The Summer Dream That Will Remain for Future Love
Uğur Olgar
Turkish poet Uğur Olgar pens a beautiful and haunting poem about love, persisting.
The steel of the knife lodged in me
had been forged in a rose garden;
no one could draw the night
from the sheath of its dark sleep.
Bewildered humanity came
and closed every hungry and open window;
the world's ache did not subside
until it conformed to what was desired.
Distant tailors, cinched with Chinese belts,
moving through cities across different time zones,
measured and cut the shrouds
of tomorrows growing shorter by the day.
Then the umbrella I had forgotten on the ferry
opened as stones rained down,
and the crazy-beehive dust
of distant stars dripped onto our heads.
The river kept sitting there for a long time
as it fled the mountains;
along its banks,
what estranged flowers made peace
with the hands that had torn them away?
In the deep rumblings
of the fault line I had spoken behind its back,
it broke—
taking offence, believing in its
aftershocks and foreshocks.
Our squinting eyes emerged
from their nests like ants;
when the storks had gone,
the summer dream would remain
for a love yet to come.
I used to be warm;
I would not burn anyone
who touched my temperament, my nature.
Now I shiver like a sparrow,
then sweat like the breath of a rhinoceros.
Breathless, I threw myself outside
on forbidden evenings,
wandering among the stations
like a powerless train.
I removed all the mirrors from my house;
I have no eyes left to look into them.
Nor do I have a face
to erase the secrets
from that weathered, knowing glass.
I kept the sky in my heart
as a talisman
until the day I die.
Uğur Olgar was born in 1951 in Kayseri, Türkiye. He graduated from Istanbul Faculty of Law. He worked for many years in Silifke, Mersin, as a Treasury Counsel Attorney before retiring. His poems and stories have been published, and continue to be published, in many literary magazines in Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Iran, Spain (Azahar Revista Poetica), Japan. Between 2005 and 2009, he served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine AndızPoetry and Literature Lodge. In 2007, he received the 1st Honourable Mention at the 8th International Golden Saffron Poetry Competition; in 2005, first place in the Çatalzeytin Poetry Competition; and in 1997, the Ankara Bar Association’s Best Commendable Award. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Writers’ Union of Türkiye.
Barira Khan, widely known by her digital identity Beeing Barira, is a Pakistani solo traveler, adventurist motorcyclist, visual artist, performer, and digital creator. She rose to national and international fame as Pakistan’s pioneering female solo traveler navigating high-altitude mountain highways and remote valleys on a modest 70cc motorcycle. Her creative practice merges classical miniature painting from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore with raw, on-the-road storytelling, cultural exploration, and human encounters. Over time, her digital presence has evolved from a 70cc-centric travelogue into a multi-faceted platform spanning historical heritage, lifestyle, culinary arts, performance, and personal growth.
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