I've learned some things

by Ataol Behramoglu

I've learned some things from having lived:

If you're alive, experience one thing with all your power

Your beloved should be worn out from being kissed

And you should drop exhausted from the smelling of a flower

A person can gaze at the sky for hours

Can gaze for hours at a bird, a child, the sea

To live on the earth is to become part of it

To strike down roots that won't pull free

If you cling to anything, tightly hold a friend

Fight for something with every muscle, whole body, all your passion

And if you lay yourself for a time on the warm beach

Let yourself rest like a grain of sand, a leaf, a stone

To your utmost, listen to every beautiful song

As though filling all the self with sound and melody

One should plunge head-first into life

As one dives from a cliff into the emerald sea

Distant lands should draw you, people you don't know

To read every book, know other's lives, you should be burning

You shouldn't exchange for anything the pleasure of a glass of water

No matter how much the joy, your life should be filled with yearning

You should know sorrow, honorably, with all your being

Because the pains, like joys, make a person grow

Your blood should mingle in the great circulation of life

And in your veins life's endless fresh blood should flow

I've learned some things from having lived:

If you're alive, experience largely, merge with rivers, heavens, cosmos

For what we call living is a gift given to life

And life is a gift bestowed upon us

from "Yasadiklarimdan Ogrendigim Bir Sey Var"
Translation by Walter Andrews