Do You Know How I Loved You Poem by Lokman Kaya

My face is covered in frost in all seasons
Are you cold just like me
Do you know how I loved you
​I am all alone within the population of millions
Not even a shadow of light is shining
Are you afraid just like me
​The memories you left are bleeding
I press my tears upon my wounds
Are you aching throb by throb just like me
​You from you, you from me, you from them
I loved you even more than my aching side
Or are you laughing
Do you know how I loved you
​More than even the soil to be scattered upon you
Cutting a shroud from my love
Nailing a coffin from my love
I am burying you in my heart
Or are you escaping to the soil
​Spare ten minutes for me
Let your eyes meet my eyes
My eyes have things to tell you
My heart has things to whisper to you, I say
'We'll see, fate, time, ' you say
Are you leaving me to time
Do you deem seconds a waste for me
I am giving my life to you
I am giving my soul, my youth to you
Are you taking it
​So that nothing happens to you
I cannot touch my heart
You live inside it
So that nothing happens to you
I cannot touch my skin
There is the pattern of your sweat on my skin
​But you, the 'me' you took from me
Are squandering it generously
​Do you hear me
You need to hear me, you must hear me
Because you are the daughter of sultans, of fairies
You are Aslı, you are Şirin, you are Leyla
You are the one, the love that made Ferhat pierce the mountains
The woman who made me live it, you must hear me
​You are a newborn, pure innocent
You are the fresh baby soul without a speck of sin
You smell of milk even at thirty, you cannot be cruel
You cannot waste me, you will hear me
You are clear water, you are the Prophet's grandchild
For the love of God, please, do you hear me
Do you know how I loved you
​Of every morning that comes without you
To wake up to its rising sun
What a pitch-black darkness it was to stay in
Do you know
​While living you to the fullest in all hours
The vast Ankara through the window of my heart
While showing you around inch by inch
For the love of God, how many seconds do you think of me
​Do you know how I loved you
You from you, you from me, you from them
I loved you even more than my aching side
Or are you laughing at my love
Do you know how I loved you
​LOKMAN KAYA (ANKARA/2005)