There's Something I Have Learned From What I've Lived

Ataol BEHRAMOĞLU

THERE'S SOMETHING I HAVE LEARNED FROM WHAT I'VE LIVED

There's something I have learned from what I've lived:
If you're to live something, live it to its fullest
Your beloved should fall exhausted from your kisses
You should fall exhausted from smelling a flower

One can watch the sky for hours
Can for hours watch the sea, a bird, a child
To live on earth is to mingle with it
Growing roots that cannot be eradicated

When you hug a friend you should hug him vigorously
You should fight with all your muscles, body, passion
And once you stretch out on the hot sand
You should rest like a grain of sand, a leaf, a stone

One should listen to all the beautiful music on earth
So as to fill all his being with sounds and songs
One should dive into life as if
Diving from a rock into an emerald sea

Distant lands should lure you, people you do not know
You should burn with desire to read all the books, to know
all the lives
You should not exchange for anything the pleasure of drinking
a glass of water
All the joys should fill you with the yearning to live

And you should live grief also, with honor, with all your being
For grief also, like joy, matures a person
Your blood should mingle with the great circulation of life
In your veins must circulate the eternal fresh blood of life

There is something I have learned from what I've lived:
If you're to live, live big, as if you are mingling with the rivers,
the sky, the whole universe
For what we call a life span is a gift to life
And life is a gift to mankind

Translated by Suat Karantay