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Nazým Hikmet
22 July 2012 / ALISON KENNY , ANTALYA
I visit Antalya's splendid, centrally located Karaalioðlu
Park twice daily in the company of my sometimes (in the
current summer heat) reluctant dog. Around a year ago I was
surprised to see that the giant hand statue adorning the
harbor-end of the cliff-top promenade -- formerly a popular
spot for tourists to clamber inside and pose amusingly for a
photo -- had disappeared.
In its place was a weird looking angular monument,
consisting mostly of great slabs of stone covered in
writing. On close inspection the words turned out to be
extracts from the works of a man I later discovered was
Turkey's most famous poet, Nazim Hikmet, a man who had spent
most of his life either incarcerated in one of Turkey's
jails or living in exile in Russia.
Understanding Turkey's culture is a complex business, but
taking the time to sniff out Turkish literature that has
been translated into English is well worth the effort.
Ýstanbul obviously has a generous selection of bookshops
well stocked with English versions of several Turkish
authors. Antalya, where I live, has a rather more limited
choice, but for a long time, inspired by my daily glimpses
of these poems, I have been interested in finding out more
about Nazim Hikmet.
So I was delighted to stumble on a book by another famous
Turkish author, Orhan Kemal, in an Antalya shopping mall. In
the slim volume Kemal details the time he spent in prison
with fellow writer, Nazim Hikmet. “Brilliant,” I thought, “a
fantastic introduction to two Turkish literary giants in one
go.” Both men had been imprisoned for “inciting”
revolutionary thoughts amongst their fellow soldiers while
serving time in the army through their writing, teaching and
meetings. Nazim had been sentenced to 28 years and Orhan to
just five. Nazim was transferred to Bursa prison on health
grounds, and the two men spent the next three-and-a-half
years, sharing a cell, their food, their ideas and, of
course, their writing.
Orhan Kemal
Orhan Kemal was born in Ceyhan on the Çukurova plain near
Adana in 1914. His mother, unusually for that time, was
educated and had worked briefly as a teacher. His father
became a writer and a lawyer but because of his largely
left-wing, independent political leanings the family moved
several times and eventually fled to Syria and Lebanon in
1935. Orhan's formal education suffered from this upheaval
and in his formative years, he worked in Ýstanbul and Adana
on a variety of jobs, providing him with a whole range of
excellent material for his future novels.
Three-and-a-half years with Nazim Hikmet
Orhan was already a fan of Nazim's work and familiar with
many of his poems -- “Orchestra,” “Mechanization” and “The
Caspian Seas” to name but a few -- and he quotes from these
liberally and excitedly on hearing the news of Nazim's
imminent arrival in the otherwise stultifyingly boring
atmosphere of the prison. We get a flavor of his style --
modern, colloquial and direct as in this snippet from
“Mechanization”:
“I want to be mechanized!
It comes from my brain, my flesh, my bones!
I'm driven mad by the desire to take over every dynamo I can
lay my hands on!”
Nazim's entrance into prison and introduction to fellow
inmates gives us a clue to his magnetic personality. He
greets former prison acquaintances from all walks of life
with an abundance of kindness and interest, exuding an air
of optimism in all directions. Within the first two hours of
his arrival, Orhan had shared his meal with the great poet,
and they mutually decided to share the room and the cost of
their living expenses. Orhan, on request, attempts to read
some of his own “scribblings” to which Nazim responds with
“awful” and “ghastly,” but sees beyond these and offers to
help Orhan with his education. The book proceeds to chart
the intense relationship between the two men and the
influences and experiences that helped shape the poems Nazim
wrote during this period.
Nazim Hikmet
Although born in 1902 in Salonica, he was brought up largely
in Ýstanbul. His father worked for the foreign office, his
mother was an artist. He attended the naval school for
several years but was discharged on health grounds. He
became politically active through his writing and
particularly interested in left wing/Marxist ideology. He
first went to the Soviet Union in 1921 and in his absence
was given his first prison sentence. He returned to the
country illegally in 1924 and was immediately arrested.
During his life he spent much time travelling, particularly
in Russia and Poland, before dying in 1963 in Moscow. He
began his writing during politically turbulent times --World
War II, the struggles with Greece and the Turkish War of
Independence and, later, the lead up to World War II.
