Ne kötüdür insanın aklıyla yüreği arasında çaresiz kalması. Ne kötüdür ona an kadar yakın, bir asır kadar uzak olması !

 How awful it is when a person lies helpless between their head and their heart. How awful it is to be as close as a moment to him/her, but as far away as a lifetime

Marion´s translation is how we would say it in English not knowing the specific gender of the person even if it is singular not plural.

eg. We might shout ´there´s someone at the door/on the phone´ to which the reply might be ´what do they want?´ even if there is only one person because you don´t know if it´s he or she.

Interesting. Thank you for information. I will delete my post.