The Brooken Spool

Arif DAMAR

THE BROKEN SPOOL

It was evening
O black stones was written in white
Two numbers one below the other
6228
I was the only one to read them

The old fried is gone

The two of us were on the swings
of our own silence
Apart from each other

We were swinging elbow to elbow
We stopped
Then by separate staircases
We went down to our thresholds

It was evening
We left behind us the domestic city of the evening
In one hand the stick
On which we were leaning
In the other our lost
Exhausted daylight
When the redness in the west struck us
To draw once more our faith
Sparks flew from our foreheads

It was evening
We walked
We reached
The wise evening sea
Without delay
We kneeled
And stayed there

We first set our sweating wrists free
From the iron of the handcuffs
The old friend had put on unawares
The sea was tired
Tired was the water

"Night
Night of nights
Pitch-dark nights"

We half opened the door of the tired water
Without mystery
In the starlight we knew our own light
We set it apart quietly

-You have nothing in common she said
Besides your memories
-We have nothing in common
I said

Don't I know what I learned
In this world

If memories are not lived
Lived once more
They wither and fade
Left there
All alone

How else could we be
We were silent

"Night
Night of nights
Pitch-dark nights"

We didn't look at the stars
We didn't even listen
To the sound
Or the silence
It was as if we were shaped
In the streams of the ocean

Morning-glories were waiting for us
And water-lilies
Were waiting
To spread their fragrance

We were the rainbow dream
The simple striving
Without splendour
of the ear-shell

We
We were the two of us
The unheard song of the sea-tulips
In the deep

Tomorrow
We were to set the world right
Together
But first let the night end

"Night
Night of nights
Pitch-dark nights"

That natural
Immortal beauty
Blossomed on the thinnest of the uncanny branches

-Come let us get up we said
-Come

While from the broken spool
of our desperate dream
Two strips of white thread
Came down
Came everywhere

Translated by Mina Urgan