Nazım Hikmet Ran | Yaşamak Şakaya Gelmez (On Living)

Nazim Hikmet, 1902-1963

Yaşamaya Dair Yaşamak şakaya gelmez, büyük bir ciddiyetle yaşayacaksın bir sincap gibi mesala, yani, yaşamanın dışında ve ötesinde hiçbir şey beklemeden, yani,bütün işin gücün yaşamak olacak. Yaşamayı ciddiye alacaksın, yani, o derece, öylesine ki, mesala, kolların bağlı arkadan, sırtın duvarda, yahut, kocaman gözlüklerin, bembeyaz gömleğinle bir laboratuvarda insanlar için ölebileceksin, hem de yüzünü bile görmediğin insanlar için, hem de hiç kimse seni buna zorlamamışken, hem de en güzel, en gerçek şeyin yaşamak olduğunu bildiğin halde. Yani, öylesine ciddiye alacaksın ki yaşamayı, yetmişinde bile, mesala, zeytin dikeceksin, hem de öyle çocuklara falan kalır diye değil, ölmekten korktuğun halde ölüme inanmadığın için, yaşamak, yani ağır bastığından.

On Living 1 Living is no laughing matter : you must live with great seriousness like a squirrel, for example - I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean living must be your whole occupation. Living is no laughing matter: you must take it seriously, so much so and to such a degree that, for example, your hands tied behind your back, your back to the wall, or else in a laboratory, in your white coat and safety glasses, you can die for people - even for people whose faces you have never seen, even though you know living is the most real, the most beautiful thing. I mean, you must take living so seriously that even at seventy, for example, you'll plant olive trees - and not for your children, either but because although you fear death you don't believe it, because living, I mean, weighs heavier. 1947

Nazım Hikmet Ran

2
Let's say we are seriously ill, need surgery -
which is to say we might not get up
from the white table.
Even though it's impossible not to feel sad
about going a little too soon,
we'll still laugh at the jokes being told,
we'll look out the window to see if it's raining,
or still wait anxiously
for the latest newscast…

Let's say we are at the front -
for something worth fighting for, say.
There, in the first offensive, on that very day,
We might fall on our face, dead.
We'll know this with a curious anger,
but we'll still worry ourselves to death
about the outcome of the war, which could last years.

Let's say we're in prison
and close to fifty,
and we have eighteen more years, say,
before the iron doors will open.
We’ll still live with the outside,
with its people and animals, struggle and wind –
I mean with the outside beyond the walls.
I mean, however and wherever we are,
we must live as if we will never die...

1948


3
This earth will grow cold, a star among stars
and one of the smallest,
a gilded mote on blue velvet -
I mean this, our great earth.
This earth will grow cold one day.
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space.
You must grieve for this right now
- you have to feel this sorrow now -
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived"...

February 1948

Poems of Nazim Hikmet, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, is published by Persea Books.