when you learn a new language in a new country, the most common questions people ask you are: what were you doing then? what are you doing now? what will you be doing next? it is a good way to ensure that you grasp the elemental verb tenses, but it can get quite tiring (and somewhat dispiriting) to reduce your life to three short replies, in a vocabulary still limited by your own progress. & so you write about the birds instead. the extraordinary birds you identified as a child through a well-worn ornithology book; the flock of black and white swifts cutting the sky in half in ankara; the painting of a bird paradise at night.
in all the birds the reminder of the earth —
where you were, where you are, where you will be.
(bonne année / happy new year / mutlu yillar.)