Zamanda geriye doğru yolculuk yapmanın en kısa yolu tarih okumaktır

İsmet Özel

(1944- ….)

The Theses Against Mind

(extract)

     4

Why must we kill the peasants?

I can’t find the answer to this question.

It is a puzzling phenomenon but not important.

To murder them is not a must.

We could even pretend

not to see their weathered faces.

I have quite a few things to do,

for examqle I haven’t yet seen

an agnus cactus tree;

I don’t even care if I die

Before I see one;

it is enough form e

that Baudelaire showed me the albatros

and Yves Bonnefoy the salamandar.

Who knows, you might even see me split open

this  wonderful clever brain of mine

and turn it into o bench

where the body is washed on its way to the coffin.

(Translated by Mevlut Ceylan, 101Poems by 101Poets An Anthology of Turkish Poetry)