Life of Nâzım Hikmet

Nâzım Hikmet was born as Mehmet Nazım on January 15, 1902 in Thessaloniki, at that time part of the Ottoman Empire. He grew up in a well-to-do family. His grandfather, Nazım Pasha, also wrote poetry. Hikmet bey, his father, was a government official, and his mother, Cemile hanım, a painter of Polish and Huguenot descent.
The family went to Istanbul, where Hikmet briefly studied at the French language Lycée of Galatasaray. Afterwards he attended the Naval War School, but poor health forced him to leave.
During the war of independence he went to Anatolia to join the troops of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and taught at a school in Bolu in Nationalist territory. He was soon disillusioned and went on to Batum in 1921. The following year he left for Moscow.
Upon Hikmet's arrival in Moscow he was accepted at the Department of Economic and Social Studies of the KUTV (Communist University of the Workers of the East), and soon came under the influence of the futurist poet Mayakowski. In the same years he joined Turkish Communist Party.
After his return to Turkey, in 1924, Hikmet started writing for the Aydınlık and Orak Cekiç newspapers under a pseudonym. He was soon arrested for being involved in illegal publications and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He escaped again to Russia.
A general amnesty in 1928 allowed him to return to Turkey, and the next ten years were fertile ones in which he published nine books of poetry and wrote articles for periodicals, film scripts and plays. In 1938 he was again sentenced to twenty-eight years' imprisonment on trumped-up charges of organizing a revolt in the armed forces. He became a prisoner in Çankırı and Bursa. In 1949 an international campaign was started for his release, led by Tristan Tzara and Louis Aragon. A year later he was awarded a peace prize in absentia in Warsaw, which he shared with Paul Robeson and Pablo Neruda.
The following year the Democratic Party came into power as a result of the country's first democratic elections, and finally a general amnesty was declared. After serving twelve years of his sentence Hikmet was released. But the Turkish state did not want to simply let him go, so, at the age of 49, he was called up for military service! He again fled by ship to the Soviet Union in secret, and was to stay in that country until his death.
Hikmet died of a heart attack in Moscow on the morning of 3 June in 1963. He was buried in Moscow.
His poetry has been translated into more than 50 languages, but it was neither published nor publicly sold in his home country between 1938 and 1965. Only after his death, Hikmet's books began to reappear in Turkey.
(Source: http://www.iisg.nl/collections/hikmet/)

After the official biography, let's see poet's life story, written by himself:

OTOBİYOGRAFİ

1902'de doğdum
doğduğum şehre dönmedim bir daha
geriye dönmeyi sevmem
üçyaşımda Halep'te paşa torunluğu ettim
on dokuzumda Moskova'da komünist üniversite öğrenciliği
kırk dokuzumda yine Moskova'da Tseka-Parti konukluğu
ve on dördümden beri şairlik ederim


kimi insan otların kimi insan balıkların çeşidini bilir
ben ayrılıkların
kimi insan ezbere sayar yıldızların adını
ben hasretlerin
hapislerde de yattım büyük otellerde de
açlık çektim açlık gırevi de içinde ve tatmadığım yemek yok gibidir
otuzumda asılmamı istediler
kırk sekizimde Barış madalyasının bana verilmesini
verdiler de

otuz altımda yarım yılda geçtim dört metre kare betonu
elli dokuzumda on sekiz saatte uçtum Pırağ'dan Havana'ya

Lenin'i görmedim nöbet tuttum tabutunun başında 924'te
961'de ziyaret ettiğim anıtkabri kitaplarıdır

partimden koparmağa yeltendiler beni
sökmedi
yıkılan putların altında da ezilmedim

951'de bir denizde gençbir arkadaşla yürüdüm üstüne ölümün
52'de çatlak bir yürekle dört ay sırtüstü bekledim ölümü

sevdiğim kadınları deli gibi kıskandım
şu kadarcık haset etmedim Şarlo'ya bile
aldattım kadınlarımı
konuşmadım arkasından dostlarımın
içtim ama akşamcı olmadım
hep alnımın teriyle çıkardım ekmek paramı ne mutlu bana

başkasının hesabına utandım yalan söyledim
yalan söyledim başkasını üzmemek için
ama durup dururken de yalan söyledim

bindim tirene uçağa otomobile
çoğunluk binemiyor
operaya gittim
çoğunluk gidemiyor adını bile duymamış operanın
çoğunluğun gittiği kimi yerlere de ben gitmedim 21'den beri
camiye kiliseye tapınağa havraya büyücüye
ama kahve falıma baktırdığım oldu

yazılarım otuz kırk dilde basılır
Türkiye'mde Türkçemle yasak

kansere yakalanmadım daha
yakalanmam da şart değil
başbakan filan olacağım yok
meraklısı da değilim bu işin
bir de harbe girmedim
sığınaklara da inmedim gece yarıları
yollara da düşmedim pike yapan uçakların altında
ama sevdalandım altmışıma yakın

sözün kısası yoldaşlar
bugün Berlin'de kederden gebermekte olsam da
insanca yaşadım diyebilirim

ve daha ne kadar yaşarım
başımdan neler geçer daha
kim bilir.

