March 2012
1 post
1 tag
February 2012
1 post
1 tag
October 2011
1 post
2 tags
In the Plaza
For two weeks he’s been watching the same girl, someone he sees in the plaza. In her twenties maybe, drinking coffee in the afternoon, the little dark head bent over a magazine. He watches from across the square, pretending to be buying something, cigarettes, maybe a bouquet of flowers. Because she doesn’t know it exists, her power is very great now, fused to the needs of his...
January 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Stone
Go inside a stone That would be my way. Let somebody else become a dove Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth. I am happy to be a stone. From the outside the stone is a riddle: No one knows how to answer it. Yet within, it must be cool and quiet Even though a cow steps on it full weight, Even though a child throws it in a river; The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed To the river bottom Where the...
Charlie Poppins
2 tags
October 2010
2 posts
2 tags
adamlar
sönmüş saçlarında son damla ışık, bir düş’ün içinde gibi her akşam -ve yüzleri duman kadar dağınık- geçer bu sokaktan binlerce adam. umut gözlerinde ölü bir bakış, çığlık bir bükülüş dudaklarında; bulamadıkları nedir ki, yaz kış dolaşırlar şehrin sokaklarında? sanki yalvaran bir duadır onlar, belki tanrılara açık vesvese, bir nehir. bu nehir her akşam akar derinden ruhları çağıran...
1 tag
“Anneme giderken onlara Eukleides’ten söz etmeye başladım. Geometrisinin...”
– Barış Bıçakçı’nın Aramızdaki En Kısa Mesafe adlı öyküsünden..
September 2010
1 post
2 tags
Rain
Woke up this morning with
a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read. Fought against it for a minute.
Then looked out the window at the rain.
And gave over. Put myself entirely in the keep of this rainy morning.
Would I live my life over again?
Make the same unforgivable mistakes?
Yes, given half a chance. Yes. by Raymond Carver
August 2010
1 post
1 tag
“Şimdi durum değişik, kabul ediyorum: Bir kol saatim var, akrep ve...”
– Italo Calvino’nun Kristaller adlı Kozmokomik Öyküsü’nden..
July 2010
1 post
2 tags
“I’m interested in the superhero in real life, but not the comic book version....”
– Alan Moore answering to the question “Have you turned your back on superheroes now?”
June 2010
1 post
2 tags
April 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In
You simply go out and shut the door
without thinking. And when you look back
at what you’ve done it’s too late. If this sounds
like the story of a life, okay. It was raining. The neighbors who had a key were away. I tried and tried the lower windows. Stared
inside at the sofa, plants, the table and chairs, the stereo setup. My coffee cup and ashtray waited for me on the...
3 tags
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives...”
– Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6
2 tags
FUGUE IX - Belki de her an kanatlarını sınamaları...
Martılara bakıyordu ara vermeksizin. Anlayamıyordu: Neden boşlukta bir yükselip bir alçalarak
yeniden bozulacak bir denge
aramakla geçiyordu vakitleri?
İşi gücü düşünmek ve düşündüklerine inanıp yeniden düşünmek olan bir arkadaşı, “belki de her an kanatlarını sınamaları gerek”
demişti ya, gene de arıyordu
kendi sorduğu soruya yakışabilecek bütün karşılıkları: İşi gücü...
March 2010
1 post
1 tag
“One of life’s small sad facts is there are people we no longer see who...”
– Jonathan Carroll
February 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Clown
It seems like I’m growing more and more like a clown. First of all, I’m always sad. Secondly, all my knives are made out of rubber. Thirdly, it’s like my house is on fire. No, I’m definitely becoming more like a clown. I have a tendency to want to put on clown clothes. As soon as I put the clown clothes on I feel faintly happier… Another sign is that I constantly feel...
1 tag
Distant Songs of Madmen
Sometimes, lying propped up against the half-opened window, a great calm would come over him listening to the distant songs of madmen moaning in the streets below. He could never make out the exact words but melody lines would weave together; weave in and out of other sounds like faraway sirens, trains, TVs from other open windows, babbling news. There was some peace in the distance, in the...
1 tag
“Sonunda bir köpeği evlat edindi.”
