Enver Gokce (1920-1981)

He graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and literature at Ankara University in 1948. He was imprisoned for seven years (1951-1957) and then exiled for two years for allegedly propagating communism in Turkey. His first poems appeared in the journal Ülkü (1943). While he was a student at the university, he was one of the publishers of the poetry journal Ant (1945). He is one of the most representative poets of the Turkish left. In addition to his poetry collections, he also translated some poems by Pablo Neruda. POETRY: Dost Dost İlle Kavga (1973), Panzerler Üstümüze Kalkar (1977), Şiirler (1982).

HANG IN THERE, DON'T GIVE IN

It is

A

Bitter

Wind

That

Blows

Deep dark

From the mountains

From the plains

It

Makes

The blood

Of

The poor

Run dry

Later

Famine

Inflation

And

Fascism...

Hang in there

Don't give in

Our country

Is poor

Our country

Is destitute

And

The workers

The students

Fall

Side by side...

They fall

But

One

Side

Of the motherland

Falls

Too...

And

If

Şahin Aydın

Kerim Yaman

Fall down

Like this

One by one

It is

So that

Human beings

Might have

More freedom

Translated by Kemal Silay

IN OUR STREETS TOO

Don't  say

This

Pomegranate

Tree

Doesn't

Can

Never

Blossom

It

Surely

Will

Blossom

In

Our

Streets

Too

The celebration

Will

Come

Even

If

The fascist

Gun barrels

Are

Leveled

At

The people

What

Will be

Broken

One by one

In the end

Are

The cowardly

Hands

Translated by Kemal Silay

ON MY EYES AND HEAD

In

This

World

There's

Death

There's

Cruelty

There's

Oppression

On

My

Eyes

And

Head

Brother

Where's

It

Written

That

I

Must

Work

So

Others

May

Seize

It

All?

Translated by Talât Sait Halman

[From An Anthology of Turkish Literature, Edited by Kemal Silay]