On the Street Down From Atik-Valde

                                             To Nihad Sami Banarlı                                        
Before iftar1, I went to the Atik-Valde neighborhood2,
How many times I've passed through these streets, yet again today,
They were quiet. But the spirituality of Ramadan
Turned the tranquility into a sweet anticipation;
The fasting people of the neighborhood, with refined faces,
Quietly return home from the market one by one;
The poor girls waiting at the grocery store
Give away the time and the iftar closely.
No one is left in the square anymore;
With the sound of a cannon3, the day ends on this shore.
Since the cannon roared and broke the fast,
A luminous joy has enveloped the adobe houses.
Oh Lord, how serene is this world, how pure!

I remained in the deserted street, without fasting and joy.
The sorrow of being distant from the iftar of my homeland
Imposed boundless exile on my soul this evening.
One thought became solace for my grief;
I found some comfort and said to myself:
"The separation from them is a constant sorrow for me;
But for still having these feelings, I am grateful."

Yahya Kemal Beyatlı

Translated by: Mehmet Barın Erturan
Click for the original text

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  1. Iftar is the fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims in Ramadan ↩︎
  2. A historic neighborhood in Üsküdar, Anatolian Side of Istanbul. ↩︎
  3. As an Ottoman tradition when the time of Iftar comes a cannon shoots an empty shell and the sound of that cannon heralds the arrival of iftar. ↩︎

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