do you know Istanbul
everything is nice with you
to get up to the same day
under the same sky
to embrace life
seagulls are in a race of catching bagels
behind the boats
“while going to Üsküdar” it starts raining
it takes us to the maiden tower
near Hera and Leandros
Ah Istanbul, you are so funny…
On the backstreets of Beyoğlu
who is going to read the story in your eyes
the story of the smiling children at the borrowed smiles
the story of the women dancing mastic and the belly dance…
my gypsy puffing out the cheeks with sorrow and blowing the clarinet
with the exhausted laundry hung on the strings in Tarlabaşı neighborhood
with the upside-down lives at the shipyards in Tuzla
ah Istanbul, you are a fight…
if the winds of Anatolia
whispers into my ear the song
“my love, have you settled down in Istanbul”
if there is a touching folk song comes from suburbia
if the laments in their own languages are added
if horon mixes with halay folk dance,
even if there is a ululating, tilililili…
at the barroom of Eleni
sirtos gets mixed with zeibek
ah Istanbul, you are a song…
if I enjoy poetry inside you
with its sea and seven hills
with its waves and fight
and
If Todori, Despina, Anais, Agop
calls on me friendly,
Istanbul, you are poetry;
in a taste of May, with your Kazancı ramp…
English Translation by Mesut Şenol