MILITANT POET #4 from TURKEY

NAZIM HIKMET   Poet of Revolution in Turkey

First a little story to show how seriously these poets  are taken still.  When I applied  for a Senior Fulbright to Turkey  I wanted to show my love of Turkish  poetry and I  quoted with approval a line of Nazim Hikmet.  When I got  some feedback on the application, I was told that his  works were  not allowed to be taught in Turkey.  That was in the last century. Maybe things have changed for the better there--but somehow I have my doubts. Are things better here??

Written by Nazim Hikmet |  

Its This Way

 I stand in the advancing light,
my hands hungry, the world beautiful.


My eyes can't get enough of the trees--
they're so hopeful, so green.


A sunny road runs through the mulberries,
I'm at the window of the prison infirmary.


I can't smell the medicines--
carnations must be blooming nearby.


It's this way:
being captured is beside the point,
the point is not to surrender.

This poet knew a lot  about the difference between capture and surrender. 

When I read these lines I  cannot help but think of the way Senator McCain was taunted by Trump about having been captured.  Especially shocking coming  from a man who has never served in the military and sought constant  deferments  during the Vietnam era.

Nazim Hikmet never surrendered , but he  spent many years of  his life in  prison and many of his poems  are  written from inside the prison experience.  In the one I  include above he tells us that he is  in a PRISON INFIRMARY.

In another  poem Hikmet explains  how great a treasure  he has in the gift of poetry:

ABOUT MY POETRY

I have no silver-saddled horse to ride,
no inheritance to live on,
neither riches no real-estate --
a pot of honey is all I own.
A pot of honey
red as fire!

My honey is my everything.
I guard
my riches and my real-estate
-- my honey pot, I mean --
from pests of every species,
Brother, just wait...
As long as I've got
honey in my pot,
bees will come to it
from Timbuktu...


Trans. by Mutlu Konuk and Randy Blasing (1993)

The two translators  noted here have a Rhode Island connection:  they teach at Brown University and at CCRI. They deserve the most credit  for  understanding the value of Hikmet's  work and  making it  possible to be read by English readers.  We owe them an immense debt of gratitude.