The Circular Ruins

Bowerbirds - Tuck the Darkness

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:37:00 +0200

Bowerbirds - Tuck the Darkness

Video

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:37:14 +0200

In the Plaza

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:07:15 +0300

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 imagination.
He is her prisoner. She says the words he gives her
in a voice he imagines, low-pitched and soft,
a voice from the south as the dark hair must be from the south.

Soon she will recognize him, then begin to expect him.
And perhaps then every day her hair will be freshly washed,
she will gaze outward across the plaza before looking down.
and after that they will become lovers.

But he hopes this will not happen immediately
since whatever power she exerts now over his body, over his emotions,
she will have no power once she commits herself—

she will withdraw into that private world of feeling
women enter when they love. And living there, she will become
like a person who casts no shadow, who is not present in the world;
in that sense, so little use to him
it hardly matters whether she lives or dies.

~ Louise Glück

Stone

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:57:52 +0200

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 fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

~ Charles Simic

Charlie Poppins

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:52:16 +0200

Charlie Poppins

‎”dün gece masada unuttuğun kek gibi kararlı olsan. onun...

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:44:15 +0200

‎”dün gece masada unuttuğun kek gibi kararlı olsan. onun gibi kuru demiyorum ama…”

adamlar

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:26:45 +0300

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 sese.

~ahmet muhip dıranas

"Anneme giderken onlara Eukleides’ten söz etmeye başladım. Geometrisinin temelini oluşturan beş..."

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 11:05:46 +0300

“

Anneme giderken onlara Eukleides’ten söz etmeye başladım. Geometrisinin temelini oluşturan beş aksiyomunu anlattım. Beşinci üzerine yapılan tartışmalara değindim, konuyla ilgilenmiş birkaç büyük matematikçinin adını andım ve gelip Eukleides’çi olmayan geometriye dayandım çünkü hiçbir şey göründüğü, hatta yaşandığı gibi değil!

Her şey hatırlandığı gibi.

”

- Barış Bıçakçı’nın Aramızdaki En Kısa Mesafe adlı öyküsünden..

Rain

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:45:07 +0300

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

"Şimdi durum değişik, kabul ediyorum: Bir kol saatim var, akrep ve yelkovanlarının açılarını,..."

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:46:01 +0300

“Şimdi durum değişik, kabul ediyorum: Bir kol saatim var, akrep ve yelkovanlarının açılarını, gördüğüm tüm akrep ve yelkovanların açılarıyla karşılaştırıyorum; iş görüşmelerimin saatlerinin yazılı olduğu bir ajandam var; koçanında rakamları toplayıp çıkardığım bir çek defterim var. Penn İstasyonu’nda trenden iniyorum, metroya biniyorum, bir elimle direğe tutunup ayakta duruyorum, bir elimde de ikiye katlanmış gazete var, borsa rakamlarını okuyorum: Kısacası oyuna, incecik toz gibi bir düzen, sistemde bir düzen varmış gibi yapma oyununa katılıyorum, değişik ve birbirine uymayan sistemler iç içe girmiş numarası yapıyorum, böylece düzensizliğin her noktasına hemen ufalanan bir düzenin yontulmuş yüzlerini uydurmaya çalışıyorum.”

- Italo Calvino’nun Kristaller adlı Kozmokomik Öyküsü’nden..

"I’m interested in the superhero in real life, but not the comic book version. I’ve had some..."

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:33:11 +0300

“I’m interested in the superhero in real life, but not the comic book version. I’ve had some distancing thoughts about them recently. I’ve come to the conclusion that what superheroes might be — in their current incarnation, at least — is a symbol of American reluctance to involve themselves in any kind of conflict without massive tactical superiority. I think this is the same whether you have the advantage of carpet bombing from altitude or if you come from the planet Krypton as a baby and have increased powers in Earth’s lower gravity. That’s not what superheroes meant to me when I was a kid. To me, they represented a wellspring of the imagination. Superman had a dog in a cape! He had a city in a bottle! It was wonderful stuff for a seven-year-old boy to think about. But I suspect that a lot of superheroes now are basically about the unfair fight. You know: people wouldn’t bully me if I could turn into the Hulk.””

- Alan Moore answering to the question “Have you turned your back on superheroes now?”

TangentI will only touch you once.And it will only be in...

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:04:01 +0300

Tangent

I will only touch you once.
And it will only be in passing.

No use calling me back
For more.

You will have plenty of time
To rehearse and remember
This moment,

To convince yourself
We’ll never part.

