Flight

God, what a sultry, what a stupefying night! As we climbed into the carriage, clouds seemed to veil our sight. We are fleeing in the dark, terror growing in our mind, A tragedy has overcome our army, just behind. From time to time, from far away, the sounds of cannon come, Our hearts then beat as though they’d break, we feel ourselves grow numb. The poor on foot, the rich on horseback, weary to the bone - The roads beneath the stars tonight are one unending moan.

That moment when the heart believed in tears that freely fell We fled, and left in alien hands our warm, our happy nest. There’ll never be a window now on which to lean and rest. Home of my fathers, dearly loved and now destroyed, farewell!

All night, as ceaselessly we rode and danger marked our way, Inert upon my sister’s knee my hands forgotten lay. Behind us were the Anatolian mountains crowned with white, Behind, the vineyards of our province vanished in the night It was as though they said to us, ‘Night travellers, do not go!’ Behind, an army scattered wide by a relentless foe. What was there not behind us now to fill the heart with pity! We pulled up at an inn at last, within a desolate city …

That moment when the heart believed in tears that freely fell, In alien hands the gardens were with which our land is blessed. There’ll never be a tree beneath whose shade to lie and rest, Gardens within whose branches sing the nightingales, farewell!

Translated by Nermin Menemencioğlu