Karakoy sea side

Eminonu view from Karakoy sea side

 

Invitation

 

Galloping from Far Asia and jutting out
into the Mediterranean like a mare's head
this country is ours.

 

Wrists in blood, teeth clenched, feet bare
and this soil spreading like a silk carpet,
this hell, this paradise is ours.

Shut the gates of plutocracy, don't let them open again,
annihilate man's servitude to man,
this invitation is ours..

 

To live like a tree single and at liberty
and brotherly like the trees of a forest,
this yearning is ours.

 

Nazım Hikmet

translation by Fuat Engin