Firar Geceleri

Nights of Escape

We used to escape through the window some nights
With crazy joy
Our eyes shining bright
To go to our sweetheart
During the day
Carefully polished
Our boots
Enjoying the pleasure of getting them dirty
We used to wander differently
On the nights we escaped from the dorm
In a boyish way
We used to escape through the window some nights
Without being seen by the guard
Silently enough to make the silence jealous
And just as
Manly
We would gather among us
With our last pennies
Buy freshly baked bread from the bakery
And rush back to the dorm
Secretly

We used to escape through the window some nights
Just for the sake of it
To have some greenery
Some chit-chat
Some fun
We would wear a shirt without a tie
And put on baggy pants
Rebelling on the dark nights of escape
We would sing love songs
Write poems
To the beloved
To love
We used to escape through the window some nights
Why?
Just to wave goodbye

If we had some money from home
We would share just one cigarette
Among three or five friends
Defying the nicotine-free nights
We would freshen up with a cigarette in the mornings
Sometimes at the bus terminal
Sometimes at the train station

Right after the morning call to prayer
With the first light of the day
The Meram Express would arrive
With eyes still sleepy from sleep
The wagons would fill with passengers getting off
The train station cafe and the simit seller's stand

We couldn't stay still
Impatiently waiting
For the train's departure whistle
Soon the sluggish locomotive would rumble
While the old rails creaked
On our faces
That mischievous student smile
We would wave to the lonely travelers

Maybe
To bring good luck
We used to escape through the window some nights
We were in love
Not just one or two of us
All of us were in love
As in the sword in the sheath
The dagger in the belt
We were in love as much as the rifle on the wall
Oh...
Some might say we were crazy
But
They didn't know
We were all love militants
We were all branches of a rose

We used to escape through the window some nights
To share our troubles
Some couldn't do it
Some felt ashamed and embarrassed
Some didn't feel the need to talk
Maybe they didn't tell
But
No matter what anyone says
The most beautiful loves
We experienced in those times
Kerem and Aslı
Ferhat and Şirin
Leyla and Mecnun
Doctor Zhivago
Madame Bovary
And even
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Those big loves
That would cast doubt on their own loves
We understood
On the sidewalks in front of the girls' dorm
We engraved
On the walls of our bachelor rooms

However
We didn't deceive our loved ones
With fleeting loves
Neither in a student crisis
In the campus alleys
Did we leave them behind
Nor did we sell them to Beyoğlu

By God's command
By the Prophet's word
We wanted

If they don't give
It's the 'Töresi of the Steppe'
The grandsons of Kür Şad
Won't befriend those who don't befriend them
We said

One night of escape
We took them and ran away
They became our everything
Our honor
Our pride