Sunday, February 01, 2009

The most beautiful word ...

En güzel deniz:
henüz gidilmemiş olanıdır.
En güzel çocuk:
henüz büyümedi.
En güzel günlerimiz:
henüz yaşamadıklarımız.
Ve sana söylemek istediğim en güzel söz:
henüz söylemiş olduğum sözdür ...
Nâzim Hikmet, 24 Eylül 1945.


The most beautiful sea:
the one not been sailed yet.
The most beautiful child:
the one not grown up yet.
The most beautiful days of ours:
those we did not live yet.
And the most beautiful word I want to tell:
the word I did not tell you yet.
September 24th, 1945


Das schönste Meer:

das noch nicht befahrene.
Das schönste Kind:
das noch nicht herangewachsene.
Unsere schönsten Tage:
jene, die wir noch nicht erlebten.
Und das schönste Wort, das ich dir sagen möchte:
jenes, das ich dir noch nicht gesagt habe.

:)

13 comments:

  1. I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard of this man before. I very much enjoyed what I could find on the net as well as this lovely piece and will look into reading more of his work.

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  2. Wonderful. He Hikmet is new to me too. Thanks!

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  3. Lady Janice,
    wouldn't life be slightly boring, if we happened to know all? :)
    Thus, don't feel ashamed, please.
    If I were ashamed whenever 'having to admit' that I haven't heard about this or that before I'd almost permanently change my colour. :)
    I am glad you like the poem. There are, indeed, more gems to discover.

    Jams,
    I am glad that, after all, I could 'make up' - at least a little - for that you introduced me into the work of Simin Behbahani.

    CherryPie,
    Hikmet's poetry is - so to speak - a garden; which reminds me that I do owe you some letters.
    T til Z, it was? Tomorrow you'll get them. :)

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  4. Wow! Hikmet in German: "das noch nicht herangewachsene"! It sounds great! A bit like
    "das noch nicht herangewachsene zieht uns hinan....."

    Bertus

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  5. Bertus,
    now that's interesting: I was not happy with this very verse, but did not find a better alternative, yet. Same goes for the two final verses.

    "das noch nicht herangewachsene zieht uns hinan....." A quotation? Hm,can't remember I've read/heard this before. Will you help my memory, please?

    As for Hikmet in German:
    Amman Verlag in autumn published a new Hikmet-Edition. I did not buy it yet, but after a first glimpse during the Frankfurt bookfair I put it on my wishlist.

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  6. Alles Vergängliche
    ist nur ein Gleichnis;
    das Unzulängliche,
    hier wird's Ereignis;
    das Unbeschreibliche,
    hier ist's getan;
    das Ewig-Weibliche,
    zieht uns hinan.

    The final chorus of Goethe's Faust. Also used by Liszt in his Faust Symphony.
    The ei-sound in the verse is really great, especially where it turns from Ereignis to Unbeschreibliche and Ewig-Weibliche.

    Well, what poem could we make with noch nicht herangewachsene...

    Bertus

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  7. Lovely poem Sean. Thank you for sharing.

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  8. Bertus,
    ha ha, on reading 'zieht uns hinan' I thought of 'Das ewig Weibliche', got puzzled, though, by 'das noch nicht herangewachsene [zieht uns hinan]'.

    Hm, what poem could we make with 'noch nicht herangewachsene'?
    What about this [first attempt]?

    Noch ward' sie nicht herangewachsen
    in einem Ort in Niedersachsen,
    da Amor knüpft' schon zarte Bande
    nach Utrecht in die Niederlande.

    Your turn, Mijnheer. :)

    Ardent,
    thank you. It's lovely, isn't it?

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  9. Well let's put it bluntly like this:

    Reeds ongeboren ontving zij liefdesfaxen
    In haar woonplaats in Nedersaksen
    Want Amor spon een liefdeslijn
    Tussen haar en Utrecht aan de Nederrijn

    Bertus

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  10. Bertus,

    What about us taking part of the next major poetry slam? :)

    [Sorry for anwering so late.]

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