Roni Margulies passes away

Click to read the article in Turkish

Poet, author, journalist, and translator Roni Margulies, lost his life at the age of 68. 

His father an Ashkenazi Jew, and his mother a Sephardic Jew, Margulies was a long-standing member of the Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (DSİP). He was receiving cancer treatment.

Margulies was born in İstanbul on May 5, 1955. He went to primary and secondary schools in Şişli Terakki and High School in İstanbul and then graduated from Robert College. 

He studied at different universities in the UK and became both an associate professor of economics and a Marxist. He lived in London for a period and in Turkey later. 

His first poetry book was published in 1991. He has many books, most of them poetry, but also some translations, literature, and some on politics and history. 

His last book, ""Türk'ün Hizmetçisi - Türkiye'de Azınlık Olmak" (Server of the Turk - Being a Minority in Turkey) was published in 2020. 

With his articles published in many magazines and newspapers, he also wrote a column in the Taraf newspaper between 2009-2013. 

He translated poems by Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, and Yehuda Amihay into Turkish.

His books

Roni Margulies won the 2002 Yunus Nadi Poetry Award with his book called "Time Difference" (Saat Farkı).

Some of his published books are the following: "Her Rind Bilir" (Herr Rind Knows) (Remzi Publishing House, 1991), "Gün Ortasında" (In the Middle of the Day) (Korsan Publishing House, 1992), "Mağrur Olma Padişahım" (Do not suffer my Sultan) (YKY Publishing House, 1994), "Bilirim Niye Yanık Öter Ney" (I know why the reed flute plays touching) (YKY, 1996), "Uzaklıklar" (Distances) (Adam  Publishing House, 2000), "Elsa" (Adam Publishing House, 2000), "Saat Farkı" (Time Difference) (Adam Publishing House, 2002), "TK 1980" (YKY, 2006), "Apollo Yılları" (Apollo Years) (YKY, 2010), "Şiir, Yahudilik Vesaire" (Poetry, Jewishness, etc.) (Kanat Publishing House, 2004), "Bugün Pazar, Yahudiler Azar" (Today is Sunday, the Jews get wild) (Kanat  Publishing House, 2006), "Larda Yüzen Al Sancak"  (The Red Flag that waves in ...) (Kanat  Publishing House, 2007), "Kalpsiz Dünyanın Kalbi" (The heart of a heartless world) (Kanat  Publishing House, 2009), "Ayrıca, Gülümser Çocukluğum Ardımdan" (Besides, smiles my childhood from behind me) (Adam  Publishing House, 2000), "Manastır'da İlân-ı Hürriyet - 1908-1909 Fotoğrafçı Manakis Kardeşler" (Declaration of Liberty at the Monastery - 1908-1909 Photographer Manakis Brothers) (YKY Publishing House, 1997).

Margulies saw his poetry as, "the merging of passion with fear, of excitement with concern." 

"Migration becomes lasting compulsorily"

"My father's family came from Poland. My grandfather was born as a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Krakow in 1897. He studied at Wien University after fighting in the First World War. His first job was in Berlin as an engineer and he migrated to Turkey immediately after marrying in April 1925. They were not thinking that it would last, they were to return after working here for one year, but it took longer. After the Nazis occupied Poland, there was no place to return to. The migration became lasting. But the migration that I will tell about is not that of my grandfather. It is that of his brother."

From Roni Margulies's last article called "A happy ending migration story" published at serbestiyet.com. (Mutlu bitmiş bir göç öyküsü)

Roni Margulies's articles in bianet

(AÖ/PE)