EVERYTHING IS FOR YOU

For you, my friends,
Everything is for you;
Night and day are for you,
Sunlight and moonlight,
Leaves
In the moonlight,
Worries in leaves,
Thoughts in leaves;
Thousands of greens in sunlight;
The yellows in the fall, so are the pinks,
The touch of the hand
On the skin,
The warmth,
The softness,
The ease of lying down;
Hellos are for you,
The masts swaying in the harbor are for you,
The names of the days,
The names of the months,
The paint on the rowboats is for you,
The legs of the mailman are for you,
The hand of the sewer man,
The sweat on the forehead,
The bullets spent at the front;
The graveyards are for you,
The gravestones,
The jails, the handcuffs, the deaths by hanging,
They are for you;
Everything is for you.




Orhan Veli
Translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 1989