Musalla Taşında Açan Gül (Hüseyin Atlansoy)
Original Version
Coordinator/ Human Translation
Machine Translation (Google Translate)
MUSALLA TAŞINDA AÇAN GÜL
Yağmur bu kadar inceyken
Ağır açan bir gül kadar hafifken merhamet
Ölüm çok ağır Allah’ım
Ölüm çok ağır affet.
Hafiften bir yağmurla Allah’ım
Musalla taşında bir gül kıl beni
Usulca bir güvercin
Kaldırsın ince kırmızı giysilerimi
İznin olursa açılsın kuş dili
Söyleyiversin ince naif şarkılar
Zamanın süzgecinden geçen bedenimi
Dağıtıp savursun ruhumla birlik rüzgâr.
Hiçbir sırrını ele verme
Öl ya da ölü taklidi yap ey suretim
Dişleri kenetlenmiş çenesi bağlı
Bir ölü taklidi yap – yapabilirsen
Çünkü bir tek
Ölüler doğru fotoğraf verir.
A ROSE BLOOMING ON THE FUNERAL STONE
While the rain is so gentle,
Mercy is as light as a blooming rose,
Death is so heavy, my God,
Death is so heavy, forgive me.
With a light rain, my God,
Make me a rose on the funeral stone,
Gently, like a dove,
Let it lift my delicate red garments.
If you permit, let the language of birds unfold,
Let it sing delicate and tender songs,
Let the wind scatter and disperse
My body that has passed through the sieve of time, along with my soul.
Reveal none of your secrets,
Die or feign death, O my appearance,
With teeth clenched and jaws tied,
Feign death – if you can,
Because only
The dead portray the true image.
ROSE BLOWING ON MUSALLA STONE
When the rain is so thin
Mercy as light as a slow blooming rose
Death is so heavy oh my god
Death is very sorry.
With a light rain, my God
Make me a rose on the Musalla stone
softly a dove
Take off my thin red clothes
Let the bird tongue open if you let it
Let me sing thin naive songs
My body passing through the filter of time
May the wind scatter and scatter unity with my soul.
Don’t reveal any secrets
Die or pretend to be dead, my image
Clenched jaw bound
Fake a dead – if you can
because only one
The dead give an accurate photo.
Critical Reading and Analysis: Çıraklı “A Modest Proposal for Critical Reading”
Hüseyin Atlansoy (1952–) is a prominent Turkish poet whose work often explores existential themes, death, spirituality, and the human condition. His poetry blends mysticism with modern anxieties, creating a rich interplay between the physical and the metaphysical. "Musalla Taşında Açan Gül" is a reflective and meditative poem that contemplates the weight of death and the hope for transcendence. In Islamic culture, the musalla taşı is the stone slab on which the deceased is placed during funeral prayers, symbolizing a liminal space between life and death. The poem thus evokes a confrontation with mortality, spiritual longing, and the fragility of existence.
The setting is a metaphysical space, where the speaker envisions their own death and the rituals surrounding it. The imagery of a "rose blooming on the musalla stone" creates a juxtaposition between life (symbolized by the rose) and death (symbolized by the musalla stone). The world of the poem is one where rain falls gently, symbolizing both mercy and purification, while the speaker imagines being carried away by a dove and scattered by the wind. This world blurs the boundaries between the physical and the spiritual, reflecting the speaker’s desire for a peaceful, graceful transition from life to death.
Modernist Turkish Poetry
• Equilibrium: The speaker reflects on the gentle nature of rain and the concept of mercy, establishing a sense of quiet contemplation. • Disruption: The realization of the weight of death disrupts the speaker’s tranquility, as they confront the heaviness of mortality. • Recognition: The speaker understands that death is inevitable but pleads for mercy and a peaceful transition, imagining themselves as a rose or a dove. • Attempt to repair the damage: The speaker envisions a gentle release of their soul, asking for divine permission to transcend, while also acknowledging the inevitability of death’s finality. • New equilibrium: The speaker accepts the finality of death, but with a desire for a graceful and beautiful departure, finding solace in the idea that only in death can one truly reveal their essence.
• Reflective and Neurotic character: The speaker addresses the audience and himself/herself under the traumatic memories. His/her split of personality is apparent in his/her repetitive self-address to his/her alter ego “you”. The reflective speaker’s neurosis hints at his/her unfulfilled desire. The lines indicate the speaking persona’s unfulfilled desire, for example, “kill myself with your lips,” The speaking persona creates a fantasy world where reconciliation becomes possible • Repression: From a Lacanian perspective, the speaker repressed the codes offered by the law of the Father, yet, s/he is still entrapped within the symbolic order represented by the religious imagery.
• Reflective Character vs. Neurotic Character • Traumatic Memories vs. Fantasy World • Repression vs. Language
