Night Bird

By Gülten Akin
Translated by Alice Melike Ülgezer and Özlem Özmetin.

We escaped the sounds of a city that didn't embrace us,
fled the silent remains of a winter sea.
We knew we were being watched
and we watched ourselves
with one hope, that this time, it would be different, not like before

In silence, we forgave ourselves for hoping

As heart and time inhabit the same space
so, in equally measured intervals,
the Night Bird releaseits cry to earth

And the people of fallen villages
the ones who were forced to the road;
the children too,
forced to leave behind
           their souls,
           their birth place -
behind their eyes is an emptiness.
Their elders and women, dishonoured.
Their men, defeated by anger.

Those Those Those
whom we carried

With each shriek of the Night Bird,
we remember more keenly
the sentence of our fallen lives,
The state we've been reduced to.

The Night Bird shares our plight, our bitter resolve
It doesn't sleep, it can't sleep, it doesn’t stop -

Yet at one time, we had roses in our minds.
We looked at fruittrees and lilies,
we were seduced by beautiful scents
we had passion that grew roots, deep encounters.
We found what we were meant to find

The cries of the Night Bird
make us feel mad with courage.
And our fears dissolve into calm
as we wait for morning.

Click here to listen to Gülten Akin reading this poem in Turkish on Lyrikline.org.