Welcome Poem by Metin Sahin

welcome you..my woman..welcome
you must have been tired
how can I wash your tiny and lovely
feet
I have neither rose water nor a silver basin
you must have been thirsty
i have no sherbet with ice cubes to offer you
you must have been hungry
i cannot lay and prepare you a table white linen clothy
my room is in prison and in penury like my country
welcome you..my woman..welcome to my room
now you have trodden your feet in my room
now..the forty years old concrete floor
has turned all to green moor
you have smiled
the roses bloomed on my windows' iron bars
you have cried
the pearls dropped in my palms
like my bosom wealthy
my room is illuminated with freedom now
welcome you my woman..you are welcome
but now it is parting time
now good-bye my woman..good-bye and bye
you said you would not cry
do not cry my girl
your eye-liner will sting your eye
you are in a cab now
there..you are crossing the city in whose prison i lie
the driver must be as older as me
he must have been watching you from the peering-mirror
he might understand a beautiful weeping woman in tears
may be he has someone lying in prison..
may be he knows me..may be he is one of us released lately
i know
this city..i gaze behind the iron bars
is a spa
is a tomb
and slk factory and a huge plane-tree
and the real citizens
are my citizens now
look how poor..how they are in distress and in penury
but when you looked at their face in tears
it was like a sun striking at their faces
i know you have come to this city once before too
you came and you did not visit me
is it true..my dear..my love
cry for this my dear rose cry
you must weep in tears for that
no do not cry and weep my dear i just said so
god damn me...do not cry
look around
me and the city is left far and far beyond
but in the, illumination of the afternoon
everywhere is within my illumination
nothing can escape from my paLMS
i know..you do not want to leave me too
now..you and me together
together my rose together
are descending to the most beautiful
from the mountains to the sea
the weather is like filtered honey
i went hunting in the afternoon
i have fallen in love with a she-deer
the eyes of deer are black
but mine's are greenish grayer
i was dragged vomiting blood after her
then eden opened her gates to me
you will lie there in the sun with your green eyes
and me..leaning on you
i will watch you
like watching the most wonderous event of the universe
you will strech and surround your arms around my neck
on my neck your weighing and swinging
i will taste the immortality from your crimson mouth
then with her eyes blue
with her curly hair wavering in the wind
with a short night gown just enough to hide the nakedness
that is to say some transparent
and even impolite... attractingly
in our istanbul
the spring season emerges from her bed and is erected suddenly

Nazim HIKMET
Translation Metin SAHIN