[1] Jacques Prevert’in Sabah Kahvaltısı’nda bulunmasaydım bu şiiri yazamazdım.

To sojourn into consciousness: For Exodus (1)

-To seem to have been inside what is within-


He arose and departed
no one waved their hands
no one wasted a little water
blessing his path of departure
having first wrapped it carefully
he removed his home from the street
put the street on his shoulder
and took it away from the neighborhood
all its inhabitants were still asleep
having then wrapped the neighborhood
in a bundle he took it away from the city
no one observed what he had done
as if it were somehow forbidden
to take such things from the country
he removed the city secretly
and the country rattled once or twice
moved from one side to the other
as he was wearing a grin lopsided
just on one side of his mouth
took the world from the universe
and then stopped for a while
tired of ceaselessly taking things away
but he had added a pinch of himself
such a dishonest guy
so he took himself
back out of the universe
got lost without complaining
and I smiled at him
as I watched all of this
from behind.

Uluer Aydoğdu

Translated by Nesrin Eruysal and Kenneth Rosen

1- If I hadn't 'had breakfast' with Jacques Prévert, I could never have written this poem.