Translated from Turkish
dog fear
it was something else where the state existed to constitute oneself as a subject the women’s
section was isolation there was an umbilical cord between exile and offense andreja gave up
on hurray and became andrej her red holywater was a fiction
before casting the stone at herself
a human’s afterness beside god’s forelessness: reject this dark origin. this breath delayed too
long. hazy internal line. skeletal unity, and so, nothingness.
the backparts of the void begin to throb when you turn your back. possible to experience
some things two times and many times. life: sensing a wetness and avoiding it.
cutting off the limb before god and his object have separated. trauma surrounded by self-
saturated tissue. you’re back where you started. it’s a game. a fearful game played with
mirrors for ropes.
Merve Çanak (born 1994) grew up in Istanbul. She studied English language and literature at Yeditepe University and graduated with honors. She published her first book of poetry, Hiçölüm (“Die-nihil”), in 2018, and her second book, Yavaş Akma (“Slow Flowing”), in 2020. Some of her poems have been translated into English by Aron Aji and published in magazines such as World Literature Today and Berlin Quarterly. She now works as an editor and is passionate about avant-garde and experimental writing.
Donny Smith grew up in Nebraska but teaches at a high school in Istanbul. Books he has translated include Pigeonwoman by Cemal Süreya (with A. Karakaya), I Too Went to the Hunt of a Deer by Lâle Müldür, and If Cutting Off the Head of the Gorgon by Wenceslao Maldonado.