Edip Cansever was an important Turkish poet. He was accepted as a founder of Second New Movement in Turkish poetry. If we want to describe the characteristics of this movement; it attaches importance to imagination and affectivity in poetry, it wants to destroy the traditional form of it, it tells the loneliness and foreignness of the person in modern and capitalist world and his/her distresses.(1) Edip Cansever never accepted Second New as a homogeneous movement and he never accepted that he is one of the founders of this movement. According to him other poets who were included to this movement had different ideas about poetry. Edip Cansever told that he wanted to create a reasoning poetry. He was against to absurdity and word plays as a purpose in poetry.

The characters in his poems are generally antiheroes who live on the edges. They are stranger to themselves and to the world. They live in a deep depression. And they seek the comfort in gambling and alcohol. You cant find any lyricism easily in his poems. He mentioned that he had no job with it. He was a brilliant observer. He used every beautiful, important or interesting things that his eyes caught in his poems. We can say his poetry is a sole look to human and to the world. He minded tragedy. And he used some elements of it in his poetry. You can find many long poems of him including these elements.

I read two poetry books of him. One is "Ben Ruhi Bey Nasılım(I am Mr Ruhi How Am I?" and second is "Bezik Oynayan Kadınlar(Women Playing Bezik)" Then I wondered if there are any books of him translated to English and I found this book: "Dirty August" There are some poems of him translated to English in this book. I haven´t read it yet. But I read Edip Cansever´s poems. And I am sure you will not be disappointed when you meet this poet through his poems.

(1) http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/İkinci_Yeni

Masa Da Masaymış Ha

Adam yaşama sevinci içinde
Masaya anahtarlarını koydu
Bakır kâseye çiçekleri koydu
Sütünü yumurtasını koydu
Pencereden gelen ışığı koydu
Bisiklet sesini çıkrık sesini
Ekmeğin havanın yumuşaklığını koydu
Adam masaya
Aklında olup bitenleri koydu
Ne yapmak istiyordu hayatta
İşte onu koydu
Kimi seviyordu kimi sevmiyordu
Adam masaya onları da koydu
Üç kere üç dokuz ederdi
Adam koydu masaya dokuzu
Pencere yanındaydı gökyüzü yanında
Uzandı masaya sonsuzu koydu
Bir bira içmek istiyordu kaç gündür
Masaya biranın dökülüşünü koydu
Uykusunu koydu uyanıklığını koydu
Tokluğunu açlığını koydu

Masa da masaymış ha
Bana mısın demedi bu kadar yüke
Bir iki sallandı durdu
Adam ha babam koyuyordu.

Translation:
That´s What I Call a Table

A man filled with the gladness of living
Put his keys on the table,
Put flowers in a copper bowl there.
He put his eggs and milk on the table.
He put there the light that came in through the window,
Sound of a bicycle, sound of a spinning wheel.
The softness of bread and weather he put there.
On the table the man put
Things that happened in his mind.
What he wanted to do in life,
He put that there.
Those he loved, those he didn´t love,
The man put them on the table too.
Three times three make nine:
The man put nine on the table.
He was next to the window next to the sky;
He reached out and placed on the table endlessness.
So many days he had wanted to drink a beer!
He put on the table the pouring of that beer.
He placed there his sleep and his wakefulness;
His hunger and his fullness he put there.

Now that´s what I call a table!
It didn´t complain at all about the load.
It wobbled once or twice, then stood firm.
The man kept piling things on.

Edip Cansever

I think this is his most well known poem.