BİR BAŞKA TEPEDEN

   Sana dün bir tepeden baktım aziz İstanbul!
  Görmedim gezmediğim, sevmediğim hiçbir yer.
  Ömrüm oldukça, gönül tahtıma keyfince kurul!
  Sade bir semtini sevmek bile bir ömre değer.

  Nice revnaklı şehirler görülür dünyada,
  Lakin efsunlu güzellikleri sensin yaratan.
  Yaşamıştır derim, en hoş ve uzun rü´yada
  Sende çok yıl yaşayan, sende ölen, sende yatan.

   
                        Yahya Kemal BEYATLI  

From Another Hill

I looked at you from another hill, dear Istanbul!

I know you like back of my hand, and love you dearly

.

Come, come and sit on my heart´s throne as long as I live

Just to love a district of yours is worth a whole life.

There are many flourishing cities in the world.

But you´re the only one who creates enchanting beauty.

I say, he who has lived happily, in the longest dream,

Is he who spent his life in you, died in you, and was buried in you.    

Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1884-1958)

Note : This is a wonderful poem of Yahya Kemal. Thanks for reminding us this poem Mr.Thunder.

Yahya Kemal was a great master of our contemporary poetry, with classical simplicity and might in his poems, which were written with a strong cultural and linguistic consciousness, with his efforts and success in synthesizing the national and the modern, the individual and the social, the historical and the contemporary in the core and form of his art.

Yahya Kemal´s statue in the Yıldız Park of Istanbul. He looks over the city from a hilltop as he mentions in his poem.

Your welcome , Tunci   Thank You for the translation you added.

Another nice poem of him ;

AKŞAM MÛSIKÎSİ
 

Kandilli´de, eski bahçelerde,
Akşam kapanınca perde perde,
Bir hatıra zevki var kederde.

Artık ne gelen, ne beklenen var;
Tenhâ yolun ortasında rüzgâr
Teşrin yapraklarıyle oynar.

Gittikçe derinleşir saatler,
Rikkatle, yavaş yavaş ve yer yer
Sessizlik dâima ilerler.

Ürperme verir hayâle sık sık,
Hep bir kapıdan giren karanlık,
Çok belli ayak sesinden artık.

Gözlerden uzaklaşınca dünyâ
Bin bir geceden birinde gûyâ
Başlar rü´yâ içinde rü´yâ

Evening Music

In the antique gardens of Kandilli,
As the evening settles, veil over veil,
The aching pleasures of memory prevail.

No one comes or watches from balconies.
In the middle of a lonely road the breeze
Is toying with the October leaves.

The hours deeper and deeper dance,
As with tender steps, in its slow expanse,
Silence makes a sure advance.

The neck-hairs bristle, the mind’s a blur.
Darkness enters every door.
Its footsteps are now too familiar.

The world recedes, the vision dims.
As in the Thousand and One Nights, it seems
A dream begins within a dream.

The Rain in Istanbul

I listen to the rain in Istanbul

birds sing silent melody

the streets are full of mystical light

I walk through the Sufi path

recite the poetry of Orhan Veli Kanik

and my eyes are shining with sweetness

I listen to the rain in Istanbul

the voices of the Grand Bazaar

merge with the echo of the saint texts

I taste the sounds of the eternal Istanbul

and my heart is filled with joy

Anna Banasiak