Voice

For many days I saw and questioned no one.
I said, "O God! At last my griefs are stilled."
Is there a feeling sweet as convalescence?
My heart, winged with the impulse of this joy,
Saw a new world of spring amid the skies,
A time of dreams, an evening in Bebek,
An evening like a fine unblemished face,
Windows reflecting on the hills beyond,
The quiet bay, the gaily-fronted keep
Of Küçüksu, the lonely woods beside,
The hills encompassed with tumultuous joy,
The swaying trees, moved by a single urge,
Pensively listening to the cadenced wind...
I saw two boats glide from the open sea,
And in a moment, from unshuttered summer,
The sound of a vast song rose from the Straits,
Pulsed with an endless memory of love,
Echoed along the range of wakening hills;
It passed from peak to peak and all about
And sank into the weary, travelled sea.
I woke from dreaming with a sudden pain;
Again I burned as in shirt of flame.
I saw her everywhere, with that same look,
With that same hope and beauty; in her mouth
A blood-red rose, a wine-glass in her hand.
I thought this very day was once again
The day when first she overcame my heart.