MY FAVOURITE TURKISH POET NAZIM HIKMET ;

                                                                                          

I admire many Turkish poets and certainly NAZIM HIKMET (1902-1963 ) is my favourite Poet from that part of the world. He had a cosmopolitan background with a Turkish , Polish and Circassian ancestry . Jean paul sartre , Paul Robeson and Pablo Picasso had to step in and organize a movement for his release after he was repeatedly arrested for his Political beliefs .A close friend of FAIZ AHMED FAIZ, Hikmet has written most of his poems in prison or in exile. Translated in all the major languages of the world, he remains a widely read poet world over. Despite his persecution by the Turkish state, Nâzım Hikmet was always revered by the Turkish nation . Five poem from Hikmet:

1 

Letters from Prison

Take out the dress i first saw you in
look your best,
look like spring trees
Wear in your hair
the carnation i sent you in a letter from prison,
raise your kissable, lined, broad white forehead.
Today, not broken and sad-
no way!
today Nazim Hikmet's woman must be beautiful
like a rebel flag...

NAZIM HIKMET 4 December 1945

2

Today Is Sunday 


Today is Sunday. 
For the first time they took me out into the sun today. 
And for the first time in my life I was aghast 
that the sky is so far away 
and so blue 
and so vast 
I stood there without a motion. 
Then I sat on the ground with respectful devotion 
leaning against the white wall. 
Who cares about the waves with which I yearn to roll 
Or about strife or freedom or my wife right now. 
The soil, the sun and me... 
I feel joyful and how. 

(Nazim Hikmet)

3

Letters to Kemal Tahir from Prison


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 like a ball of ice,
or even a lifeless cloud -
but like an empty walnut it will roll around and around 
in pitch dark space for ever.
You must grieve for it right now,
and endure the sadness,
for you must love the world this much 
if you are to say,
'I have lived'.
( Nazim Hikmet ,February 1948)

4

Optimistic Man

As a child he never plucked the wings off flies
he didn't tie tin cans to cats' tails
or lock beetles in matchboxes
or stomp anthills
he grew up
and all those things were done to him
I was at his bedside when he died
he said read me a poem
about the sun and the sea
about nuclear reactors and satellites
about the greatness of humanity .

(Nazim Hikmet)

5

Thinking of You

Thinking of you is pretty, hopeful,
It is like listening to the most beautiful song
From the most beautiful voice on earth...
But hope is not enough for me any more,
I don't want to listen to songs any more,
I want to sing.
( Nazim Hikmet )

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