i didn’t see it i’d recognize it for a thousand years, here to those instruments

i was the saz sounding with Nur i stopped being joyful
i was never played again
but i learned the hole in the heart yearning from seven spaces


translated from the Turkish by Andrew Wessels