Poems and bio of Metin Turan
I WILL NOT WRITE PEACE POEMS
I.
Every time I cross a boundry my words get slower:
The official forgets I am from “the bleeding place of the map”
And looks at me with the commanding eyes saying, ‘Where are you coming from and why?’
I become silent.
My passport spits up blood.
Whereas I know the bullet that killed the white pigeon in my sky.
I know which merchant’s purse the dollars shine in is
In the bank account that enlarges the swamp.
II.
It was a cold whistle sound in the dark
Near East, Middle East, Far East . . .
It’s the day when the sea cathes fire.
Boko Haram in Nigeria, ISIS in Mesopotamia.
All kind of killing machines.
My human lifetime, my nature lifetime, my lake lifetime.
If I come to an end, so do words.
Horses stop neighing, and Gypsies forget the most playful dance.
The poison grows inside of me.
III.
Bees, honey bees sting the ones they feel uncomfortable with.
They leave their weapons where they sting.
Then they are ashamed of what they have done, and prefer to die.
Mankind, how can I say,
Makes bigger, bigger bombs.
More effective weapons, bullets, and poison so that
He can sink back into the chair of the killing machine,
And start watching our darkening skies and cold hair as he gets stronger.
IV.
Peace!
It was a great song in my voice.
It went away with an Afghan girl’s petrol blue eyes.
Peace was in Palestinian’s scream who stuck a smile between his lips.
Peace! It is in my Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian brothers’ stabbed looks.
Which call is this, which call whose name I have carried
From Ecuador, North and South China to the poles.
It has been left in dictionaries in the twenty-first century, too.
V.
No!
I will have a hand to rub salt into my friend’s wound.
I will have a voice to flow effervescently in the seas.
I will not write peace poems in this way.
Translated by Baki Yiğit
QUESTIONING
Seven billion people live on Earth.
Seven billion hearts beat to live.
Seven billion people plant flowers, run machines, and sing songs.
They draw birds, ants, cars and trains in notebooks and papers.
And also windows, doors, houses, kitchen cabinets, olives and olive branches.
Seven billion hands, seven billion pens.
Yet it does not suffice to stop a handful of adventurous stark raving mads
From polluting the world, and bombing the creepy crawly, the ruddy-cheeked,
Towheaded and cherry-blossom-dimpled girls in Bolivia, Syria and Iraq.
How many bullets are in the world, how many machine guns, anti-aircrafts and tanks?
How many submarines, rifles and bayonets?
Do you know, my human brother, how many bases ready to launch missiles, how many nuclear bombs?
And how many poor men are there in the world, how many babies who died without getting breast milk?
How many children who were dead and buried without riding a bicycle,
Riding on a swing and reaching school age
For once, yes, for once?
And why so much bread, chocolate, rice and macaroni are produced?
So many computers, cell phones, bicycles, apples, oranges, dates and peaches?
Which bullet will hit the target consisting of buds greened with tears?
I will add up these
And it will only be registered that I drowned in a river flowing wrongly.
Translated by Baki Yiğit
METIN TURAN
Turkish Author
He was born in 1966 in Kağızman (Kars-Turkey). He studied technical education, health and economics. His first tale was published in 1981.
Turan attended numerous international scientific and artistic meetings in Germany, Romania, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Syria, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, TRNC, Russia, Nakhichevan, Italy, South Korea, Poland and Turkey.
He concentrated his work in the field of folk literature.
In 1995, he was honored with the Turkish Folklore Service Award of Folklore Research Institution. He was the folklorist who won this award at the youngest age so far.
Metin Turan is the president of KIBATEK (Cyprus, Balkans, Eurasian Turkish Literatures Institution) and Folklore Researchers Foundation.
In 2003, he won the first prize “Çalıkalı Spring Festival Turkish World” (in the Republic of Macedonia) and “2004 Ruşen Hakkı Poetry Award”.
His poems were translated into Polish, German, Arabic, Bulgarian, Persian, English, Korean, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Kurdish, Armenian, Uzbek, Ukrainian and Greek. In addition, his book “KÖROĞLU” was translated into Albanian and Serbian and published in these countries.
In 2005 and 2006 he briefly taught Turkish Literature courses and conferences at Kiev National University and between 2007-2011, he gave lectures in folk literature at Yıldız Technical University/Faculty of Arts and Sciences as an academician.
Metin Turan took part in the regulatory committee of “History Foundation (Tarih Vakfı)” and “Pertev Naili Boratav Archive”.
In 1997-98, he worked in the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Turkey; Culture and Art Broadcast Advisory Board and Folk Culture Broadcast Advisory Board. Also he was a member of the editorial board of “Türk Dünyası” magazine.
He is the publishing coordinator of FOLKLOR/EDEBİYAT magazine whose contents are folklore, anthropology, sociology, history, music and literature, and has been published since 1994. In addition, he is the publishing director of KIBATEK (Cyprus, Balkans, Eurasian, Turkish Literatures Institution), which started its activities in 1998, and TURNALAR, an international translation and literary magazine.
Some of his published works:
- Can İçindedir Canan Kağızmanlı Cemal Hoca (1992)
- Aşık Veysel -Yaşamı ve Sanatı– (1994)
- Kul Himmet (1994)
- Ozanlık Gelenekleri ve Türk Saz Şiiri Tarihi (1996)
- Türk Halk Edebiyatı (1997)
- Dostlar Seni Unutmadı/Aşık Veysel’in Yaşamı ve Şiirleri – English –Turkish (2000)
- Kültür-Kimlik Ekseninde Türk Edebiyatı (2004)
- Tarihten Mekâna Türk Halk Şiiri (2006)
- Halk Kültürü (2007)
- Halk Deryasından Damlalar (2011)
- Köroğlu Hayatı-Şiirleri (2014)
- Kars Halk Kültürü ve Edebiyatı (2019)
- Pancurları Cemile Kokulu Ada (2019)
- Beyaz Güzel Bir Boşluk (2019)
His poetry books:
- Suları Islatan Mecnun –şiir- (2003)
- Sokaklar Kentler Ülkeler -şiir- 2007
- Ağustos Aldı Sırlarımı -şiir- (2013)
- Hal ve Gidiş (2015)
- Sabırsız Bir Sabah (2019)
- Su Çığlığı (2022)
Some of the books that he prepared for publication are:
- Enver Gökçe Üzerine (Damar Yayınları, 1991)
- Yürüyorum Dikenlerin Üstünde: Halk Ozanı Kaplani’nin Yaşamı ve Yapıtları (Prospero Yayınları, 1994)
- Üç Kanatlı Masal Kuşu: Oğuz Tansel (Ürün Yayınları,1995)
- Pertev Naili Boratav’a Armağan (Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1998)
- Bulgaristan’da Türk Halk Kültürü (Folklor Araştırmaları Kurumu Yayınları, 2000)
- İzahlı Türk Halk Şiiri (Tarih Vakfı Yayınları, 2001)
- Gezi Edebiyatı (KIBATEK Yayınları, 2006)
- Göç, Kimlik ve Edebiyat (KIBATEK Yayınları, 2009)
- Akdenizde Edebiyat Edebiyatta Akdenizlilik (KIBATEK Yayınları, 2010)
- Edebiyatta Kadın (KIBATEK Yayınları, 2014)
- Doğu ile Batı Arasında Zarif Bir Köprü: Türk ve Rus Edebiyatları (KIBATEK Yayınları, 2015)