Nazim Hikmet

Loving you is like eating bread dipped in salt,

like waking feverish at night

and putting my mouth to the water faucet,

like opening a heavy unlabeled parcel

eagerly, happily, cautiously.

Loving you is like flying over the sea

for the first time, like feeling dusk settle

softly over Istanbul.

Loving you is like saying “I’m alive.”

translated, from the Turkish, by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk

Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944). Kiss by the Window, 1892. 

Tags: Loving You, Nazim Hikmet, Edvard Munch, Kiss