Because of recent happenings, I feel a compulsion to publish some posts in English as well. Given the fact that I am not really prolific in English, I will be including some unoriginal poems as well; however, I want these to be interesting selection-wise. Therefore here is a rubai of Nâzım Hikmet in English. Perhaps I will be talking about Nâzım more when I have time...
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My love's image in the mirror had its say:
"She isn't real-I am," it said to me one day.
I struck, the mirror broke, her image disappeared
but, thank goodness, my love stayed in place...
I like this verse maybe even more in English because of the equivocal nature of the word "love" in this tongue. In the original verse, the thing staying in place must be the real woman; however, when you let a tad of ambiguity in the equation, there exists the possibility of the man acquiescing to the image. What I mean is that perhaps the image only the lover sees of the partner is indeed the "love" of his. I believe this concept of "ideal partner" in our minds is familiar to everyone but if we take a second to breathe, this might suggest that neither the loved nor the love itself is real. Yet, we are relieved to learn that the love is ever present even though the mirror is broken, meaning we are now handling the objective world.
Weep no more, then, for love does indeed exist, both as a person and as itself.
Possumus vivere, nam est amor!..
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