Başım köpük köpük bulut, içim dışım deniz,
ben bir ceviz ağacıyım Gülhane Parkı’nda,
budak budak, şerham şerham ihtiyar bir ceviz.
Ne sen bunun farkındasın, ne polis farkında.
Glossary
|
WORD
|
DEFINITION
|
POSSIBLE SYNONYMS
|
|---|---|---|
| ağacı (n.) | a woody, perennial plant, typically having a single trunk and bearing lateral branches | tree |
| ağacıyım (adj. + n.) | a woody, perennial plant belonging to the speaker | my tree |
| başım (adj. + n.) | the upper part of the human body, containing the brain, mouth, and sense organs | my head, my skull, my cranium, my noggin |
| ben (pron.) | used to refer to the speaker | I |
| bir (v. + art.) | from the verb to be + a single person or thing | am a, am one |
| budak (n.) | a knob, protuberance, or node in a stem, branch, or root | knot, gnarl, snag, node |
| bulut (n.) | a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the sky | cloud, fog, mist, haze, nebula |
| bunun (pron.) | referring to the thing just mentioned | this, that, it |
| ceviz (n.) | the large, wrinkled, edible seed of a deciduous tree, consisting of two halves contained within a hard shell | walnut |
| deniz (n.) | the expanse of salt water that covers most of the earth’s surface | sea, ocean, waters, surf, brine |
| dışım (adj.) | located toward the outside of something | (my) outer |
| farkında, farkındasın (v.) | aware or conscious of | are aware of, are conscious of |
| Gülhane Parkı’nda (n.) | a historical park in the city of Istanbul—Gülhane means “Rosehouse” | Gülhane Park |
| içim (prep.) | situated within the confines of something | inside, within |
| ihtiyar (adj.) | having lived for a long time | old, elderly, aged, wizened, ancient |
| köpük (adj.) | having been fractured or damaged | broken, torn, disjointed, no good |
| ne (adv.) | used to form a negative | no, not, neither, nor |
| ne (pron.) | that which | what |
| polis (n.) | the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order | police, cops, police force, officers of the law |
| sen (pron.) | used to refer to the person or people the speaker is addressing | you |
| şerham (n.) | a small piece of something larger | shred, splinter, sliver, fragment, bit |
Background
About Quatrain
Quatrain is a four-line stanza, rhyming with various forms for example:
ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide
And I am next of kin
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.
AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by.
And home we brought you shoulder-high
Today the road all runner come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Bio
Nâzım Hikmet was the first great modern Turkish poet. His mother was an artist and his grandmother was a poet. Born in the Ottoman Empire, he went to Moscow at age twenty to study at the university. In 1923 Turkey declared itself a republic after fighting a war for independence. When Hikmet returned to Turkey he was persecuted for his communist ideas. He was imprisoned for a total of fifteen years, often in terrible conditions. He was forced to leave Turkey in 1952 and lived out the rest of his life in exile. In 2009 the Turkish government finally restored citizenship to the late poet.