Who is Cahit
Sıtkı TARANCI
Cahit
Sıtkı was born in 4th
October 1910 in Diyarbakır and passed away in 12th
January 1956 in Vienna. After starting a primary school in Diyarbakır
he went to Saint Joseph French High School as a tradition of his
wealthy family for secondary shcool. He finished his high school in
Galatasaray High School which was another French based on high school
in Turkey.
In those schools, Tarancı learnt French very well and was affected
by Baudelaire, Rimbaud,Mallarme. He started to write poems in high
school years and his poems were published in the magazine of
Galatasaray High School, Academy.
After
Tarancı finished high school, he continued his education in the
School of Political Sciences in Istanbul between the years 1931 and
1935. Then he left for Paris,to
study in the Institut
d'Études Politiques de Paris,
but he had to return to Turkey
without
completing his education in the wake of World War II
in
1940.From
1944 on, he worked as a translator in the state-owned news agency
Anadolu Ajansı , the Turkish
Grain Board
(TMO) and the Ministry of Labor. In
1951, he married Cavidan Tınaz. Following a severe illness in 1954,
he became paralyzed. As the treatment of his health problem did not
succeed in Turkey, he was taken to
Vienna.
He died on January 12, 1956 in a hospital there at the age of 46. His
body was brought to Turkey and was laid to rest at the Cebeci
Asri Cemetery
in
Ankara.
Masterpiece
of Tarancı
Cahit
Sıktı was an important poet in Turkish Literature and wrote a lot
impressive works. However, The
Poem of Age 35
is the one which gave him a great success and reputation. In this
poem, Tarancı reveals his feelings about the death,loneliness and
experiences in the life. A simple but effective language is used in
this poem.
There
are 35 lines,which refers to the age,and it starts with an allusion
to Dante.
“We are in the middle of the life like Dante.” As
poet goes to French based on high schools, he knows European
Literature, and shows in the beginning of his poem. As it is known,
Dante starts his masterpiece Divine
Comedy as
“In
the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark
wood, where the direct way was lost.” Poet
thinks the age 35 is a kind of limit of joy in the life and after
this certain age humankind start to question his experiences in the
life and miss the health and power that they used to have in 20s.
In
the second stanza, poet looks at the mirror gets shocked. He realizes
the gray in his hairs and the physical changes in his face. He thinks
the mirrors which used to be friends with him, are the biggest enemy
now.
In
the third stanza, poet looks at old photos of him. He can not
understand how time passes so fast and why stop aging is impossible.
He hardly recognizes himself in the photos as the person he sees in
the mirrors is not the same. He seeks for his previous days and
joyfulness. He thinks the person who smiles in the photos can not be
him, because he has a lot of concerns.
In
the fourth stanza, poet hardly remembers his first love. He says his
friends are far away now. The feelings he had, are gone now. The only
thing poet has is nothing but loneliness.
In
the fifth and sixth stanzas, poet talks about his experiences in the
life. He says sky has different colors,too. He claims he understands
the basic things such as flame burns so late. Therefore, he thinks he
is too young to die. He sees a funeral and complains about that. He
is afraid of being next.
In
the last stanza, poet accepts death is inevitable. He thinks it as a
sleep,but an eternal one. What is scary about dying is that you do
not know where,how and at what age. He thinks death is a kind of
being king for a second,because when you die everybody scares from
you and they show great respect.
Aesthetic
Categories: Good/Bad
Cahit
Sıtkı Tarancı thinks art is for art,it is not a tool to improve
society. He thinks poetry should not focus on social or personal
benefits. The only aim of it to create good and beautiful works.
Therefore, he uses some poetical elements to make his poems good.
Firstly,
Tarancı uses syllabic meter in his poem. Every line has 11
syllables. He even omits a vowel from the first line of the last
stanza,which is another common element for Turkish Literature, in
order to decrease the syllable from 12 to 11. This is one the most
common style in Turkish Literature. This technique gives the poem a
better harmony so that it sounds better. Moreover, he shapes the poem
like the title. There are 7 stanzas and each of them has 5 lines.
When it is calculated, it is 35 like the age of 35,title of the poem.
Secondly,
Tarancı uses harmony and rhyme in the poem. Since there are specific
ends of the tenses in Turkish grammar, writer creates a kind of
harmony in the poem,which is called as Redif. Besides the
harmony, Tarancı uses rhyme in the poem. However, rhyme is not
directly the similar sounds at the end of the poem in Turkish
Literature. It is because Turkish is a agglutinating language. Rhyme
in Turkish Literature occurs after the inflection suffix is omitted
from the end of the word. If one letter is the same after the
inflection suffix is omitted it is “poor rhyme,” if two of them
are the same, it is “solid rhyme” and if it is more than two
letters, it is rich rhyme. Tarancı uses solid rhyme more than once
and shows his ability to write a poem.
Finally,
Tarancı uses allusion to Dante and a metaphor to Turkish funerals,
which makes his poem good. He gives Dante's name directly and refers
his masterpiece Divine Comedy in The Poem of Age 35.
Tarancı also uses funeral metaphor it he last line of the poem.
In Turkey, before put the coffin in the soil, it is put in a specific
place outside of the mosque. People, pray for the death person the
last time and wait on their hand on foot. Tarancı think death person
a treated like a king. However, the ironic part is he/she is not
aware of his/her kingdom.
Critics
The
Poem of Age 35 is one of the best poems in Turkish Poetry.
Critics think this poem is a bridge between Garip Movement and
traditional Turkish poetry. The poem has the themes and language of
the Garip Movement which are death,loneliness and simple language.
However, while poets of Garip Movement use free style and rejected
syllabic meter, Tarancı uses traditional 11 meter and rhyme. This
poem won a prize in a competition of Republican People's Party ( CHP
) the first party of Turkish Republic. In 1946 The Poem of The Age
35 was chosen the best poem and it made Tarancı one of most
popular poets in Republican Era.
Influences
While
writing the poem, Tarancı was affected by some European writers such
as Dante and Mallarme. However,
the basic influence was the Garip
Movement. Garip means
“poor and strange” in Turkish. Founder of this movement Orhan
Veli Kanık chose this title intentionally, because they selected
middle class people rather than elites in their works and they
rejected all the rules of Turkish Poetry. They think poetry should
have a simple language,and subject does not have to be too specific.
This movement also called as the 1st
New Movement as what they did was quite new for Turkish Poetry.
General themes of their poems are life,death,loneliness, poverty etc.
Even if they were looked down on in that time, a great honor is given
to them at present.
Interpretation
I
think this poem is really a unique as it combines both Garip
Movement and traditional
Turkish poetic style. Poet explains his feelings in a simple
way;however, they do not make the poem ordinary. Therefore, Cahit
Sıtkı Tarancı proves that poem does not have to be too complex to
be a good one. Especially the metaphor at the end of the poem is
quite good. Everybody becomes a king or queen for 5 minutes, but
ironically it does not have any worth.
The
sources which are used :
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