Akşam (Mehmet Akif İNAN)
Original Version
Coordinator/ Human Translation
Machine Translation (Google Translate)
AKŞAM
Yüzünde elleri sonsuz denizin
Gömelim yüreğe dediğim durum
Saçların en derin bir gökyüzüdür
Varamaz ellerin merdivenleri
Her an bir güvercin çırpınır durur
Kalb atışlarında ve gözlerinde
Bir sırdır içinde evler anneler
Çocuklar başında bir yeşil çelenk
Göklerden bir haber gibidir umut
Görünmez bir yerde saklanmış mahcup
Su gibi içtiğin çok zor son on yıl
Sadakat anıtı bir sonbahardır
Duygu ve sabırdan bir deri giydin
Kuşandın demektir ölümsüzlüğü
Bulutlara gömülü sedeften yüzün
Dünyanı kuşatmış destansı hüzün
EVENING
With the world at your fingertips, I whisper,
“Let’s bury it deep within the heart.”
Your hair, a vast expanse like the open sky,
Beyond the grasp of your own fingertips.
Like a bird in constant flight,
Within your eyes, within your beating heart.
Secrets reside in the walls and within mothers,
A green wreath adorning their children’s heads.
Hope, like a whispered message from the heavens,
Lurks unseen, hiding in a corner, filled with remorse.
The past decade, a bitter pill to swallow,
An autumn monument to unwavering resolve.
Cloaked in emotions, adorned with patience,
You have embraced the essence of eternity.
Your countenance, veiled in silver clouds,
Immersed in an epic melancholy, defining your world.
EVENING
The hands of the endless sea on your face
The situation that I said to the heart, let’s bury it
Your hair is the deepest sky
Stairs of unreachable hands
Every moment a dove flutters
In your heartbeat and in your eyes
It’s a mystery in houses mothers
Children with a green wreath on their heads
Hope is like news from heaven
Embarrassment hidden in an invisible place
It’s so hard the last ten years that you drink like water
The monument of loyalty is an autumn
You wore a skin of emotion and patience
You’ve got the immortality
Swim from the mother-of-pearl buried in the clouds
The epic sadness that surrounds your world
Critical Reading and Analysis: Çıraklı “A Modest Proposal for Critical Reading”
Mehmet Akif İnan (1940–2000) was a Turkish poet, essayist, and educator known for his contributions to modern Turkish literature and Islamic thought. He was part of the İkinci Yeni movement, which favored abstract and experimental language over traditional forms, with themes often rooted in existential reflection and metaphysical exploration. İnan’s poetry frequently intertwines spiritual longing with reflections on love, time, and human endurance. In "Akşam", he reflects on themes of nostalgia, mortality, and the interplay between hope and sadness, using symbolic language and imagery.
The poem creates a dreamlike, abstract world where human emotions (particularly love, hope, and sadness) blend with natural elements like the sea, sky, and clouds. This world is introspective, and the setting shifts between internal states of feeling and external, symbolic images like the "güvercin" (pigeon) and "göklerden bir haber" (a message from the sky). The setting is atmospheric, combining the natural beauty of dusk with emotional depth, and the storyworld created is one where time (specifically the passing of years) and inner feelings shape the speaker's reflections.
İkinci Yeni Movement
• Equilibrium: The speaker contemplates life and love with quiet acceptance. • Disruption: The passing of time and the weight of difficult years ("son on yıl") disrupt this tranquility. • Recognition: The speaker realizes that through patience and emotional endurance, they have achieved a deeper understanding or immortality. • Attempt to repair the damage: The speaker dons a "deri" (skin) made of "duygu ve sabır" (feeling and patience), symbolizing the acceptance of life’s trials. • New equilibrium: The speaker accepts the sadness and nostalgia surrounding them, finding solace in this melancholic but heroic state.
• Trauma and Memory: The image of a severed hand on the speaker’s shoulder, continuously bleeding, evokes a visceral sense of trauma and emotional pain. This imagery suggests that past wounds and traumas continue to haunt the speaker, impacting their present experiences and sense of self. The bleeding hand may symbolize unresolved emotional wounds or the persistence of painful memories. • Deep Neurosis and Paranoia: The poem conveys acute pain through imagery and haunting language. The speaker’s psychological pain, also indicates paranoia.
• Trauma vs. Memory • Unresolved Wounds vs. Persistence of Pain • Neurosis vs. Paranoia
