I Will Pay My Debt With My Poem, by Gülsüm Cengiz
Posted on October 30, 2019
Translated by Haldun Sonkaynar
I owe people
known, unknown.
My debt cannot be measured
I am indebted to my lover
for the days shared.
Sleepless nights, I owe to my mother,
labour to my father.
Self-sacrifice I owe to my sister.
My debt cannot be measured
I owe my friends too much.
I owe the wise people
that taught me to love life.
I owe a debt of gratitude to
those lying under cypresses
with imprisoned hopes.
I owe the fifteen year old girl
that died on a truck at harvest time.
I owe the coal-worker
with a short, dark life.
I owe children
some dying from hunger.
My debt cannot be measured
I will pay my debt to people
with my poem.
My debt is so much,
so impossible to pay that
I will write poems like raindrops.
-that do not wet children-
Writing white on black paper,
I will send them worldwide.
People, wet to the skin with poetry.
*Miletus: international literature Magazine*
Fall 2019