– Ferit Edgü’nün Çaresiz adlı minimal öyküsü
2 tags
kıştan üşüyen virgül
defterin bir çok sayfasını koparmışlar, örtünemez artık virgül bazı sayfalarla, kış gelir, virgül üşür, kış insanı üşütür, üşenen hayvanlar da girip toprağın altına uyurlar, toprağın sayfalarını koparmamışlar, çocukların sayfaları her kış koparılır. kar toplarıyla voleybol oynayan ağaçlarla, her çocuğun defterinde bir çok sayfası olmayan bir çok güzel virgül vardır, virgül kıştan üşür, çünkü kış...
1 tag
Filintanın Not Defteri Madde 32: Kıpırdama...
bir piyanonun önündesin o piyanodan daha güzelsin. sonra zorla götürmüşlerdi fidan dikiyoruz. okul aile birliği hatıra ormanı. tek ağaç boy vermedi orada. zıvanadan çıkmış bu iki kurumun birlikteliğine de ancak böyle bir hatıra yakışırdı. sonra veda balosunda çenemi omzuna yaslamışım. bu veda balolarında tuhaf şeyler oluyor. herkesi birbirine bağlayıp her şeyi kördüğüm etmek isteyen doğaüstü...
January 2010
12 posts
2 tags
there’s a man in a pay phone dramatically lit he’s saving himself for his last cigarette his face changes color his hand’s dripping wet as he digs for a quarter and comes up with ten cent
~ Sam Shepard
1 tag
“We ate together in small dark cafés lit by strings of electric chiles, facing...”
– Day out of Days, Sam Shepard
1 tag
Sum
In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together. You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on a toilet. You take...
1 tag
Filintanın Not Defteri Madde 20: Zamanın Memleketi
İnsan bir yerde doğdu mu oralı olmuyor, o zamanlı oluyor daha çok. Memleketi o zaman oluyor. Doğduğumuz büyüdüğümüz şehirdeki bütün değişimleri hüzünle kaydetmemizin nedeni bu. Hüzünlenmek için illa somut bir yıkıma da gerek yok. “Eskiden bu okulun kapısı paslıydı ne güzel,” diye üzüldüğüm de oldu. Konu doğduğumuz yerin mazisi olunca asla vazgeçemeyeceğimiz takıntılar var çünkü. Renkler var,...
2 tags
Acting like a tree
When I got to the party and saw everybody walking around in Christmas costumes, I remembered I was supposed to be wearing one, too. Bending slightly, I held out my hands and waved them a little, wiggling my fingers. I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips, making a tree face, and started slowly hopping on one foot, then the other, the way I imagine trees do in the forest when they’re not being...
1 tag
“When we call the Earth by way of distinction a planet and the Moon a satellite,...”
– William Herschel (as excerpted from ‘The Age of Wonder - How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and the Terror of Science’ by Richard Holmes)
1 tag
“Büyük, ama çok büyük bir felaketin eşiğindeymişim gibi, gözlerime acı acı baktı;...”
– Bin Hüzünlü Haz, Hasan Ali Toptaş
2 tags
funhouse
I drive to the beach at night in the winter and sit and look at the burned-down amusement pier wonder why they just let it sit there in the water. I want it out of there, blown up, vanished, erased; that pier should no longer sit there with madmen sleeping inside the burned-out guts of the funhouse … it’s awful, I say, blow the damn thing up, get it out of my eyes, that tombstone in...
1 tag
“Geçen yıl amcamın yazlığında küçük bir kız tanımıştım. Beş altı yaşlarında,...”
– Veciz Sözler, Barış Bıçakçı
1 tag
“hadi size bir genelleme daha, bir insanı anlamak için onu sevmek gerekir. Peki...”
– Veciz Sözler, Barış Bıçakçı
2 tags
Nothing can be forced to live. The earth is like a drug now, like a voice from far away, a lover or master. In the end, you do what the voice tells you. It says forget, you forget. It says begin, you begin again.
~from “March”, Louise Glück
2 tags
Fol
Hangi kapıdan girsek bir üçgen kuruyoruz seninle ikimiz sığamıyoruz bu odaya, bir fol düşlemek gerekiyor kesintisiz ötekine. Uzaktaki bir dost, yakındaki bir eşya, içimdeki kangren yaklaştırıyor kafandaki duvarı kafamdaki duvara: Ne yapsak toplanıyor, benden çıkartıyoruz bağrımızdaki seni. Le Rouge et le Noir: Aradaki romans farkı bu. Üşenmesek yakmaya sobayı, bir çay demleyebilsek uzun kıvrak...
