THE NİLEDeath’s mysterious majesty, the pyramids,Their shadows dappling the Nile…The light’s perfume, the sound’s color for everyoneNaked amidst the plenty of riches; amidst the plenty of richesHungry roam the bedouins.Their hands date-sticky blackSell dreams to the world’s travellersWhile the river carries the sand’s heat to the Meditteranian.Under the palms the cat with poin ...
THE NİLEDeath’s mysterious majesty, the pyramids,
Their shadows dappling the Nile…
The light’s perfume, the sound’s color for everyone
Naked amidst the plenty of riches; amidst the plenty of riches
Hungry roam the bedouins.
Their hands date-sticky black
Sell dreams to the world’s travellers
While the river carries the sand’s heat to the Meditteranian.
Under the palms the cat with pointed tongue
Licking its fur from the bottom up
İs none other than the memory-travelling woman.
Lyre-playing goddess, The Serpent Queen tattooed on her arms,
On the sunlight of the waves dance glittering jewels,
Rich in posion and dungeon is the Pharaoh’s reign,
Camel caravans, tinkling of bells, murmurings,
İs this the cry of the falcon echoing from wall to cat to woman to water?
Where do sound-deafened seas fall silent?
The young maiden leaps into the river while the queen adorns herself,
Mud- eyed crocodiles crouching in swamps
Yawn away Time, their jaws smelling of death.
İf the heart is lighter than breath on the scale
Horus wings are heard within the palaces of Day.
This falcon- scream over water, under sky,
I feed The Serpent Queen. the Goddess resembles me
Love playful within the soul, too heavy for the flesh
The sand dunes a bride reclining with full, tilted breasts
Everything lost in dreams, each name a mirage
The Nile does not speak, on its banks woman and cat,
Tongues in their bellies not yet translated into another tongue,
The face of life floods the desert stroms,
Upon the surface of the flood run scratches of talons…
Arife Kalender Çev: Nihal Yeğinobalı
NİLÖlümün görkemi piramitler
Nil’e düşürür alacasını
ışığın kokusu sesin rengi herkese
varlığın bolluğunda çıplak
varlığın bolluğunda aç gezer bedeviler
elleri hurma yapışkanı kir
düş satıyor gezginlerine dünyanın
kum sıcağını denize akıtırken nehir
palmiyeler altında sivri diliyle
tüylerini dipten başa temizleyen kedi
anılar yolcusu kadından başkası değildir
lir çalan tanrıça kolu şahmeran
oynuyor ışıltılar dalgaların güneşinde
firavunların ağusu bol zindanları da
deve kervanlarının çıngırakları
şahin çığlıklarıyla beraber
kediye, kadına sonra da suya düşer
denizlerin kulakları ses sağırı
atlar ırmağa genç kız, kraliçe süslenirken
balçıklara gizlenmiş çamur gözlü timsahlar
esner zamanları ağzı ceset kokusu
terazi kefesinde tüyden hafifse yürek
gün saraylarında Horus sesi duyulur
konuşmaz Nil kıyısında kediyle kadın
başka dillere çevrilmedi karınlarındaki diller
çöl fırtınalarında yaşamın yüzü sel
su yatağında tırmık tırmık izler
Arife Kalender drinks are served by concubines
in amorous embraces
on satin cushions
self-nourishing ornaments
our rooms where roses mildew
theft of passions
at moments when words remain dumb
elephants are dead and horses shot down
the shah in his castle
dreaming of concubine flesh
the blind know not the glow of live coals
the arm is stretched
to break up a big piece of worlds bread
Iron courts fire
fire the rising wind
angelic days, rose’s hour
cauldron of witches, laughter of ghosts
roaming floating flying every day
on the bastion of the palace
self-murdered concubines
Arife Kalender The me in meThe other woman in me embroided spring again
like she used to make roses when she was young
With sounds in her ears
She came and we interpreted dreams
She passed the roads carrying an umbrella with lilacs
and threw small shoes to me
It was my shell waiting at the stops of time
One moment she was a child
next a high-school student smiling through a picture
The smell of the food was in a poem
One of us simply left, one of us remained at home
We were nuns in a monastry
Who hid their pirates in their hearts
The monks would retire to their rooms
and the candles would go out
The blood would bathe in snow and we’d row a boat
We were angels by the water, genies crossing the river
and it was one of us who paused for Dali
She came with me and brought oranges
She laughed at her childhood face with new teeth
I fooled her with the sugar of life
We loved love and ever more would we love
That woman was and was not me
Whom I hide in the branches of my soul, of my body
Arife Kalender
Translated by Tarık Günersel BIOGRAPHY:
ARIFE KALENDERI was born in Malatya in 1954. I finished the primary and intermediate schools in my birth town. The rest of my education, the lycee and the university, continued in Istanbul. I graduated from Istanbul University in 1978 and then started to work as a teacher of German Literature. I retired in 1997. General subjects of my poems are; nature, human being, contradiction between man himself and his social environment., identity and other problems of women, love and death. Some of these subjects are seen alone in my poem, but generally found together as a supplement of each other. While writing the poems about life, love and hopes I use mythology, irony, mysticism and surrealism. Besides my poems, my investigations about contemporary Turkish Poets and education are published in some literature magazines. The fifth book of Arife Kalender is “Red Fugitive”, sixth is “Female Zodiac”, seventh is “Crazy Honey”, eight is “Rivers of Poem [analyses]”, ninth is “seven climates four seasons – Epic of Turkey-”The poet who has been active in certain managements of authors associations is a member of the Turkish Authors Syndicate’s Management Board since 2007
arifekalender@ttnet.net.tr
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