Damlataşı Dripstone

Damlataşı

Gözyaşını büyütünce

damlataşı olur mu?

Hani şu mağarada on beş yıl

damla damla akıp donan

Donup akan

Taş nasıl da yaşıyor şaşarsın

Damlataşından sarkıtlarla kaplı

bir mağarada gördüm taşın kalbini

Damla damla atıyor, büyüyordu

Dokunmamız yasaktı, insan eli

hep şifalı değil

Avuçtaki ter salgısı

katiliymiş damla taşının

Parmak değince duruyor

Taşlaşıyor öylece

Avucumun terlediği birileri

de benim katilimdi bir vakit

Aşkımı akıtırken damla damla

Sarktığım

Taşlaştığım

Damladan

Kırıldım

Dripstone

When tears grow bigger

do they become dripstones?

You know, like in those caves after fifteen years

dripping drop by drop and freezing

Frozen as they flow

You’d be surprised at how that stone lives

In a cave lined with dripstone stalactites

I have seen the heart of the stone

Drop by drop it was beating, growing

Touching was forbidden, the human hand

doesn’t always heal

The sweat pricking from our palms

will prove in fact the stone’s killer

When the finger touches it

It will petrify just like that

Someone sweating against my palm

once was my killer too

As my love flowed out drop after drop

from the stone

where I’d hung

frozen

I broke

Dripstone

When tears grow bigger

do they become dripstones?

You know like in those caves after fifteen years

dripping drop by drop and freezing

Frozen as they flow

How that stone lives you’d be surprised

In a cave covered with dripstone stalactites

I have seen the heart of the stone

Drop by drop it was beating, growing

It was forbidden to touch, the human hand

isn’t always healing

The sweat secreted inside the palm

is apparently the stone’s killer

When the finger touches it

It petrifies just like that

Somebody sweating inside my palm

was also my killer at one point

As I was letting my love drip drop after drop

I broke

from the drop

I was petrified by

hanging from

“is apparently the stone’s killer” in the sense “I was told that sweat was the stone’s killer”

The ending: the order has to change in English because of the word order in Turkish that makes no sense in English, so here I’m providing word to word translation so you can see: Sarktığım (hanging from) Taşlaştığım (I was petrified by) Damladan (from the drop) Kırıldım (I broke)

Original Poem by

Karin Karakaslı

Translated by

Canan Marasligil with Sarah Howe, Canan Marasligil Language

Turkish

Country

Turkey

Search

Find us on…

Damlataşı Dripstone

Damlataşı

Dripstone

Dripstone

Original Poem by

Translated by