Ataol Behramoğlu
If you're alive, experience one thing with all your power
Ataol Behramoğlu (born 13 April 1942) is a Turkish poet, author, translator and columnist.
Quotes
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Rendered it brilliant with meaning
- I do not remember any other term when the force that had captured the political power in this country had become so vulgar as it is today, so corrupt, and so hypocritical; when the legal system had been so downtrodden, deteriorated, collapsed and turned into a means of cruelty.
- "Two Heart Pain" ["İki Kalp Ağrısı"], in Republic [Cumhuriyet] (16 June 2012)
- They were eyes, that while gazing on the world
Rendered it brilliant with meaningThey were eyes, that embraced me with glances
They were eyes, for which I now hopelessly long- "They Were Eyes", as translated at Kritya : A Journal of Poetry
I've Learned Some Things (2008)
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To strike down roots that won't pull free
- I've Learned Some Things : Selected Poems (2008), as translated by Walter G. Andrews; alternate translations also provided, as noted.
For what we call living is a gift given to life
And life is a gift bestowed upon us
Love is a two-person thing
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A person should let himself go.
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What does it mean to know anything best
Which religion doesn't grow old
- I've learned some things from having lived:
If you're alive, experience one thing with all your power
Your beloved should be worn out from being kissed
And you should drop exhausted from the smelling of a flower- "I've Learned Some Things" ["Yaşadıklarımdan Öğrendiğim Bir Şey Var"] (1977)
- A person can gaze at the sky for hours
Can gaze for hours at a bird, a child, the sea
To live on the earth is to become part of it
To strike down roots that won't pull free- "I've Learned Some Things" (1977)
- Variant translations:
- One can look at the sky for hours
One can look for hours at the sea, at a bird, at a child
Living on this world is being one with it
Growing unbreakable roots into it- Translated as "There Is One Thing I Learned From What I Lived" by Sãleyman Fatih Akgãl at TC Turkish Poetry Pages
- To your utmost, listen to every beautiful song
As though filling all the self with sound and melody
One should plunge head-first into life
As one dives from a cliff into the emerald sea
- "I've Learned Some Things" (1977)
- Distant lands should draw you, people you don't know
To read every book, know other's lives, you should be burning
You shouldn't exchange for anything the pleasure of a glass of water
No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning
- "I've Learned Some Things" (1977)
- I've learned some things from having lived:
If you're alive, experience largely, merge with rivers, heavens, cosmos
For what we call living is a gift given to life
And life is a gift bestowed upon us- "I've Learned Some Things" (1977)
- Variant translations:
- There is one thing I learned from what I lived:
When you live, you must live big, like being one with the rivers, the sky, and the whole universe
Because what we call lifetime is a gift presented to life
And life is a gift presented to you.- Translated as "There Is One Thing I Learned From What I Lived" by Sãleyman Fatih Akgãl at TC Turkish Poetry Pages
- Death, one experiences alone
Love is a two-person thing- "Love is a Two-Person Thing" ["Aşk İki Kişiliktir"] (1994)
- Variant translations:
- The only thing experienced alone is death
Love requires two people
- Gulls into the water, women proudly into the bazaars
I was going to write a poem, I was stifling, fed up with old things
Eat, my mother says, but they're all things I've grown accustomed to, in the end.
Like Camus and — I don’t know — people like that, I'm cracking up
Everything will begin when it untangles itself from your hair- "How Awful When Poetry Ages As It Is Read"
- Is the truth of tablecloths to be spread? How awful always to take refuge in known words
A person should let himself go.- "How Awful When Poetry Ages As It Is Read"
- Writing poems is perhaps the loveliest deception
Later they'll make a picture or something, then go and drink wine- "How Awful When Poetry Ages As It Is Read"
- I'd make me into a brand new sailor if I were God
Maybe there were new things over there
It comes from within me to write as though rabid, I'm hungry, do you understand
Let the doctors call it what they will
Who can know anything best of all
What does it mean to know anything best
Which religion doesn't grow old- "How Awful When Poetry Ages As It Is Read"
- I want to write poetry, I'm bored, disgusted by my habits
If I stop thinking and put my hands down perhaps I will have much to say
I'm scurrying to the attic like a solitary bug
Before you become old and ugly, I must kiss you on the nose- "How Awful When Poetry Ages As It Is Read"
- Once more in that hour of darkness
In dark black waters they arise
Dark songs pass before their eyes
They lie awake gazing into darkness- "Black Song" ["Kara Şarki"]
- In the most affirming places of their love
Suddenly they grew tired, out of breath
Little by little they felt the death
Of some places left in darkness- "Black Song"
The Poet's Poetic Responsibility (2012)
[edit]- "The Poet's Poetic Responsibility" ["Şairin Şiire Sorumluluğu"], in TÜYAP (18 November 2012)
- The poet should be responsible to the poem.
- A poem is a living organism.
- Creativity is a hidden gem. Education is needed to uncover it.
