Terror (Cahit Sitki Taranci)

Gently daylight recoiled from the windowpane
Baring all the mirrors desolate and stark;
Now in the gardens the voices ofsilence reign
And the dome of the sky is a blotch of dark.

From fountains and springs water has ceased to pour
So our empty glasses may be filled no more;
Where narcissus had bloomed now a minotaur
Forbids passage to the birds that flee in vain.

Skylla is precious and so is Charybdis.
I fear the night and its dark-ridden abyss:
My trusted hills may suddenly go amiss
And beyond them dawn may never break again.

Cahit Sitki Taranci (1910-1956)
Translated by Talat Sait Halman

Posted: 11:06 a.m. EST August 20, 2006 by me ts