a butt cast in the sea

Share now a pigeon's flight
Bluebound along the ancient skies,
Its women forever hair and mammal,
A Mediterranean town may arise
If you rip apart a pigeon's heart.

Time for you to love and to hug
Time to hold your hand, time for you
But which hand, my love, which hand;
One has clutched you, pure old peevish,
One was anointed with an adult aurora,
One in freedom's endless exodus,
And one, unvanquished, breaks bread
With men toiling in mud and dust and smoke.

Since is our soul's rapture as of old;
A clouds, if in motion, is in our ken,
The minaret if joyful unto God,
And a man if gallant against misery.
Whenever we cast a butt in the sea
In the name of liberty, peace, and love
It keeps glowing till daybreak.


*Cemal Süreyya
Translated by Talat Sait Halman

*Cigarayı Attım Denize

* Turkish Poetry in Translation

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