Those who sleep with their beloved,
Who feel the entire promise of life in union,
Seeing time as an endless night of pleasure
Do not see the dawn breaking on the horizons...
The dream they see is an eternal garden of love;
Every season is a summer, and their breeze is different.
No cry is heard from the nightingale in that revelry;
The rose does not wilt, the moonlight does not fade...
The sky's dome is always blue to every eye...
In that paradise, the rich are equal with the poor;
Their love cools in dreamy pools of joy,
It’s and eternity listening to the harmony of that fountain.
If a soul lives in that deep garden even once
With His arms around its neck, His embrace within,
Immersed in the scent of His hair,
It feels the magic of love with every breath.
Existence, as if all the stars have risen,
Becomes a miracle seen only through those eyes.
They are never satisfied with the longest kiss, always thirsty,
For the pleasure that makes them thirst is the salt on those lips.
Whatever man has created, he has created from that salt...
It is a secret of our being somewhat divine.
Those who are in that garden of flaming roses,
Where do they come from, by what chance do they arrive?
When love drives them in those days, from fate
They are swept from where they are, like the wind.
The path they come on is the light-filled path of life!
What a heavenly race that is in the world’s evening!
Riding full tilt, four horses into the heavens,
Two souls in love see a horizon even wider,
Their faces shining with this victory at every moment;
The sky is adorned with torches from every side!
Those who sleep with their beloved,
Who feel all the pleasure of existence in that paradise,
While forgetting the world in those waters,
-When the cruel clock strikes the neglected time-
If they awaken for a moment from those sweet dreams,
Everything everywhere turns pitch black, a dungeon...
Waking in such a world is a tragedy...
Burning daily as if overwhelmed by longing...
Oh fate! What darkness is worse than death!
Oh love! Those hearts belong to you now!
Oh union! Enchant those lovers with your magic!
Oh sweet and sublime night! Continue for years!
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı
Translated by: Mehmet Barın Erturan
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