BEYOND TIME

I am
not within time,
nor entirely beyond;
but in the flux
of an all-embracing, complete, indivisible moment.

All forms in a trance
of strange dream-tones,
even a windblown feather
is not as light as I.

My head a vast mill,
grinding out silence;
my heart a dervish
naked of cloak or goatskin,
who has reached his desire.

I perceive
the world become
a creeping ivy, rooted in me;
I swim at the centre
of a deep blue light.

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, 1933


Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar is one of my favorite Turkish writers. His poems as well as his books are great but his masterpiece is ' The Time Regulation Institute', which is my favorite book in Turkish literatue. It's a novel with great reflections. Besides, the theme is very very interesting in which a man establishes an institute that will check whether watches and clocks in the whole country show the correct time, and if not they will regulate them. It's funny but also makes you think...Well, I will not tell you more so that you can read and see by yourself. It's fantastic, I recommend you to read it.