If you were İstanbul

If you were İstanbul;
I would throw myself onto the sea by crying out like a gull which cannot find any bough to setle!
If you were İstanbul…
If you were İstanbul, towards love…
If you stayed in front of the sundown in the evening time by wrapping yourself in a colour of love.
And me… I wish i were thrusted into your eyelashes by my heart when coming to burn you like the sun.
I wish i fell down your horizon, being blood stained!..



If you were İstanbul and if you asked my state from the gulls without wings!
If you were İstanbul;
And if you were my prison!..



If you were İstanbul;
Your hairs would be in a colour of leafs of plane tree in the 26th of october… And your eyes would be in a colour of the sea, wouldn’t they?
And if you were İstanbul;
You would flow into my heart like a pink silk,
Wouldn’t you?..



If you were İstanbul;
Before the seas drip from the eyes and before the blood drips from the roses!..
Knowing that i will pass the galleons over the mountains before you builds the walls and pull the chain in front of me…
The first time, when my golden ball fell onto your heart, you would open the doors, wouldn’t you;
If you were İstanbul?..



If you were İstanbul;
You would shy away from me, like a white pigeon who frightens from a falcon…



If you were İstanbul…
But if you asked my state from the gulls without wings!..



If you were İstanbul;
And if you were my prison!..

Muammer Erkul

Translated from Turkish to English by: Râyet Su Erkul
This article, written by Muammer Erkul, was published in the newspaper “Türkiye” in 2000 and also in the book named “Sen İstanbul Olsaydın- If you were İstanbul” which is published in 2003.

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