Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
 
 
Back to Turkish Poetry
 
The Walnut Tree
 
My head is a foaming cloud,
inside and outside I'm the sea.
I am a walnut tree in gulhane Park in Istanbul,
an old walnut tree with knots and scars.
You don't know this and the police don't either.
 
I am a walnut tree in Gulhane Park,
My leaves sparkle like a fish in water,
my leaves flutter like silk handkerchiefs.
Break one off, my darling, and wipe your tears.
My leaves are my hands -
I have a hundred thousand hands.
Istanbul I touch you
with a hundred thousand hands.
My leaves are my eyes,
and I am shocked at what I see.
 
I look at you, Istanbul,
with a hundred thousand eyes
and my leaves beat,
beat with a hundred thousand hearts.
I am a walnut tree in Gulhane Park.
you don't know this and the police don't either.
 
(July 1, 1957)
 
Back to Turkish Poetry