[Read in English]

İlhan Sami Çomak yw’r carcharor o fyfyriwr yn Nhwrci sydd wedi treulio’r mwyaf o amser dan glo.

Parhaodd ei achos llys am 22 mlynedd, a chafodd ddedfryd oes am drosedd y mae’n ei gwadu.

Unig gwmni İlhan yw aderyn bach, ac mae ganddo 4 mlynedd arall dan glo cyn y caiff ei ryddhau ar barôl. Ers y cychwyn, mae’n mynnu ei fod yn ddieuog.

 Yn ystod ei 26 mlynedd yn y carchar, mae İlhan wedi ysgrifennu a chyhoeddi 8 lyfr o farddoniaeth. Enillodd ei lyfr diweddaraf, Geldim Sana (‘Deuthum atoch’), Wobr Sennur Sezer am Farddoniaeth yn 2019. Gallwch ddarllen ei farddoniaeth yn Saesneg yma.

Gallwch hefyd ddarllen cerddi a ysgrifennwyd iddo ef gan feirdd eraill, yn cynnwys dwy gerdd gan Lywydd PEN Cymru, Menna Elfyn, yma.

Mae PEN Norwy yn arwain ymgyrch i alw i’w ryddhau ar unwaith ac yn rhannu ei farddoniaeth. Helpwch ni i ymgyrchu i’w ryddhau o garchar Silivri, Istanbul. Helpwch ni i ryddhau İlhan Çomak.


‘Rowan’ gan Menna Elfyn

If I could, I’d send you a llatai
in your captivity.
A key is not permitted.
I can’t send the air of my country
or a jar of rain that makes
my country infamous.
 
I send you a leaf
from a rowan tree -
beautiful for you to hold
in both hands.
In its veins a secret message
Criafolen, criaf -o- len.
A cry behind a veil.
And a song’s murmur
as you walk one day
towards her and gaze
from her branches
at the sky's unveiling gift of ‘awen.’      


‘The piper’ gan Menna Elfyn

with a nod to T.E.Nicholas

See the gentle bird there, by your window,
Startled by you, so  pensive in your cell,
Spare some  crumbs to this little fellow
To mark his arrival as he wishes you well.
Listen to the melody, what a gift
A poet’s accent, its harmony restarts
Another song , an aria to  uplift
And  beat in the sweet- poet’s tender heart.
 
And perhaps he’ll fly away, message deliverer                                     
To the land of your boyhood, bright message ablaze;
share with other mountain birds. Piper in gorse and heather--
 a message of longing, hiraeth as he sings your praise.
His wings will reverberate of your captivity,
Folk song of hope for the blue sky of liberty.
 
Menna Elfyn

I have acknowledged a famous Welsh language poet 
T. E Nicholas ( 1879- 1971) who was imprisoned  during 
the Second World War on false charges. He was a pacifist 
and held Communist ideals.  He wrote 150 poems in prison 
which  were smuggled out. Written on prison toilet paper 
they were published  in 1942 to great acclaim. He wrote one poem 
to a bird near his cell which I have reimagined here. 

Hiraeth - A kind of homesickness that can also mean
 a longing, nostalgia, and yearning, for a home 
that you cannot return to, that no longer exists, 
or maybe never was.


‘I Give Praise to Flight’ gan İlhan Çomak

for Menna Elfyn, in response to her poem The Piper
I give praise to the embraces of women
that reach right into my cell
I give praise to the wind's own knowing
that it is wind.  I am without a door,  yet my wings
splay wide as an atlas. Birds love me.
I hear that delight in their songs
and the quiet of these blues and greens
gives me peace. There is a stairway
that leads to the very height of life.
 
I love the birds because we're brothers in hunger,
as the window creaks with tiredness in its frame.
So then sing your song, beautiful bird.
Let us go blazing to the seas, to my childhood,
when I believed in all the stories, to the times when
I fell and fell, grazing my knees,
to the pain of my hand when it would bleed.
To the wound of the skies and the earth.
To the pure, bright experiment of rain.
I am with the birds.
Life accepts me again.
 
İlhan Sami Çomak, August 2020
translated by C.Stockford

Sut galla i helpu?

  • Ysgrifennu ato: Ilhan Çomak: Silivri 5 No’lu L Tipi Yüksek, Güvenlikli Kapali Cezaevi, F9 Alt Silivri, Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • Ysgrifennu at Lysgennad Twrci yn y DU: His Excellency Mr Ümit Yalçın, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, 43, Belgrave Square, London, SW1A 8PA / embassy.london@mfa.gov.tr
  • Ysgrifennu at Weinidog Cysylltiadau Rhyngwladol Cymru: Eluned Morgan AS, Senedd Cymru, Bae Caerdydd, Caerdydd, CF99 1SN / Gohebiaeth.Eluned.Morgan@llyw.cymru
  • Ysgrifennu at Weinidog Tramor y DU yn gofyn iddo ymyrryd yn achos İlhan gyda Llywodraeth Twrci: Mr Dominic Raab, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH / dominic.raab.mp@parliament.uk
  • Ysgrifennu at Weinidog Cyfiawnder Twrci: Mr Abdulhamit Gül, Hukuk Birimi, 06659 Kızılay, Ankara/Turkey / info@adalet.gov.tr
  • Trefnu digwyddiad barddonol neu ysgrifennu cerddi a gwneud gwaith celf i İlhan
  • Rhannu eich gwaith a’ch negeseuon ar y cyfryngau cymdeithasol #FreeThePoet @ilhancomak
  • Cyfrannu tuag at gostau cyhoeddi casgliad o’i waith yn Saesneg a chyfrol o farddoniaeth a ysgrifennwyd i, a gyda, İlhan. Cysylltwch â PEN Norwy, caroline@norskpen.no

Rhagor o wybodaeth: ilhancomak.com

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