51 - Ithaca

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for long years;
and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,
rich with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.
With the great wisdom you have gained, with so much experience,
you must surely have understood by then what Ithacas mean.

Translated by Rae Dalven
Poet: Kavafis

18 - Nazim continues with "Ben iceri dustugumden beri"

Nazim Hikmet is a Turkish poet, with an acclaimed fame for the 'lyrical flow of his statements' and especially for love poems in the international arena. He is known as one of the greatest international poets in the twentieth century, his poems being translated over fifty languages. He spent many years in prison during his time because of political charges. He contrasts his situation with a man who was jailed for man slaughter and smuggling which beautifully depicts that no matter how right a person is, call it zeitgeist or paradigm, governing dynamics which are rarely ideal and free from international constraints and pressure rules a person's fragile life. The following poem is it's manifestation, in my own translation.

Since I Got in Prison

"Since I got in (prison), around the Sun, ten times revolved the Earth
If you ask to it: 'Not to mention, a microscopic time…’
If you ask me: ‘Ten years of my life…’
I had a pencil, in the year I got in
Writing and writing, worn out in a week
If you ask to it: ‘An entire life…’
If you ask me: ‘Oh man, a week or two...’
Osman who was imprisoned for murder;
Got out, since I got in, completing the seven and a half.
Wandered around out for sometime
Then got in (prison) again for smuggling
Completing six months, got out again.
Yesterday his letter arrived; got married, will have a baby in the spring…

Now they are ten years old children,
those who fell into the mother's womb at the year I got in
And the colts with long shivery feet of that year are
Mares with wide ridges already, for a long time by now
But olive saplings are still saplings, still kids.

I heard new squares are opened
in my distant city, since I got in…
And our household, lives in a house
That I never saw, in a street where I don’t know.

Like cotton, pure white was the bread,
in the year I got in
Then it was added to the ration card
In our place, in prison
People shot each other, for a fist size
Pure black victual
Now it got free again, but brown and tasteless

In the year I got in, the second hadn’t started yet
Furnaces at the Dachau Camp were not lit,
the atom bomb was not dropped on Hiroshima
Like a slaughtered child’s blood, time flowed
Then officially closed was that chapter, now
the american dollar is talking about the third
But still the sunshine against everything,
Since I got in
And from the edge of the darkness,
placing their heavy hands on the pavements
they rose half way

Since I got in, around the Sun, ten times revolved the Earth
And with the same passion I repeat again
‘They are those who:
are as many as
the ants in the earth,
the fish in the water,
the birds in the sky.
Fearful, courageous, ignorant and childish
And the depressing creator that they are,
In the songs, you only find their adventures’

And all the rest
For example, my ten year stay in prison is
Mere rhetoric"

1948

From the same oratorio of Fazil Say's. Nazim Hikmet Ran's words are voiced by Genco Erkal accompanied by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra.

17 - Memleketim (My Country)

This video excerpt is from the Oratorio dedicated to Nazim Hikmet, one of the most influential and gifted poets of the 2oth century. In his country he was tried for his political stance and found guilty of being a traitor. The song is based on his words revealing a very concentrated yearning for his country, written in Prague in 1958.
Oratorio is composed by Fazil Say, playing the piano. Solist is Zuhal Olcay.

10 - a discussion in art

The Painting:
Full-ness of Empty-ness
by Marco Spada





Poem by Barlas Hunalp

"üçe bölünmüştü dünya, bir elimde iki parçası,
neşeni yapraklara sarmıştın, baharın ilk macerası
üçe bölünmüştü deniz, maviden kaçan balıkların dansı
üçe bölünmüştük
ellerimiz, sözlerimiz,biz"


Translation by me

the earth was divided into three, two pieces in my hand
you had wrapped your joy in leaves, first adventure of the spring
the sea was divided into three, dance of the fishes running away from the blue
we were divided into three
our hands, words and ourselves

I once heard that a picture's worth a thousand words...
The lovely fish on the Fabriano paper looks abstract but swims real..