~ from Geometries by Eugene Guillevic

Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:44:49 +0300

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 glass-topped table, and my heart  
went out to them. I said, Hello, friends, 
or something like that. After all,  
this wasn’t so bad.
Worse things had happened. This
was even a little funny. I found the ladder. 
Took that and leaned it against the house.
Then climbed in the rain to the deck, 
swung myself over the railing  
and tried the door. Which was locked,  
of course. But I looked in just the same  
at my desk, some papers, and my chair.
This was the window on the other side
of the desk where I’d raise my eyes  
and stare out when I sat at that desk. 
This is not like downstairs, I thought.
This is something else.
And it was something to look in like that, unseen, 
from the deck. To be there, inside, and not be there.   
I don’t even think I can talk about it. 
I brought my face close to the glass  
and imagined myself inside,
sitting at the desk. Looking up
from my work now and again.
Thinking about some other place  
and some other time.
The people I had loved then.   

I stood there for a minute in the rain.  
Considering myself to be the luckiest of men.  
Even though a wave of grief passed through me. 
Even though I felt violently ashamed  
of the injury I’d done back then.  
I bashed that beautiful window.  
And stepped back in.

by Raymond Carver

"In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter; and in..."

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:56:38 +0300

““In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter; and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.” “But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here.””

- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6

FUGUE IX - Belki de her an kanatlarını sınamaları gerek

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:55:10 +0300

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 düşünmek
ve düşüncelerine inanmadığı için
onları bir eldiven gibi ters çevirmekti. 
Martılar da öyle yapıyorlardı zaten: 
Bir yükselip bir alçalıyor, bozulacak
bir denge için altın nokta arıyorlardı.

Enis Batur

"One of life’s small sad facts is there are people we no longer see who nevertheless gave us..."

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:31:41 +0200

“One of life’s small sad facts is there are people we no longer see who nevertheless gave us some of our best or most important experiences; but they don’t know it and never will. That’s because we didn’t know it ourselves until much later, looking back. She thought about the summer in Greece almost thirty years before when they were together and flew from island to island on cheap rattle’y propeller planes whenever they felt like it. They stayed in ten dollar rooms with the toilet outside down the hall. They read wilted, water-stained books while sitting next to each other on the small balconies off the rooms. Or they sat silently together in complete peace while staring at the sea. No matter what kind of accomodations they rented, there always seemed to be a view of the sea. Every day they ate salads of tomatoes, olives, and thick chunks of chalk-white feta cheese drizzled in fresh olive oil for lunch. They rented a blue Vespa. They walked on black volcanic sand. He bought them baseball caps because the Greek sun was so intense. She was happy then and knew it. But her heart needed three decades more to understand just how happy she had been— Hall of Fame-happy, once in a lifetime-happy. By the time she came to that realization he was many years gone. One of her final wishes was that she could tell him, thank him for those days together. And if life were magical, which it is not, to sit together again in one of those outdoor tavernas at sunset watching the harbor, the boats, the stars coming out above them, their dinner being prepared, but most especially him.”

- Jonathan Carroll

Clown

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:34:22 +0200

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 like I’m alone in a dressing room. Most
of the time I feel amused. Anyway, the only thing good about the circus is
the tigers.

I realize that I could get both legs cut off by the circus train or get frightened
by an elephant. But it’s very depressing to sit around in a clown suit and think
about death.

Sometimes I don’t feel happy unless I’m in my clown suit. And I enjoy hitting
people on the head with a foam club. I really do…

When people see me they realize that it looks very sophisticated to wear a clown
suit and smoke a cigarette. This is how I get all the ladies because they think I’m
very droll.

People don’t understand how you turn into a clown. You turn into a clown
because you feel more and more like putting on a clown suit. When you’re
around people you sense a kindliness. It makes you so nervous you can’t
stay calm. Which is why it feels perfeectly normal to wear orange pants.

Plus, it’s very subversive to wear bow ties. You can’t imagine how jolly
everything is. And the fright wigs… I don’t want to be a clown but I’m
sure to be one. My mother was a clown.

by Chelsey Minnis

Distant Songs of Madmen

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:37:45 +0200

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 listening, in the longing wails impossible to be answered. Peace of a kind that had no ambition, no plan, no political motive. Peace for its own sake.

~ from Day out of Days by Sam Shepard

"Sonunda bir köpeği evlat edindi."

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:25:32 +0200

“Sonunda bir köpeği evlat edindi.”

- Ferit Edgü’nün Çaresiz adlı minimal öyküsü

kıştan üşüyen virgül

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:59:30 +0200

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 gelince koparılır
artık kalmayan öğrenciliğin,
artık kalmayan tembelliğin sayfaları.

~ ülkü tamer