EXCURSION

After midnight
Why is the light
In this mountain house on?
What's going on?
Are they talking
Or playing bingo?
One or the other...

If they're talking, what about?
War, taxes?
Perhaps they're talking about nothing,
The children being asleep,
The man of the house reading his newspaper,
The lady of the house sewing;
Maybe they aren't doing any of these either.
Who knows?
Maybe what they're doing
Has been cut
By the censors.




Orhan Veli
Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 1989