"Good(bye) Love" Poems by Turgay Usanmaz

(CONCEPT TRANSLATION)

Poet Turgay Usanmaz was born in Posof. He works in many parts of our country as a primary school teacher and gym teacher. He is currently teaching Turkish language in the Netherlands. "(Farewell) Love" is the poet's second book of poetry after the North Star. The poems in "(Fare)wel Love" are collected in three chapters: The Luggage with the Dreams, The Hope in Labor, The Dialectics of the Sorrow.

Poet does not want a leaf to bleed without waiting for it to dry. While he argues that trees with cut branches cannot embrace love, he sees love as a value that elevates people. Despite the pain, his love is still good. He states that those who are full of love cannot say goodbye to love. For this reason, life always gives birth to love again, and then perhaps the rain gives birth to the poet. In these are beautiful sentences we read about freedom, love, life:

“freedom is flying with wings yourself/to the steep mountains
to love is to fly with the one you love, side by side / to the blue horizon
life is about resisting hardship/tyrants
even if your wing is broken…” (p.13)

Turgay Usanmaz refers to the poet Ataol Behramoğlu who says "love is for two" and says "love is for three":

“... of your eyes / what I discovered when I dived deep
was the third dimension of love / love is for three
love starts with one person / is special / share the life with the second person
it is also general/re-shared/variable with a third party” (p.14)

Poet leaves his home "with a desire that renews itself every day". According to him, love is madness, extremely spiritual. "It's a sharing and not a selfish attachment." Sometimes a lover's eyes are the bottomless pit of love. The arrival of your loved one brings spring into your home. Every part of the poet blossoms. It indicates that love reconciles. Who wants to leave his beloved behind?

“... if skin to skin touched / shivering with deep shock, if born, feelings of sharing / if hope has taken root to the future / how can a person leave the loved ones? (p.29)

The poet's love is a love that blossoms. He is willing to endure thousands of disasters for love.

For the poet, who sees dolphins in the sea in the eyes of his beloved, love will certainly be indispensable. His love goes hand in hand with the love of the people. The poet knows that there are great risks in great love. He resists putting off loves until tomorrow. Nor can he isolate himself from the love of the people.

"even though it's like a February in me, your desire
one that will never change
it's the love of the people I carry in my heart
therefore I did not collapse / I stand in your eyes with the folk songs…” (p.51)

He who loves his people loves her songs. Poet said, "We have not forgotten our anthems, we will not forget our anthems."

He finds love even in his grandfather's insulting words. He witnesses that love is sometimes expressed in crude words. According to him, friendship has limits, but love has no limits. Love is learned in life. Wouldn't the loss of a "song-eyed" lover be a sad song? The beloved is the indescribable, the long sky, the villain of hearts... Isn't "goodbye love" heartbreaking?

"...let go of your smile and don't touch my dignity
you go first, I stay
Then I'll be gone too, but my love will stay lonely
the heart withdrawn and closed to love / it doesn't matter in the mortal world
if there's anything left / this poem remains only that I wrote for you" (p.69)

In the text on the back of the book, the poet Alev Kutluözen wrote of Turgay Usanmaz: "...Although he harbors the pain of separation and endless waiting in his heart, he never loses hope."

As can be seen, Dichter makes the readers feel and reflect in his poems, in which he focuses on the themes of love and affection.

Hasan Akarsu

Source: Aykırısanat, Culture, Art, Literature Magazine - November-December 2002 - Issue: 57