CABLE STREET (formerly WITTY PARTITION)

  • ABOUT
    • About Us
  • CONTACT
    • Contact
    • Submissions
  • NEWS
    • News
    • LINKS
  • ISSUE 18: Cable St.
    • Table of Contents
    • A WORD
    • InSight Visitor
    • COLLOQUY >
      • Interview: Nandana Dev Sen
      • Poems: Nabaneeta Dev Sen
      • Read, See, Hear More
    • POETRY >
      • Trish Crapo
      • Kelly Egan
      • Michael Franco
    • TRANSLATION >
      • INTRODUCTION: Babel
      • Translation-and-Tradition
    • DRUMMINGS >
      • Djembe
    • Christina Lago
    • Editors' Pocket Anthology >
      • Our Reflections
    • Insight2 Seasonal
    • Troublemaker
    • MEMOIR-18
    • PORTFOLIO >
      • Nuran Akkaya
    • Ngugi
    • Vintage Amphora
    • ¡VIVA! >
      • Peter Brook
      • A FLOCK
    • SOUNDINGS >
      • Jimi Zhivago
    • REMARKABLE READS >
      • Paul Mugur
      • Brandon Rushton
      • Marcela Sulak
    • COLOPHON
    • Contributors18
  • ISSUE 17
    • Table of Contents
    • A WORD17
    • InSight 1
    • Flash Pocket >
      • Flash fiction intro
      • Susanna Drbal
      • Melanie Bush
      • Matt Gordon
    • POETRY >
      • G. Greene
      • Norman Fischer
      • David Robertson
      • Lisa Bourbeau
    • Essays >
      • THE BARD-
      • LORCA IN CUBA
    • Ad Astra >
      • Beatrix Gates
    • Romanian Pocket >
      • Seven Romanians
    • URBAN LEGENDS >
      • Randolph Petsche
    • CANONIZATION >
      • Steve Cannon
    • Soundings >
      • Cheb Khaled
    • MEMOIR-17
    • PORTFOLIO >
      • Couteau and David
    • Ngugi
    • Vintage InSight
    • REMARKABLE READS >
      • NOSTALGIA
      • ROTURA
      • Tiller of Waters
      • Sentsov
    • SUMMER READS >
      • Ninso John High
      • Rimbaud
      • Kaminsky
    • COLOPHON
    • Contributors17
  • Back Issues
  • EXTRA!
  • ABOUT
    • About Us
  • CONTACT
    • Contact
    • Submissions
  • NEWS
    • News
    • LINKS
  • ISSUE 18: Cable St.
    • Table of Contents
    • A WORD
    • InSight Visitor
    • COLLOQUY >
      • Interview: Nandana Dev Sen
      • Poems: Nabaneeta Dev Sen
      • Read, See, Hear More
    • POETRY >
      • Trish Crapo
      • Kelly Egan
      • Michael Franco
    • TRANSLATION >
      • INTRODUCTION: Babel
      • Translation-and-Tradition
    • DRUMMINGS >
      • Djembe
    • Christina Lago
    • Editors' Pocket Anthology >
      • Our Reflections
    • Insight2 Seasonal
    • Troublemaker
    • MEMOIR-18
    • PORTFOLIO >
      • Nuran Akkaya
    • Ngugi
    • Vintage Amphora
    • ¡VIVA! >
      • Peter Brook
      • A FLOCK
    • SOUNDINGS >
      • Jimi Zhivago
    • REMARKABLE READS >
      • Paul Mugur
      • Brandon Rushton
      • Marcela Sulak
    • COLOPHON
    • Contributors18
  • ISSUE 17
    • Table of Contents
    • A WORD17
    • InSight 1
    • Flash Pocket >
      • Flash fiction intro
      • Susanna Drbal
      • Melanie Bush
      • Matt Gordon
    • POETRY >
      • G. Greene
      • Norman Fischer
      • David Robertson
      • Lisa Bourbeau
    • Essays >
      • THE BARD-
      • LORCA IN CUBA
    • Ad Astra >
      • Beatrix Gates
    • Romanian Pocket >
      • Seven Romanians
    • URBAN LEGENDS >
      • Randolph Petsche
    • CANONIZATION >
      • Steve Cannon
    • Soundings >
      • Cheb Khaled
    • MEMOIR-17
    • PORTFOLIO >
      • Couteau and David
    • Ngugi
    • Vintage InSight
    • REMARKABLE READS >
      • NOSTALGIA
      • ROTURA
      • Tiller of Waters
      • Sentsov
    • SUMMER READS >
      • Ninso John High
      • Rimbaud
      • Kaminsky
    • COLOPHON
    • Contributors17
  • Back Issues
  • EXTRA!

Two Poems by Necmi Zekâ
​
Translated from the Turkish by Erik Mortenson
​

Feelings of Guilt

those who boast they know the world, I’ve left them behind
the sound of a rattle woke me in an instant
the sin merchant listening at my door barged into the room
yesterday he took off from where everyone drowned
(in my heart there was still a rush to be sacrificed for love)
desperately searching for a dagger he grabbed my hands
and dipped them repeatedly into salty water
 
after coming eye-to-eye with that naked anger
overburdened with its trappings, I realized
courtly lessons of tranquility have had no use
—no lesson has had any use
because the sin merchant has already caught me
 
silver sky, broad road
those who boast they know the world, I’ve left them behind

suçluluk duyguları

dünyayı bilir gözükenler arkamda kaldı
bir çıngırak sesi duydum da uyanır gibi oldum birden
kapımı dinleyen o günah tüccarı içeri daldı
herkesin boğulduğu yerden daha dün havalanmış
-kalbimde hâlâ bir aşka feda edilme telaşı-
umutsuzca bir hançer arayan ellerimi
tuzlu suya batırıp batırıp çıkardı
 
takılarıyla ağırlaşan o çıplak öfkeyle
anlar gibi oldum birden göz göze gelince
huzur derslerinin bir yararı olmamış
derslerin bir yararı olmamış
çoktan yakalamış beni o günah tüccarı
 
simli gök enli yol
dünyayı bilir gözükenler arkamda kaldı

How's This for Nerve?

A balanced compression—I’m shapeless night.
My document of faith--Do I suffice myself?
We do indeed suffice ourselves.
 
I’m the sulking face of the sun.
I was about to ask, What will we do? Ask to my heart’s content.
A small suitcase, they said, is best.

nasıl bir metanet?

Kıvamlı sıkıştırma - ben şekilsiz geceyim.
İman vesikam - biz bize yeteriz değil
Ben bana yeter miyim?...
 
Güneşin düşmüş yüzüyüm.
Ne yapacağız diye soracaktım - soracaktım doya doya.
Küçük bir bavul, dediler, en iyisi.
​



Next
​or

Return to Table of Contents