I have never learned what I am

For years I have sought myself
I have not found what I am.
Be I vision, be I dream,
I do not know what I am.

Be I person, creature, weed,
vegetation tended, reaped,
or appearance, that alone:
I have not found what I am.

 

Be I Leyla, or Mecnun
or the desert of their love,
I the bee, or the flower,
or the honey in the comb,

be I nothing but a slave
set to serve the beautiful,
I do not know what I am,

and I have never learned.

All I have is Veysel, my name,
the sound of which alone remains.
I have searched to fifty-three 
and in no way have learned what I am.


 

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Hiçbir Türlü Bulamadım Ben Beni by Aşık Veysel

Translated August 18, 2020

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