TURKEY

THE BATH

My dreams are bubbles of cool light,

Sunbeams mingled in the light green

Waters of your bath.

Through fretted spaces in the olive wood

My love adventures with the white sun.

I dive into the ice-coloured shadows

Where the water is like light blue flowers

Dancing on mirrors of silver.

The sun rolls under the waters of your bath

Like the body of a strong swimmer.

And now you cool your feet,

Which have the look of apple flowers,

Under the water on the oval marble

Coloured like yellow roses.

Your scarlet nipples

Waver under the green kisses of the water,

Flowers drowned in a mountain stream.

From the Modern Turkish.

DISTICH

Lions tremble at my claws;

And I at a gazelle with eyes.

From the Turkish of Sultan Selim I.

A PROVERB

Before you love,

Learn to run through snow

Leaving no footprint.

From the Turkish.

ENVOY IN AUTUMN

Here are the doleful rains,

And one would say the sky is weeping

The death of the tolerable weather.

Tedium cloaks the wit like a veil of clouds

And we sit down indoors.

Now is the time for poetry coloured with summer.

Let it fall on the white paper

As ripe flowers fall from a perfect tree.

I will dip down my lips into my cup

Each time I wet my brush.

And keep my thoughts from wandering as smoke wanders,

For time escapes away from you and me

Quicker than birds.

From the Chinese of Tu Fu (712-770).