All aflame was desertion

The smarting agony in my soul was still flowing
  in the courtyard crushed by the magnolia
  suddenly I was awaiting the fresh sprouts
  the adventure of the root in the soil of the ivy
all aflame was desertion.

suddenly unexpectedly the green twinge
  crushed that which raced through your eyes
the mouth making promises to false stars
receding was the flowing twinge along the dead river

my hair the light green of the nile

my skin the light green of the nile
my strange dark eyes and gaze

were watching incessantly that which went

in the ruby spinning wheel waters of the river

on my body lit up the day's moss
together with the skeleton of a flower
my voice echoed in yours
the lusty magnolia in your gaze.

©G üseli Inal

(Translated by Suat Karantay)

Güseli Inal was born 194 7 in Istanbul and as a leading poet in her country. She majored in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Istanbul and graduated in 1974. Her first volume of poems, “Sulara Gömülü Çari” (A Call Burried into Waters), was published in 1985. It was followed by eleven more volumes of poetry, “Kelek Kolonesi” (Colony of Angels), published in 2004, is at this date her last one. She proposed 21 st March as “World Poetry Day” to the Turkish PEN which proposed it to the international PEN and became finally accepted by UNESCO. Güseli Inal has been invited at a large number of international poetry festivals (Rotterdam, Rhodes, Frankfurt Book Fair, Strasbourg, Malaysia etc. Her poems have been published in German, English, French, Dutch, Persian and Malay.