ALONG WITH GREEK BARDS IN STRUGA

[Mr. Verenidou]

Greek Bards;
around a remote and seperate table
whilst we should be close
what is this distance?

seagulls nests in our lands
and fly their babies from Greek islands
and our people, once
picked olives from the same tree
sit cross-legged in the same fields
and chilled their pitchers in the same dawn
and in the weddings set aside
with the same sevda and sorrow
without hurting any daisy
kneeled down, Syrtaki and Zeybek

in the harvest times
they threw haycocks with delight
in a poor simplicity
they broke the onion with desire
and ate feta and olive


and of the tobacco
improved the taste
those blond girls
with their blackish hands
in a coy and elegant mood

they sighed in a same mood
mastika and grape rakis
they drank with a similar grap
and they had been through
the same pains
in turns


those what i know
what Maria Faranduri
and Ritsos's poems tell.

Metin Demirtash

A Socialist Turkish Poet.