December 2009
4 posts
1 tag
“Eve gelirken on paket sigarayla bir deste kibrit aldı. Odasının ışığını yaktı....”
– Yusuf Atılgan, Aylak Adam
1 tag
Maybe I should make a fire. Would you like a fire? I’ll make a fire.
Maybe I should rip up the Sunday Paper into tiny pieces and try not to get hung on the ads.
Maybe I should finish digging the hole I was digging in the back yard.
Maybe I should make a cup of tea and take Vitamin C. Would you like a cup of tea?
Maybe I should just take a walk with no destination.
Maybe I should stay in...
2 tags
Frog-Taming
Any fool can learn to catch a frog— the trick is to do it blindfolded, lying there, in the wet grass, listening for the hop and the croak. And the real trick is to keep it alive, not strangle it, or squeeze it dead— that way you can take it home and tame it, make it your pet. But early on, keep the cat locked up. Soon she’ll get used to her odd sibling— meanwhile put a bit...
2 tags
At first, I saw you everywhere. Now only in certain things, at longer intervals. ~Part 3 from “From the Japanese”, Louise Glück
November 2009
2 posts
2 tags
Happiness
So early it’s still almost dark out. I’m near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought. When I see the boy and his friend walking up the road to deliver the newspaper. They wear caps and sweaters, and one boy has a bag over his shoulder. They are so happy they aren’t saying anything, these boys. I think if they could, they would take each...
Büyükbaba
Ağrısına katlanamadığın bir an gelir, çektirtilir. Ben de korkarım iğneden, koltuktan, hele o koku - hastaneleri içimde hazırlanan ölümü hatırlatan dipsiz bir koridor olarak düşlerimde beklerim. Biliyorum canım, biliyorum dişten söz etmediğimizi. Unutma ki bu saçı sakalı değirmende ağartmadım ben: Farkı yoktur bazen dişlerin - apseli, çürük, durmadan içimizde zonklayan birini söküp atmamak için...
September 2009
4 posts
2 tags
WatchAndrew Bird ve St. Vincent
2 tags
It's Raining in Love by Richard Brautigan
I don’t know what it is, But I distrust myself When I start to like a girl A lot.
It makes me nervous. I don’t say the right thing Or perhaps I start To examine, Evaluate, Compute What I am saying.
If I say, “Do you think it’s going to rain?” and she says, “I don’t know,” I start thinking: Does she really like me?
In other words I get a little creepy.
A friend of mine once...
1 tag
WatchKings of Convenience, Boat Behind
2 tags
August 2009
2 posts
3 tags
If a Clown by Stephen Dunn
If a clown came out of the woods, a standard-looking clown with oversized polka-dot clothes, floppy shoes, a red, bulbous nose, and you saw him on the edge of your property, there’d be nothing funny about that, would there? A bear might be preferable, especially if black and berry-driven. And if this clown began waving his hands with those big white gloves that clowns wear, and you realized he...
1 tag
July 2009
1 post
1 tag
It's this short by Richard Brautigan that holds...
A High Building in Singapore
It’s a high building in Singapore that holds the only beauty for this San Francisco day where I am walking down the street, feeling terrible and watching my mind function with the efficiency of a liquid pencil. A young mother passes by talking to her little girl who is really too small to be able to talk, but she’s talking anyway and very excitedly to...
June 2009
2 posts
1 tag
“Gün usulca karardı pencerede,
Gece oldu. Lambaya bakıyordum
Camda,...”
– Oktay Rifat’in Gün Usulca adli siirinden..
2 tags
“There are two kinds of people, those who like to sleep next to the wall and...”
– from Missing Kissinger by Etgar Keret
May 2009
10 posts
2 tags
“When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder. Everything...”
– from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
1 tag
gecen gun sabah metroyla dil kursuna giderken son anda yetisip bindigim kompartmanda bir anne-kiz hemen dikkatimi cekti. kulagimda kulakliklar bir podcast dinledigimden onlarin ne konustuklarini tam olarak duyamiyordum ama gorduklerim herseyi aciklamaya yetiyordu: kucuk kizin bir sinavi vardi o gun ve o kisa metro yolculugunda annesiyle birlikte son bir tekrar yapiyordu. annesi kizinin eline...