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A Brave New Quest: 100 Modern Turkish Poems
This anthology features poems on a wide variety of subjects ranging from evocations of history, humanitarian concerns, and social justice to love and intimacy. It contains stirring examples of the revolutionary romanticism of Nazim Hikmet; the passionate wisdom of Fazil Husnu Daglarca; the wry and captivating humor of Orhan Veli Kanik; the intellectual complexity of Oktay Rifat and Melih Cevdet Anday; the modern mythology of Ilhan Berk; the subtle brilliance of Behet Necatigil; the rebellious spirit of the socialist realists; the lyric flow of the neoromantics; and the diverse explorations of younger poets.
- GenresPoetry
189 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2006
22 people want to read
About the author
Talât Sait Halman
81 books8 followers1953’ten beri süren akademik hayatında Columbia, Princeton, Pennsylvania üniversitelerinde öğretim üyesi, New York Üniversitesi’nde profesör ve Yakın Doğu Dilleri ve Edebiyatları Bölüm Başkanı olarak çalıştı. Şu sırada Bilkent Üniversitesi’nde İnsani Bilimler ve Edebiyat Fakültesi Dekanı ve Türk Edebiyatı Bölümü Başkanı, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü Başkan Vekili olarak görev yapmaktadır. Kültür Bakanı, Kültür Büyükelçisi, UNICEF Türkiye Milli Komitesi Başkanı, UNESCO Yönetim Kurulu Üyesi, ABD P.E.N Derneği Yönetim Kurulu Üyesi ve Journal of Literature Turkish Baş Editörü görevlerini de üstlenen Talât Sait Halman, Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Hizmet Ödülü, Columbia Üniversitesi Thornton Wilder Çeviri Armağanı, Rockefeller Vakfı Bilimsel Araştırma Bursu, Dışişleri Bakanlığı Üstün Hizmet Ödülü, UNESCO Madalyası, Ankara ve Boğaziçi üniversitelerinden fahrî doktora, İngiltere’den “Sir” karşılığı “Knight Grand Cross” ile ödüllendirildi. Talât Sait Halman’ın 70 telif ve çeviri kitabı, 3 bin kadar makalesi, 5 bini aşkın şiir çevirisi bulunmaktadır.
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April 7, 2016
A very enjoyable, wide ranging anthology of modern Turkish poetry.
It starts with two poems by Ahmet Handi Tanpinar (1901-1962), probably better known for his novels translated in the last few years: A Mind at Peace and The Time Regulation Institute although in Turkey he is an eminent poet. It then Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), who introduced free verse and spent much of his life in opposition to the government. He wrote through long years in prison. It is possible to get much of Hikmet’s poetry in English.
The book is too long to review every poet; I just note that it includes at least one poem from several who may be known to western readers at least by name: Orhan Veli Kanik, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Ilhan Berk, and Attila Ilhan. The back cover also highlights Behcet Necatigil, who I had never heard of but appears along with these names.
Several of the major poets have had entire books translated (Berk: Madrigals, Letters & Sounds, New Selected Poems 1947-2008, The Book of Things, A Leaf About to Fall, Selectd Poems by Ilhan Berk, Kanik: Listening to Istanbul (2002), 111 Poems by Orhan Veli Kanik, I am Listening to Istanbul (1972) , Rifat Voices of Memory: Selected Poems of Oktay Rifat, Poems of Okaty Rifat, Cevdet Anday: Rain One Step Away (500 copies), and many volumes of Hikmet. But this is a way to sample first, and to explore many other voices.
Other options for sampling Turkish poetry include special issues of journals dedicated to poetry in translation: Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) 10: Turkey (Spring, 1971), and Two Lines Press’s Strange Harbors, Number XV, 2008, with a 30 page focus on Turkey. I also have on inter-library loan although I haven’t read it yet: EDA, An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry. It appears to include more experimental poets in addition to work by many of the poets here in Brave New Quest.
The poetry is quite varied. It includes verses that are close to traditional forms, and many efforts to meld western modernism with Turkish prosody. So that the reader is quite likely to enjoy many poets, but decide a few are not of interest--the point of an anthology, in my opinion: winnowing down the field for further exploration. As with European and American poets, extreme hermeticism and total lack of grammatical moorings leave me cold, but inventive metaphors and pushing the envelope of language are exciting. The famous Istanbul melancholy lurks in many of these poems. But so does the poetic spirit of freedom and protest against oppression and repression. There are brief biographical notes on each poet at the back of the book.
