Translated by \u00dclk\u00fcn Tansel<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
O\u011fuz Tansel\u2019s poetry occupies a distinct place within our innovationist poetry. When his collected works published under the name of Sar\u0131k\u0131z Yolu <\/i>\u00a0(1985) is read from the beginning to the end, this distinction immediately becomes apparent. In other words, Tansel\u2019s poetry is a \u201cdifferent\u201d type of poetry. \u00a0This special feature can be differentiated already in his first poems that were published towards the end of the thirties. When viewed under such light, he is one of the few poets who remain outside the group of poets referred to as \u201csocialist-realist\u201ds and the \u201cGarip\u201d movement that was influential in Turkish poetry during the forties. To put it in an other way, in spite of being a socialist realist, he, nonetheless, possesses an understanding of ridicule and satire different from that of \u201cGarip\u201d poetry due to his socialistic world view. This understanding of satire and ridicule is exemplified best in the volume of Bektashi anecdotes which he and Metin Elo\u011flu put to verse jointly under the title of Bekta\u015fi Dedikleri.<\/i><\/p>\n
From the early beginnings, nature dominates his poetry and a view -or may be more fittingly- a concept of nature of a rustic is apparent. This originates from Tansel\u2019s direct relationship with nature, from his being a \u201cvillage lad.\u201d \u00a0Using a term borrowed from Tanp\u0131nar, this characteristic of \u201cbeing addicted to nature\u201d assumes almost a philosophical quality in his later poetry and persists as the main theme.<\/p>\n
Tansel\u2019s poetry can also be assessed as one of the contemporary links in our popular folk poetry. We could also call it contemporary folk poetry imbibed from all the genres in our tradition of poetry. Yet, all these remain insufficient in assessing Tansel\u2019s poetry.<\/p>\n
Although in his first volume of poems published in 1953, Savrulmay\u0131 Bekleyen Harman <\/i>(The Harvest Awaiting to be Threshed), respect for nature and the worker is dominant, another orientation can be sensed at the basis or in the background of these poems. \u00a0This orientation becomes clearly evident in his later poems. In the poems under the headings of \u201cAntalya Environs\u201d, \u00a0\u201cBilitis\u201d, \u201cK\u0131ndam-Dazzling Beauty\u201d, \u201cDifficult Longing\u201d contained in his volume of poetry titled Da\u011f\u0131 \u00d6pmeler <\/i>(Kissing the Mountain, 1999), nature -viewed through the eyes of our folk poets- is accompanied by a passion for mythology. In these poems amalgamated with mythology not only nature is present, but also the conception, the philosophy of nature of an individual who loves nature, treats nature as if it were human and wishes to live in \u00a0peace with it.<\/p>\n
When probed still deeper, at its basis or in its background, Tansel\u2019s poetry, carries traces of the ancient Anatolian civilizations deriving from the Sumerians and the Hittites, and the accumulated experience created by the sequence of mutually influential cultures of the people of Anatolia is evident in his poetry. Furthermore, a wide cultural expanse covering a wide geography, yielded by the impact of the neighboring civilizations upon the Anatolian civilizations is also to be considered. Just like a \u201charvest of cultures awaiting to be threshed\u201d. . .<\/p>\n
In Tansel\u2019s poetry we can also witness influence of the Greek and Latin mythology and legends, as well as the breath of Homer, the father of the epic, and Vergilius, the master of pastoral poetry.<\/p>\n
However, none of these reflect onto his poetry in the form of influence or imitation. As we have mentioned earlier, Tansel achieves a synthesis after having passed the yield of Anatolian culture \u2013especially the popular Anatolian folk culture- through his prism. He constructs his poetry with an intuition inherent to the nature of a rural person, a popular man of wisdom. Obviously, the skeleton of this poetry consists of Tansel\u2019s enlightened view and cultural accumulation as well as his socialist-realist world outlook.<\/p>\n
In the eight poems on Antalya in his volume of poems titled Kissing the Mountain <\/i>we come across names of ancient Anatolian cultures such as Bellerophon, Anphilos, Hector, Troy as well as names from our own culture existing inherently with the legacy of those ancient cultures.<\/p>\n
The long poem on the legendary Bilitis, created by the French author Pierre Louys is also included in this volume. Even this poem is indicative of Tansel\u2019s divergent literary and cultural accumulation and evidence of his being equipped in the field of Greek mythology and ancient Greek poetry.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, Tansel\u2019s most unique aspect is the fact that he has achieved a synthesis of the poetry of ancient civilizations with our folk poetry. In this synthesis the veins of humanism, peace, freedom, socialism converge to stand out as the main artery.<\/p>\n
Also, it should not be forgotten that the taste of folk tales \u2013 a product of the folk literature- experienced in many of his poems derives from his being \u2013in the words of poet Refik Durba\u015f- a \u201cmaster narrator of tales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Canberk, Eray (2011) \u201cO\u011fuz Tansel \u015eiiri \u0130\u00e7in Bir Yorum Denemesi,\u201d in At the Dawn of Oleander Blossoms<\/b>, Antalya: Suna-\u0130nan K\u0131ra\u00e7 Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Ara\u015ft\u0131rma Enstit\u00fcs\u00fc.<\/p>\n
Tansel, O\u011fuz\u00a0 (2011) At the Dawn of Oleander Blossoms<\/b>, Antalya: Suna-\u0130nan K\u0131ra\u00e7 Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Ara\u015ft\u0131rma Enstit\u00fcs\u00fc.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Translated by \u00dclk\u00fcn Tansel O\u011fuz Tansel\u2019s poetry occupies a distinct place within our innovationist poetry. When his collected works published under the name of Sar\u0131k\u0131z Yolu \u00a0(1985) is read from the beginning to the end, this distinction immediately becomes apparent. In other words, Tansel\u2019s poetry is a \u201cdifferent\u201d type of poetry. \u00a0This special feature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[65],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13324"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13553,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13324\/revisions\/13553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oguztansel.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}