The beautiful river

 

Little one, this is your voice: a sweet river

kissed first by wind, and then by me.

I kiss your ankles, the unfinished poems

of your breath, your smell, your hips,

the shadows of your eyes,

your breast unbound like this, the whole length of your lips

like this your eyes, big until morning,

your figure, your hair, your red mouth

and then this bed where we made love,

and my old face, a memory left over

from the hair of your body, from your neck

like a colt's, your hands like children's

hands I walk you top to bottom

so we mix our hands and feet and cannot part them

 

Güzel Irmak by İlhan Berk

Translated March 21, 2020

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