The poets that wrote poems that particularly spoke to me here include: Tanpinar (‘Fear’), Orhan Veli Kanik (‘Living’), Ceyhun Atuf Kansu (the amusing ‘The Critics’, championing Turkish poetry against the Europeanist critics), Attila Ilhan (‘Another Man’), Edip Cansever (‘Bedouin’), Cemal Sureya (the powerful ‘Blood Lurks Under All Words’), and Ulku Tamer (a very imaginative ‘Responses for Poetry’). I hope that some presses notice the mostly untranslated ones.
A few excerpts:
‘Living'
I
I know living isn’t an easy thing to do
Or falling in love and singing of your girl
Taking a stroll under the stars at night
Warming up in the sunshine by day
Sneaking out for half a day to take it easy
On top of Istanbul’s loveliest hill
--Countless shades of blue flow in the Bosphorus--
And to forget all in the legions of blue.
II
I know livling isn’t an easy thing to do
But look
The bed of a dead man is still warm,
A dead man’s writwatch is ticking.
Brother, living is no easy affair,
But dying isn’t easy, either.
Leaving the world isn’t easy at all.
Orhan Veli Kanik
from 'Blood Lurks Under All Words'
Speak to me of mail wagons
Blood lurks under all words
Speak to me of Aesop’s accursed tongue
Blood lurks under all words
This might turn out to be an unexpected day
The lion might recline on rock beds like a brother
Order a cup of tea in the rain’s fragrance
Blood lurks under all words
As you stood there suddenly
Your voice unfurled like a fan
On autumn’s most tumultuous wing
And on the sky’s thinnest branch...
Cemal Sureya
from 'Responses for Poetry'
...
2
Poetry is the spider’s voice,
the wall’s son.
It is the folk song of the mason
3
Poetry is the rain’s valley,
the sweat at the roots of the hair.
It is the fresh flag of the vessels.
...
6
Poetry is the drinking bucket’s fountain,
the well’s traveler.
It is the guard at the source.
...
9
Poetry is the symbol of silver,
steel construction.
It is the bullet’s lunge forward.
...
Ulku Tamer
To conclude, recently I nearly cancelled an imminent trip to Turkey due to the continuing troubles. But a poem here, Orhan Veli Kanik’s famous ‘I am Listening to Istanbul’, convinced me I have to go, to fulfill a decades-long longing to stand in the Ayasofya. The first three stanzas:
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed:
At first there is a gentle breeze
And the leaves on the trees
Softly sway;
Out there, far away,
The bells of water-carriers unceasingly ring;
I am listening to Itanbul, intent, my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;
Then suddenly birds fly by,
Flocks of birds, high up, with a hue and cry,
While the nets are drawn in the fishing grounds
And a woman’s feet begin to dabble in the water.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent my eyes closed.
The Grand Bazaar’s serene and cool,
An uproar at the hub of the Market,
Mosque yards are full of pigeons.
While hammers bang and clang at the docks
Spring winds bear the smell of sweat;
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed....
Orhan Veli Kanik
Which does what art must do: conquer fear and force.
It starts with two poems by Ahmet Handi Tanpinar (1901-1962), probably better known for his novels translated in the last few years: A Mind at Peace and The Time Regulation Institute although in Turkey he is an eminent poet. It then Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), who introduced free verse and spent much of his life in opposition to the government. He wrote through long years in prison. It is possible to get much of Hikmet’s poetry in English.
The book is too long to review every poet; I just note that it includes at least one poem from several who may be known to western readers at least by name: Orhan Veli Kanik, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Ilhan Berk, and Attila Ilhan. The back cover also highlights Behcet Necatigil, who I had never heard of but appears along with these names.
Several of the major poets have had entire books translated (Berk: Madrigals, Letters & Sounds, New Selected Poems 1947-2008, The Book of Things, A Leaf About to Fall, Selectd Poems by Ilhan Berk, Kanik: Listening to Istanbul (2002), 111 Poems by Orhan Veli Kanik, I am Listening to Istanbul (1972) , Rifat Voices of Memory: Selected Poems of Oktay Rifat, Poems of Okaty Rifat, Cevdet Anday: Rain One Step Away (500 copies), and many volumes of Hikmet. But this is a way to sample first, and to explore many other voices.
