she told me already

i get it now

Can Yücel was a bit different. You may hear that he had some bad words in his life. I mean, as a quote from Wikipedia;

Actually, no, I am not some kind of "moral guard" of literature but in Turkish literature, especially in old times, any little rudeness is unacceptable. The word "edebiyat" comes from Arabic, and "edeb" means "moral" like "virtue" exactly, so if there is a rudeness, that means there is no "edebiyat". I am not exactly the person who is saying this. I remember I watched a tv show, probably a show by Okan Bayülgen, there were some famous people from Turkish literature. One of them (I don´t remember who he was) said the words like this; any rudeness, bad words, and also perversion is absolutely unacceptable.

I guess, for that reason, some of literature enviroments ignored him. So, probably not everyone knows him, or people who know him, also  know his "swearing" stories. Some of my friends likely talk about him but generally not about his literature and poems. They talk about his "funny" swearing stories. I also don´t know much about him, not even interested. But I see that is normal not to understand his feelings in this poem or calling it perverted, but the world is changing (badly for me)

There were always moral guards for the literature and there will always be I guess..

But labeling or thinking that can yucel is ´swearing only poet´ is basic form of stupidness as far as poetry is concerned and  quite rude to poetry itself.

I will also add what he said about his swearings when he was asked why he swore too much :

"swearing is the sewage in the mouth of bourgeois..but it is a flower in working class"

Anyway..let me try to explain what that poem makes me think:

I put my clean shirt on  after the training
Privates are washing their feet at the fountain
You were like such a fresh place
When going to Istanbul from Tuzla
What a wonderful thing to call the naked in mufti
And seeing the blue snuggling  to the shores
Through the day-open plain trees
You were like such a small fragment of sea.

I am sure most of turkish men who have been in the army will know how you wash your feet there as a group early in the morning and if it is winter how cold you feel..

He was in the army in Tuzla (anatolian side of istanbul) I presume. And he was having his weekend holiday and traveling to Istanbul on a minibus.

And during your journey when you look through the windows, you see the sea between the trees..

And he was likening that view of the sea to his wife. or he was thinking of her at the time..

Red peppers at the bay of school windows
And arnavutkoy with its  refugee sun
You were like such a saturday
Girls combing their hair on their landings
That is the reason for the sparks on the railway tracks
While turning the corners,
And the  scents of their periods under their aprons,
Like starting  new lives
You were the crimson tram departing from my adolescence

I think they came to arnavutkoy (a beautiful place on the europian side of istanbul with lovely houses. after Ortakoy towards Rumeli Hisari)

And being in arnavutkoy, early in the morning, on a saturday, for a man in the army is a huge pleasure and enormously  wonderful thing.

And possibly he was horny at the time a lil bit as well, as he was looking at the girls and thinking about reproduction etc.

But his mind is always with his wife..

A cafe for  early starters
It was after the daybreak but I did not say good morning
You were like such  a well-lighted place
I did not know there was a bakery here
I kneeled on the pavement  and looked through the low window, ooh
Workers, fire, crescent rolls
And the scent of fresh bread like a sword..
And we demolished the loneliness

I love this part..

have you ever been on the Bosphorous early in the morning for breakfast? I love it,  love it,  love it.

I had many early breakfasts in Istinye, Emirgan, Hisar and Ortakoy..

The smell of fresh pastry while inhaling the air from the bosphorous..phew!! (it is still in my mind several years ago, i dropped a person to the airport at midnight and I decided to see the daybreak in the bosphorous then had a breakfast in Emirgan)

Again the daybreak is associated with Guler..And demolishing the loneliness with the scent of fresh bread is ´just sharing the life and  the beauty of the moment´ with his wife..

If life was a wedding, you were the bride there
I undressed you, Güler*, I have put the  world on.

I must say, I like the second line here...

possibly they have made love..(well..since he was doing the army duty and he was with Guler..and..I mean of course..why not?)

And that is how he is feeling after their love making..he thinks that ´he HAS the world´. I mean their love making made him feel like that..(I think it is lovely to think the way thought there)

And..He would not say ´canim cicim you were perfect this time´ would he?

Because he is a poet; He is Can Yucel.

Thanks for the explanation   I understood this poem far more than I realised!  And I do think you have to have experienced this aspect of life to appreciate it. 

thehandsom, exactly how I understood and you also picked some of the reasons why I just love his poetry. Thank you very much. I once again remembered some of the reasons I feel lonely here, and as much as it is painful, it is comforting in the same time.

 Last month someone sent me this pm:

Go www.turkishmusic.org

Chose POETRY on the left hand side column

You can listen to Can Yucel poems, in his own voice, under CAN YUCEL

Try it!