Poems of Nazim Hikmet / translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk ; foreword by Carolyn Forché.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nâzım Hikmet, 1902-1963.

Contributor:

Blasing, Randy.

Blasing, Mutlu Konuk, 1944-

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections. English

Language:

English

Turkish

Physical Description:

xviii, 274 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

Second edition, Revised and expanded.

Place of Publication:

New York : Persea Books, [2002]

Summary:

Published in celebration of the poet's one hundredth birthday, this exciting new edition of the poems of the Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) collects work from his four previous selected volumes -- all from Persea, all now out of print -- and adds more than twenty poems never before available in English. The Blasing/Konuk translations, acclaimed for the past quarter-century for their accuracy and grace, convey Hikmet's compassionate, accessible voice with the subtle music, innovative form, and emotional directness of the originals.

Nazim Hikmet is considered Turkey's greatest modern poet. For his Communist views, he was imprisoned in Turkey and his work was banned. His poetry has been translated into more than fifty languages. He won the World Peace Prize (the USSR's equivalent of the Nobel) in 1950.

Contents:

About My Poetry 3

Regarding Art 4

Gioconda and Si-Ya-U 6

A Spring Piece Left in the Middle 32

On Shirts, Pants, Cloth Caps, and Felt Hats 35

Letter to My Wife 38

The Epic of Sheik Bedreddin 40

Hymn to Life 72

Letters from a Man in Solitary 74

On Death Again 78

Istanbul House of Detention 80

Hello 84

Letters from Chankiri Prison 85

A Strange Feeling 92

On the Twentieth Century 94

Letter from My Wife 95

9-10 P.M. Poems 97

Ninth Anniversary 113

Hazel Are My Lady's Eyes 116

Rubaiyat 117

Since I Was Thrown Inside 123

I Love You 126

On Ibrahim Balaban's Painting "Spring" 127

About Mount Uludagh 129

The Strangest Creature on Earth 131

On Living 132

It's This Way 135

Angina Pectoris 136

Occupation 137

You're 138

I Made a Journey 139

About Your Hands and Lies 141

Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison 143

On the Matter of Romeo and Juliet 145

Sadness 146

On Ibrahim Balaban's Painting "The Prison Gates" 147

After Getting Out of Prison 149

You 155

Last Will and Testament 156

To Lydia Ivanna 158

The Mailman 160

Message 162

About the Sea 164

Last Letter to My Son 166

Letter from Istanbul 170

In the Snowy Night Woods 176

New Year's Eve 178

Elegy for Satan 179

Faust's House 181

Prague Dawn 183

Noon in Prague 184

Optimistic Prague 186

To Samet Vurgun 188

I Got a Letter from Munevver Saying 189

I Wrote a Letter to Munevver Saying 190

From Sofia 191

Bor Hotel 193

The Balcony 194

The Last Bus 195

This Thing Called Prague 197

Some Memories 199

Optimism 204

Thirty Years Ago 205

A Fable of Fables 208

Bach's Concerto No. 1 in C Minor 210

Conversation with Dead Nezval 212

Elegy for Mikhail Refili 214

Early Fall 216

The Bees 217

Windows 218

The Old Man on the Shore 221

The Optimist 223

Because 224

This Journey 225

The Icebreaker 226

Two Loves 227

Waitress 229

To Vera 230

Early Light 231

Baku at Night 233

The Cucumber 234

My Woman 235

Vera Waking 236

Separation 237

Loving You 238

Because of You 239

Suddenly 240

Six O'Clock 241

About Us 242

Straw-Blond 243

Untitled 256

Falling Leaves 257

Autobiography 259

Things I Didn't Know I Loved 261

I Stepped Out of My Thoughts of Death 265

I'm Getting Used to Growing Old 266

Berlin Letters 267

My Funeral 269

Vera 270.

Notes:

"A Karen and Michael Braziller book."

ISBN:

0892552743

OCLC:

48641727