Other options for sampling Turkish poetry include special issues of journals dedicated to poetry in translation: Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) 10: Turkey (Spring, 1971), and Two Lines Press’s Strange Harbors, Number XV, 2008, with a 30 page focus on Turkey. I also have on inter-library loan although I haven’t read it yet: EDA, An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry. It appears to include more experimental poets in addition to work by many of the poets here in Brave New Quest.
The poetry is quite varied. It includes verses that are close to traditional forms, and many efforts to meld western modernism with Turkish prosody. So that the reader is quite likely to enjoy many poets, but decide a few are not of interest--the point of an anthology, in my opinion: winnowing down the field for further exploration. As with European and American poets, extreme hermeticism and total lack of grammatical moorings leave me cold, but inventive metaphors and pushing the envelope of language are exciting. The famous Istanbul melancholy lurks in many of these poems. But so does the poetic spirit of freedom and protest against oppression and repression. There are brief biographical notes on each poet at the back of the book.
The poets that wrote poems that particularly spoke to me here include: Tanpinar (‘Fear’), Orhan Veli Kanik (‘Living’), Ceyhun Atuf Kansu (the amusing ‘The Critics’, championing Turkish poetry against the Europeanist critics), Attila Ilhan (‘Another Man’), Edip Cansever (‘Bedouin’), Cemal Sureya (the powerful ‘Blood Lurks Under All Words’), and Ulku Tamer (a very imaginative ‘Responses for Poetry’). I hope that some presses notice the mostly untranslated ones.
A few excerpts:
‘Living'
I
I know living isn’t an easy thing to do
Or falling in love and singing of your girl
Taking a stroll under the stars at night
Warming up in the sunshine by day
Sneaking out for half a day to take it easy
On top of Istanbul’s loveliest hill
--Countless shades of blue flow in the Bosphorus--
And to forget all in the legions of blue.
II
I know livling isn’t an easy thing to do
But look
The bed of a dead man is still warm,
A dead man’s writwatch is ticking.
Brother, living is no easy affair,
But dying isn’t easy, either.
Leaving the world isn’t easy at all.
Orhan Veli Kanik
from 'Blood Lurks Under All Words'
Speak to me of mail wagons
Blood lurks under all words
Speak to me of Aesop’s accursed tongue
Blood lurks under all words
This might turn out to be an unexpected day
The lion might recline on rock beds like a brother
Order a cup of tea in the rain’s fragrance
Blood lurks under all words
As you stood there suddenly
Your voice unfurled like a fan
On autumn’s most tumultuous wing
And on the sky’s thinnest branch...
Cemal Sureya
from 'Responses for Poetry'
...
2
Poetry is the spider’s voice,
the wall’s son.
It is the folk song of the mason
3
Poetry is the rain’s valley,
the sweat at the roots of the hair.
It is the fresh flag of the vessels.
...
6
Poetry is the drinking bucket’s fountain,
the well’s traveler.
It is the guard at the source.
...
9
Poetry is the symbol of silver,
steel construction.
It is the bullet’s lunge forward.
...
Ulku Tamer
To conclude, recently I nearly cancelled an imminent trip to Turkey due to the continuing troubles. But a poem here, Orhan Veli Kanik’s famous ‘I am Listening to Istanbul’, convinced me I have to go, to fulfill a decades-long longing to stand in the Ayasofya. The first three stanzas:
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed:
At first there is a gentle breeze
And the leaves on the trees
Softly sway;
Out there, far away,
The bells of water-carriers unceasingly ring;
I am listening to Itanbul, intent, my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;
Then suddenly birds fly by,
Flocks of birds, high up, with a hue and cry,
While the nets are drawn in the fishing grounds
And a woman’s feet begin to dabble in the water.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.
I am listening to Istanbul, intent my eyes closed.
The Grand Bazaar’s serene and cool,
An uproar at the hub of the Market,
Mosque yards are full of pigeons.
While hammers bang and clang at the docks
Spring winds bear the smell of sweat;
I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed....
Orhan Veli Kanik
Which does what art must do: conquer fear and force.
Displaying 1 of 1 review