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Hamide Doğan: Original Sin

By Hamide Doğan, translated by Paul Vincent
12 February 2021 2 min. reading time Friday Verses

This week’s Friday Verses are written by Hamide Doğan. We translated Erfzonde (Original Sin). This poem first appeared in Dutch in Het Liegend Konijn, a magazine for contemporary Dutch-language poetry.

Hamide Doğan (Ürgüp, Turkey, 1972) studied Turkish Language and Culture at the University of Leiden and is a translator of Turkish literature. In addition, she has written reviews for Mappalibri and Hebban. She attends the Creative Writing School in Amsterdam, where she specialises in poetry and prose.

Original Sin

Five brothers gathered
the eldest saw a bird and pointed
brother two downed it with two shots
the bird fell on the dusty ground and
flapped its wings back and forth against
the second bullet it had no defence
the last of its kind but the brother shot
as his father did and all his fathers before him
brother three filleted the bird and
marinated it for hours in two cloves
of garlic dash of wine dessertspoon of thyme
some desire pinch of ambition and lust
for life on restless earth
brother four tucked in the ground
the tender bones between his yellow teeth
then they went their separate ways laughing
at brother five who did not feel properly noticed
he cherished a thought chewed on it
repeated it like a verse or a saying
his time would come and his time
came without them seeing it coming.

(Dutch version below the picture)

Hamide Dogan HR 17 Hamide Doğan
© Eelkje Colmjon

Erfzonde

Vijf broers kwamen samen
de oudste zag een vogel en wees
broer twee schoot hem neer in twee keer
het dier viel op de stoffige grond en
sloeg zijn vleugels heen en weer tegen
de tweede kogel had hij geen verweer
de laatste in zijn soort maar de broer schoot
zoals zijn vader deed en alle vaders ervoor
broer drie fileerde het beest en
marineerde het uren in twee teentjes
knoflook scheutje wijn eetlepel tijm
beetje begeerte snufje eerzucht en lust
voor het leven op woelige aarde
broer vier liet het zich smaken de tere
botten maalde hij tussen zijn gele tanden
hierna gingen ze weer uiteen lachend om
broer vijf die zich niet voelde gezien
hij koesterde een gedachte kauwde erop
herhaalde het als een vers of een spreuk
zijn tijd zou nog wel komen en zijn tijd
kwam zonder dat ze het zagen aankomen

Hamide Dogan HR 17

Hamide Doğan

translator

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