SCHOOLROOM ADVICE AND RESPONSE

-White silver is for blackest days
So save up your money well
-And one who lacks for daily needs
What should he do teacher, pray tell?

-Our elders often said to us
Drop by drop one makes a lake
-But about this lake, please teacher say
How long does the making take

-He who can't do with little can never find a lot
So we should learn to get along with no more than a jot.
-Then you might have also said that one will surely find
In a body of diminished health, a less than healthy mind.

-A tree bends down when it is green
Get this proverb by heart just so.
-But it suits a man to be standing tall
You said just a moment ago.

-Good health is the end of patience
For us to know patience is fine
-But what if the rock of patience
One day cracks, oh teacher mine?

Ataol Behramoglu
Translation by Walter Andrews

(Butun Eserleri, III:165)