Nazım Hikmet

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Nazım Hikmet Ran
Nazım Hikmet Ran
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Nazım Hikmet Ran (IPA:nɑ'zɯm hik'met) (November 20, 1901 – June 3, 1963) was a Turkish poet, dramatist and communist, who is widely regarded as the best-known Turkish poet in the West and his works have been translated into several languages. He was born in Selânik in the Ottoman Empire (now Thessaloniki, Greece). Later he became member of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and died in exile in Moscow.

Contents

[edit] Style and Achievements

Despite writing his first poems in syllabic meter, Nazım Hikmet distinguished from the "syllabic poets" in concept. With the development of his poetic conception, the narrow forms of the syllabic meter began not to satisfy his needs and he set out to seek new forms for his poems. During the first years (1922-1925) of living in the Soviet Union, this search for form reached the peak.

Breaking the boundaries of the syllabic meter, he changed his form and preferred writing in free verse which harmonised with the rich vocal properties of the Turkish language. He was affected by Mayakovski and the young Soviet poets who advocated Futurism. Many of his poems have been composed by Zülfü Livaneli. A part of his work have been translated in Greek language by poet Yiannis Ritsos, and some of these translations have been composed by the Greek composers Manos Loizos and Thanos Mikroutsikos.

[edit] Death and Afterward

He died of a heart attack in Moscow after many years in exile from his native Turkey. He is buried in the famous cemetery of Novodeviche in Moscow and his imposing tombstone is even today a place for pilgrimage by Turks and communists from around the world.

[edit] Some of his best known works

  • Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları (Human Landscapes from My Country)
  • Taranta-Babu'ya Mektuplar (Letters to Taranta-Babu)
  • Ferhad ile Şirin (Ferhad and Şirin)
  • Kurtuluş Savaşı Destanı (The Epic Of The War Of Independence)
  • Şeyh Bedrettin Destanı (The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin)
  • Kafatası (The Skull)
  • Unutulan Adam (The Forgotten Man)

[edit] Kız Çocuğu

Nazım's poem Kız Çocuğu (The Little Girl) conveys a plea for peace from a seven-year-old girl ten years after she has perished in the atomic bomb attack at Hiroshima. It has achieved popularity as an anti-war message and has been performed as a song by a number of singers and musicians. Zülfü Livaneli (on Nazım Türküsü) has performed a version of the original Turkish poem. A loose English translation of Kız Çocuğu known as I Come And Stand At Every Door has been performed by The Byrds (on the album Fifth Dimension), Pete Seeger (on the album Headlines & Footnotes), and This Mortal Coil (on the album Blood), among others. In 2005, famed Shima-Uta singer Chitose Hajime collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto by translating Kız Çocuğu into Japanese (retitled 'Shinda Onna no Ko' [死んだ女の子]). It was performed live at the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on the eve of the 60th Anniversary (August the 5th, 2005). The song later appeared as a bonus track on Chitose's Hanadairo album in 2006.

[edit] Poems

This world will grow cold,
a star among stars,
one of the smallest,
this great world of ours
a gilded mote on blue velvet.
This world will grow cold one day,
not even as a heap of ice,
or a lifeless cloud,
it will roll like an empty walnut round and round
in pitch darkness for ever.
For now you must feel this pain,
and endure the sadness,
but so loved this world
that you can say,
'I have lived'.

February 1948
[Letters to Kemal Tahir from Prison]
Source: Beyond the Walls: Selected Poems by Nazim Hikmet, Richard McKane, and Ruth Christie

[edit] Plea

Nazım Hikmet's Plea (Davet in Turkish) is one of his most known poems. Nazım tells what he wants, what would or must life be like, in the poem's last lines about living like "a tree" and "forest".

PLEA

This country shaped like the head of a mare
Coming full gallop from far off Asia
To stretch into the Mediterranean
THIS COUNTRY IS OURS.
Bloody wrists, clenched teeth
bare feet,
Land like a precious silk carpet
THIS HELL, THIS PARADISE IS OURS.
Let the doors be shut that belong to others
Let them never open again
Do away with the enslaving of man by man
THIS PLEA IS OURS.
To live! Like a tree alone and free
Like a forest in brotherhood
THIS YEARNING IS OURS.
Nazim Hikmet
(1902-1963)

[edit] See also

  • Tale of Tales, a Russian film partially inspired by Hikmet's poem of the same name

[edit] External links

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