Bu otobiyografi 1961 yılı 11 Eylülünde
Doğu Berlin'de yazıldı.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I was born in 1902
and never went back to the city I'd been born
I don't like to go back
at three I served as a pasha-grandson in Aleppo
at nineteen as a student of communist University in Moskow
at forty nine again in Moskow as a Tcheka Party guest
and since fourteen I serve as a poet

some people know all the kinds of grass some of fish
me of separations
some people recite the names of the stars
me of longings

I've slept in prisons and in grand hotels
I've starved including a hunger strike
and there is almost no food I haven't tasted

at thirty they wanted to hang me
at forty eight they wanted to give me the Peace Prize
which they did

at thirty six I passed for square meters of concrete
in half a year
at fifty nine I flew from Prague to Havana in eighteen hours

I've never seen Lenin but stood watch at his coffin in 1924
his tomb I visit in 1961 is his books

they tried to tear me off from my party
it didn't work
I wasn't even crushed under the falling idols

in 1951 with a young friend in sea I've attacked upon death
in 1952 with a cracked heart flat on my back for four months
I've waited death

I was madly jealous of the woman I loved
I didn't envy Chaplin even a bit
I deceived my woman

I never backbit my friends

I drank but I didn't become a drinker
I always earned my bread with the sweat of my brow
what a hapiness for me

I was ashamed on behalf of others and lied
I lied not to worry others
but I also lied without a reason

I've ridden trains planes cars
majority can not
I've gone to the opera
majority can not
they haven't even heard the name of the opera
and since 1921 I haven't gone
to some places where majority can go
mosques churches temples synagogues sorcerers
but I've had my fortune read on coffee grounds

my writings are published in thirty or forty languages
in my Turkey in my Turkish they're forbidden

I'm not caught by cancer yet
and not supposed to be caught
I'll never be a prime minister and so
I'm not interested in such things
I didn't take part in war
I didn't go down to shelters in midnights
I didn't walk on the roads under diving planes
but I fell in love at nearly sixty
in short comrades
even if today in Berlin I'm dying of sorrow
I can say I lived humanly
and how much longer shall I live
what else shall I experience
who knows.

This autobiography was written
in East Berlin on 11'th September 1961

Translated by Fuat Engin

For more translated poetry of Nâzım Hikmet at this website see Turkish Class Poetry Section

Special recommendation - Nâzım Hikmet's Official Website

Oh, what a wanderful surprise, Ramayan
Way to go, way to go! Just keep on!

I’m terribly sorry, Lyndie, but I can’t help you This is none of ex-Yugoslavian languages (although sounds pretty exotic, ha?). We even don’t have an „Y“ in our alphabet.

World Poetry Day is on March 21, and was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day says, to 'give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements.'

UNESCO World Poetry Directory is a website created and hosted by UNESCO following the proclamation of World Poetry Day.

This website brings lists of festivals, prizes, journals, and associations of the world of poetry. It also provides links with major web sites, presenting poetry activities in UNESCO Member States, Associated Members and Non-member States.

Turkish poetry is represented by Contemporary Turkish Literature Website

* * *

Wishing all poetry lovers and all Turkish Class members

A Happy World Poetry Day!

I'm using the opportunity to thank administration for their understanding and changing Cultural Forums back to their old style.

In the same time, I call all members to contribute in making this forums a place for sharing our love for art, practicing language at the best possible way – through poetry and literature, improving our knowledge about Turkish and world culture – a pleasant place for enjoying company of people with the same affinities and the same interests.

Thanks a lot! You won't regret

Hello, Janissary
First of all, I’m using the opportunity to thank you for your interesting, informative and useful posts. Reading them, we have learnt much about Turkey, its culture, customs - which is actually one of the purposes of this website. If I may ask, please continue posting such valuable pieces

The 'Evil Eye' is a superstition known in many cultures, including the Anatolian culture. It is widely believed that if one person gives another a hateful look, he or she may become ill or die from its negative effects. The strength behind the evil look is the 'evil eye'. This belief streches back to the pre-Christian era.
Among those who believe in this traditional superstition, the main reason behind the evil eye is a person's extreme feel of envy. However, it is also held that when a person is admired too much or is loved too extremely, the evil eye may strike…
Amulets, which are worn to repel the evil eye are known as a repellent talisman or apotropaic charm. In Greece and Turkey, the most common form of apotropaic charm is “Nazar Boncuğu”, the blue glass eye charm, which mirrors back the blue of the evil eye and thus confounds it.
It is also believed that the evil eye affect not only the humans, but it can also affect plants, animals, and homes so the blue bead is used to protect these as well.

Belief in the effects of the eye, or more correctly the glance or stare of envy and malice, are probably the oldest and widespread belief throughout the world. The earliest written references to the 'evil eye' occur on Sumerian clay tablets dating to the third millennium BC. Agate beads of exceptional quality, worn to protect the wearer from the influence of the evil eye were also discovered in the royal Sumerian graves at Ur.
To show the universality of the belief in the eye, we need only to look at just some of the names given to this phenomenon:
Turkish: ‘Nazar’ or ‘Kem Goz’
Roman: Oculus Malus
Greek: Baskania
Italian: Mallochio or La Jettatura
German: Bose Blick
Spanish: Mal Ojo
French: Mauvis Oeil
Indian: Drishtidosham (Third Eye of Budda)
Irish: Droch-shuil
Hebrew: Ayin Horea
Arabic: Ayin Harsha
Egyptian: Eye of Horus
Mexican: Ojo De Venado
English: Evil Eye, All-Seeing Eye, Evil Eye Protector

Sources:
http://bornova.ege.edu.tr/~ncyprus/boncuk.html
http://www.treasuresbytasci.com/Scripts/infoCenter.asp

Excellent articles about Nazar Boncuğu you can read here:
http://www.turkeyforyou.com/travel_turkey_evil_eye
http://www.turkeyforyou.com/turkey_evil_eye_origins
http://www.turkeyforyou.com/turkey_evil_eye_powers