“Some make cars,
Some make rockets.
I am reformer,
not entrepreneur.
I make Gods and Prophets.”
Source: Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
“For justice I am mental,
My honor is not rental.
Amidst all heritage of fear,
I choose to be love elemental.”
Source: Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
“To me everyone is equal, until they feel the urge to offer advise based on some stroneage tradition. That moment, I stop considering them as equal humans, and start treating them as adolescent children. Whenever you feel the audacity to advise a reformer, ask yourself this - what exactly have you done for the society that makes you qualified to judge a reformer? I sacrificed my youth for the world. What have you done? I put off starting a family for the world. What have you done? I obliterated my national and cultural identity for the world. What have you done? Till you've abolished the last trace of active bigotry, intolerance and fanatical fantasies from your mind, don't you dare touch my work. Everybody can quote Naskar, not everybody can accompany Naskar.”
Source: Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets
“Dear li'l governments (The Sonnet)
Dear li'l governments of the world,
You don't have a friend in me,
If people are not your priority.
You don't have a friend in me,
If you thrive on inequality.
You don't have a friend in me,
If you're partial to one religion.
You don't have a friend in me,
If you're founded on nationalism.
Dear li'l governments of the world,
If you know what's best for you,
Walk the course of integration.
If you choose tribalism instead,
In me you'll find your abolition.”
Source: Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
“Dear li'l governments of the world,
You don't have a friend in me,
If you're partial to one religion.
You don't have a friend in me,
If you're founded on nationalism.
Dear li'l governments of the world,
If you know what's best for you,
Walk the course of integration.
If you choose tribalism instead,
In me you'll find your abolition.”
Source: Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
“I am the emperor of time and space,
I am the backbone of human universe.
With my hands I carve civilization,
I am awareness absolute - I am sapiocosmos.”
Source: Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets
“Visvabiotic (The Sonnet)
Human is bandaid to human burn,
Human is ointment to human yearn.
Human is morning to human mourn,
Human is cure born of human churn.
Human is Altair to human Vega,
Human is aloe to human vera.
Human is pilgrim to human mecca,
Human, Poly-B to social septicemia.
There is no fancy heaven,
only a good fervent human.
There is no book of god,
only a brave godly person.
Human is piety to prejudice barbaric.
To all inhuman hate, Human Visvabiotic.”
Source: Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations
“He was an awkward mixture of strong moral impulse and restless aesthetic curiosity, and yet he would have made a most ineffective reformer and a very indifferent artist. It seemed to him that the glow of happiness must be found either in action, of some immensely solid kind, on behalf of an idea, or in producing a masterpiece in one of the arts.”
Source: Roderick Hudson
“World is My Brotherhood
(Sonnet 1616)
No neighborhood without brotherhood,
No sainthood without martyrdom.
Martyrdom doesn't mean dying in body,
but to be lost in others' ascension.
You're born with a human backbone,
Don't let it be vilified by cowardice.
Backbone responsible is backbone honored,
Backbone responsible is antidote to malice.
World is in your care, carry it with grace.
No bigger disgrace than backbone bending!
Find a cause that honors your human backbone,
Humans can break, while animals bend for nothing.
Stars-n-stripes, union jack, all trivial,
for the world is my neighborhood.
I got no brotherhood of cult or creed,
for the world is my brotherhood.”
Source: Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations
“To lift the world is a labor of love,
Still it strikes strain on mind at times.
That's where reformer stands out in crowd,
No strain clouds long a mission-driven mind.”
Source: Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect