BEARD

Who knows how to make 
Lanterns out of watermelon
The way I do,
To carve ogres on it
With a mother-of-pearl
Jackknife,
To write couplets,
Write letters,
Go to bed,
Get up,
Satify my Halime
Of so many years?
We didn't gray this beard
Of mine at the flour mill.




Orhan Veli
Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 1989