by Ozdemir Asaf (translated by George Messo)

2=1

Who it is, needless to ask...
It's me, I.
The me who comes to your door
is you, head to toe.

Incognito

When I see you
the same thought
at the same time passes through our minds...
Like a wall between us.

360 Degrees

The world's number is divided in two,
half being you, half me...
The two of us then make a whole.
And no one is any the wiser

OZDEMIR ASAF was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1923. His major poetry collections include: Dunya Kacti Gozume (The World Caught My Eye, 1955), Sen Sen Sen (You You You, 1956), Cicekleri Yemeyin (Don't Eat The Flowers, 1975), Yalnizlik Paylasilmaz (Loneliness Can't be Shared, 1971) and Benden Sonra Mutluluk (The happiness After Me, published posthumously in 1983). In his lifetime Asaf won substantial critical acclaim for the uniqueness of his work and earned a large readership. Since his death his first five collections, printed in a single volume, have extended to sixteen editions. In 2001, Asaf's entire works were re-issued in their original single volume form by Adam Publishing, Istanbul, to mark the 20th anniversary of the poet’s death.

GEORGE MESSO was born in 1969. His books include 'From The Pine Observatory' (Halfacrown Books, 2000), 'Framing Reference' (Ed. Valerie Kennedy, 2001) and 'The Complete Poems of Jean Genet' (translated with Jeremy Reed). He has received a Council of Europe Translation Award for his versions of Rilke and is Hawthornden Fellow in Poetry for June/July 2002 at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland. He is the editor of the international journal Near East Review and teaches at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.