Throughout this latter period, Turkey had an uneasy and
tenuous relationship with Russia, possibly explaining the
severe 28-year sentence that he received for encouraging
Marxist views in both the army and navy.
The poems
I was particularly interested to find out just why Nazim
Hikmet was, and remains today, such a well-known figure,
particularly as he was perceived as an enemy of the state
for most of his life. But this book, with its beautiful
translations of the poems written prior to his sojourn in
Bursa prison and those during his time in Bursa, go a long
way to explain his importance in Turkey's literary history.
His writing follows on from the more formal traditions of
the Ottoman style. He writes passionately about subjects
close to his heart -- both on the large scale and on the
personal level. Orhan Kemal's book not only brings to life
Nazim Hikmet's character through his relationships with the
other prisoners, the visits from his wife and his ongoing
interest and concern with Orhan's family, but also puts into
context some of the poet's great pieces of work.
His epic poem “Human Landscapes from my Country” was
composed largely during his stay in Bursa prison. This
includes sections on the War of Independence and Hitler's
invasion of the Soviet Union, and these are interspersed
with vignettes of characters from amongst his fellow
inmates. His opening lines describe Galip Usta:
“At Haydarapaþa Station
Spring 1941
It's three in the afternoon
On the steps, sun, exhaustion, stress.
A man is standing on the steps thinking about various
things.
He's thin, timid with a long pointed nose,
His cheeks covered with pock marks.
The man on the steps is Galip Usta,
who's famous for thinking strange thoughts.”
Orhan explains that for Nazim it was crucial to his work
that people understood his poetry. He used the opportunity
in prison to read aloud over and over again his work and to
refine them accordingly in order to make them more
accessible and for them to be understood and felt by
everyone. The effect of his poems on his audience was always
remarkable, with many being reduced to tears or encouraged
to recall incidents from their past.
Understanding something of the background to this literary
genius has helped me at least to recognize the importance of
Nazim Hikmet and to begin to appreciate the beauty of his
work. This book was so expertly crafted and such a pleasure
to read that I am inspired now to search out some more works
by both Nazim Hikmet and Orhan Kemal. This may necessitate
yet another trip to my pet hate -- a shopping mall -- but it
will be well worth the sacrifice.
Comments:
Valley , 24 July 2012 , 01:42
Soluting Nazim Hikmet and wishing as a nation we will stop
once and forever to persecute our writers/poets. And try to
go beyond ourseves to understand the messages they try to
convey.The footprints left behind, that he was here once is
everywhere around us. His name inspires new generation of
true tellers.And today comes almost natural, of speaking the
mind, perhaps because of people like Nazim Hikmet, Sebahatin
Ali, came before us and pioneer for all to be proud of our
identity.They came from all over the places of the past
Ottoman Empire, but the bottom line is = we all are Turks.
Mel Kenne , 23 July 2012 , 16:05
Dear Alison Kenny, Thank you for your article about Nazim
Hikmet and the book written by Orhan Kemal about the time he
spent in jail with Nazim Hikmet. It is indeed a fine book,
and I would like to remind you that such books as this are
only accessible to readers who do not speak Turkish because
of their translators. While you do mention translation in
your article, and even speak of the "beautiful translations
of the poems," not once in the article is a translator's
name mentioned. The translator of this book, who also wrote
the long and very informative introduction, is Bengisu Rona,
a professor of Oriental and African Studies at the
University of London, and a member of our Cunda Workshop for
Translators of Turkish Literature. Too often when we read a
work of literature written in a language other than English
and are impressed with what we read, we tend to lavish
praise on the writer but forget about the person who has
enabled us to read the book in the first place and who
sometimes spends as much time translating the book as the
writer did in composing it. Translation, particularly
literary translation, is not merely the transcription of a
work from one language into another; it requires a
recreation of the eloquence of the phrasing and the nuances
in tone of the original. Please continue to write about the
works of and about outstanding Turkish authors you find in
bookstores. They certainly need to be brought to the
attention of the readers of Today's Zaman. But in the future
please credit the translators of those works as well.
dimitrios macedon , 22 July 2012 , 17:35
Speaking today about Nazim is surprise, but it is good sign. |