57th Anniversary of the Death of Nazım Hikmet, Turkey's 'Poet of Hope'
Article: AA, bianet / Photo: AA
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Today marks the 57th anniversary of the passing of Nazım Hikmet, a prominent poet of Turkey.
Although his books were banned, he was stripped of citizenship and spent most of his life behind bars or in exile, but continued to write.
Known as "the poet of hope," he wrote, "We will see beautiful days kids / sunny days / We will sail our boats to the blue seas kids / to the bright blue seas," in the 1930s in a poem called Optimism.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, he will not be commemorated this year with large gatherings, the Nazım Hikmet Foundation has announced.
"Isn't Nazım already being commemorated by all of us every day, in every moment? Is it possible to think about our language, culture, the happy person and society of the future without thinking about him? As every day, every moment, we commemorate Nazım on June 3 with our faith in the happy person and society of the future," it said in a statement.
Along with other online events, the Moscow Nazım Hikmet Foundation of Culture and Arts will have a live broadcast at 8.30 p.m. to commemorate the poet, it added.
"He was declared a traitor"
Gündüz Vassaf, a writer and psychologist, quoted as describing Hikmet's talent as "plainness, essence, and sincerity," by Haluk Oral in his 2019 book "The Journey of Nazim Hikmet."
In the beginning, Hikmet was loved, and there were even recordings of his poems on vinyl.
But "then Turkey hated him, he was declared a traitor," Vassaf is quoted as saying by Haluk Oral in his 2019 book The Journey of Nazim Hikmet.
Hikmet was born in 1902 in Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), an Ottoman Empire territory in present-day Greece. He grew up in Anatolia.
After studying economics and political science in Moscow, he came home a Marxist in 1924, a year after the new Republic was founded following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
He spent most of his adult life in jail. During his time in prison, international intellectuals such as artist Pablo Picasso and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre urged his release.
The footprints of Nazım
In 1951 he left Turkey forever to live in the Soviet Union, from which he traveled to Eastern Europe, Cuba, and other places.
For this reason, when people from Turkey travel across the world in Russia or Cuba or Eastern Europe, it is common to see Hikmet's footprints in the cities where he lived, either in a museum, as in Chile, or in a cafe he used to frequent in Prague.
When he fled Turkey in 1951, Turkey stripped him of his citizenship, but restored it 58 years later, in 2009.
"Those few who knew his value were compelled to hide their love. Then he was rediscovered. This time we idolized him," Vassaf was quoted as saying.
According to Vassaf, people from Turkey are lucky to be able to read Hikmet in their native tongue, while those in the rest of the world are not as fortunate.
"If his mother language had been Spanish, French, or English, Nazim Hikmet would be embraced [universally] like Shakespeare," Vassaf said, adding: "Every condition of humanity is represented in his poetry."
Vassaf also highlighted the way Hikmet uses the Turkish language in his poetry, with notable clarity, unlike many other writers from that time, which many Turks need to keep a dictionary on hand while reading.
"A true world poet"
He also detailed some of the international sources Hikmet drew upon to make him a true world poet:
"In his poems, he tells about Abyssinia [Ethiopia] after the Italian occupation.
"He goes to the Louvre, writes about China by looking at the Mona Lisa, and about Indian history with Benerci [Banerjee]," Vassaf said, referring to some of Hikmet's best-known poems.
"He goes to Cuba and writes about the power of the resistance to American imperialism," Vassaf wrote.
He writes about world history in his poems, Vassaf added.
UNESCO declared 2002 the Year of Nazim Hikmet to mark the 100th anniversary of his birthday.
After dying of a heart attack in 1963 in Moscow, Nazim Hikmet remains buried there, although there have been attempts to repatriate his remains to Turkey. (AÖ/VK)
