Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963)


THE BLUE-EYED GIANT, THE MINIATURE
 WOMAN AND THE HONEYSUCKLE

He was a blue-eyed giant,
He loved a miniature woman.
The woman's dream was of a miniature house
  with a garden where honeysuckle grows
    in a riot of colours
      that sort of house.
 
The giant loved like a giant,
and his hands were used to such big things
  that the giant could not
make the building,
  could not knock on the door
of the garden where the honeysuckle grows
   in a riot of colours
     at that house.
 
He was a blue-eyed giant,
He loved a miniature woman,
a mini miniature woman.
The woman was hungry for comfort
   and tired of the giant's long strides.
And bye bye off she went to the embraces of a rich dwarf
with a garden where the honeysuckle grows
  in a riot of colours
    that sort of house.
 
Now the blue-eyed giant realizes,
a giant isn't even a graveyard for love:
in the garden where the honeysuckle grows
   in a riot of colours
     that sort of house...

               (translated by Richard McKane)

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Revised: March 24, 1996