The Transformation Review

“i was so many one day”: on Earthly Conditions, Öykü Tekten’s translation of poems by Birhan Keskin

Earthly Conditions opens with a most earthly experience, very early morning, the birth of a day, first light anticipated but not yet arrived: it’ll wave like a lilac curtain behind the mountains then with the speed of light—yes, the speed of light—it’ll enter the dull room through the belly of glass calmly, quietly as if it were there to stay forever unchanging a door will stretch itself open to another the sound of tea in the kitchen will begin brewing As with any birth, there’s expectation and certainty about how it will happen. There’s humor as well—yes light does move with the speed of light! The expected light will open a door, then another—to the sound of brewing tea, ordinary and mystical, both.…