Orhan Veli Kanık, in short: Orhan Veli Kanık or Orhan Veli (13 April 1914, Beykoz, İstanbul – 14 November 1950, İstanbul) was a Turkish poet. Kanık is one of the founders of the Garip Movement together with Oktay Rıfat and Melih Cevdet. Aiming to fundamentally transform traditional form in Turkish poetry, he introduced colloquialisms into the poetic language. Besides his poetry Kanık crammed an impressive volume of works including essays, articles and translations into 36 short years. (source: wikipedia).

  Here is a poem by Mr. Kanık literally translated from Turkish as "Free".  

We live free
Air is free, clouds are free
Valleys and hills are free
Rain and mud are free
The outside of cars
The entrances of cinemas
And the shop windows are free
Bread and cheese cost money
But stale water is free
Freedom can cost your head
But prison is free
We live free

Bedava yaşıyoruz, bedava;
Hava bedava, bulut bedava;
Dere tepe bedava;
Yağmur çamur bedava;
Otomobillerin dişi,
Sinemaların kapısı,
Camekanlar bedava;
Peynir ekmek değil ama
Acı su bedava;
Kelle fiyatına hürriyet,
Esirlik bedava;
Bedava yaşıyoruz, bedava.

Written by Orhan Veli Kanık

Meo - 2018
LiteraryBlog.net - Literary Translations
'Mehmet Şentürk