Selected Poems of Nâzým Hikmet



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

He was a blue-eyed giant.
He loved a miniature woman.
The woman's dream was of a miniature house
                 with a garden where the 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 house isn't even a graveyard for a giant love :
with a garden where the honeysuckle grows
                       in a riot of colours
                                   that sort of house...

                                                   tr. by Richard McKane