Beyond the Walls

Generous selection from Turkey's greatest modern poet, in superb English translations.

Nazim Hikmet (1902-63), Turkey's greatest modern poet, was a political prisoner in Turkey for eighteen years and spent the last thirteen years of his life in exile, mainly in Russia, travelling widely through Europe and further afield

Introduction

9

(12)

Translators' Preface

21

(6)

835 Lines

from 835 Lines

Weeping Willow

27

(2)

The Worm in My Body

29

(2)

To Become a Machine

31

(1)

Extracts from the Diary of La Gioconda

32

(6)

from Varan 3

Barefoot

38

(2)

from The City That Lost its Voice

The Provocateur

40

(2)

Maybe I

42

(1)

Four Men and Four Bottles

43

(1)

Advice to Our Children

44

(1)

Why Did Benerjee Kill Himself?

from Telegram in the Night

The Blue-Eyed Giant, the Miniature Woman and the Honeysuckle

45

(1)

Before He Left

46

(1)

Three Cypresses

47

(1)

from Portraits

My Poetry

48

(1)

from Letters to Taranta-Babu

To Be Blind

49

(1)

Eighth Letter to Taranta-Babu

50

(1)

The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin

The Dream

51

(2)

1-14

53

(20)

Sefik the Turner's Shirt

73

(1)

Ahmed's Story

74

(3)

The Epic of the War of Independence

from Chapter 4

A Letter and a Poem from Nurettin Esfak

77

(2)

The Turkish Peasant

79

(1)

from Chapter 8

`In the moonlight the ox-carts were rolling'

80

(2)

from Chapter 8

`Galloping full tilt from furthest Asia'

82

(1)

Poems Written Between 9 and 10 at Night (for his wife Piraye)

83

(166)

From Four Prisons

Istanbul

`In Istanbul, in Tevkifane prison yard'

97

(1)

`My darling'

98

(1)

`I feel so happy I came into this world'

99

(1)

`I love my country'

100

(2)

Concerning Death

102

(3)

A Birth and a Factory Chimney

105

(2)

The Doomsday Verses

The Verse of the Signs

107

(1)

The Verse of Evaporation

108

(1)

Ankara

Letters from a Man in Solitary

109

(4)

Cankiri

Letters from Cankiri Prison (1-3)

113

(4)

A Cracked Washbasin

117

(6)

The Story of the Walnut Tree and Lame Yunus

123

(7)

Bursa

Lodos

130

(3)

A Strange Feeling

133

(2)

Letter to Kemal Tahir

135

(3)

A Poor Northern Church: Satan and the Priest

138

(8)

Quatrains

Part 1: 13 quatrains

146

(3)

Part 2: 6 quatrains

149

(2)

Part 3: 4 quatrains

151

(1)

In Bursa's Fortress Prison

Poems 1929-1935

`Before the dawn embraces the mountains'

152

(1)

Poems 1937-1951

`I want to die before you'

153

(2)

`Suppose Istanbul my hometown sent me a cypress chest by sea'

155

(1)

A Spring Scene

156

(2)

`I Shut My Eyes Tight'

158

(1)

In Bursa's Fortress Prison

159

(1)

The Weirdest Creature in the World

160

(1)

Illustration on the Cover of a Poetry Book

161

(1)

Uludag

162

(2)

Don Quixote

164

(1)

On Living

165

(3)

Angina Pectoris

168

(1)

Occupation

169

(1)

Autumn

170

(1)

Advice for Someone Going into Prison

171

(2)

Your Hands and the Lies

173

(2)

Five Days into the Hunger Strike

175

(2)

Sad Freedom

177

(2)

New Poems

Testament

179

(2)

Evening

181

(1)

The Postman

182

(2)

My Son is Growing up in Photographs

184

(1)

'To chop down the plane tree'

185

(1)

New Year's Day

186

(1)

Munevver's Letter from Istanbul

187

(5)

The Japanese Fisherman

192

(2)

`Light of my eye, my darling!'

194

(1)

I Got a Letter from Munevver, She Says:

195

(1)

I Wrote a Letter to Munevver, I Said:

196

(2)

The Walnut Tree

198

(1)

The Last Bus

198

(2)

Optimism

200

(1)

A Journey

201

(1)

Strontium 90

202

(1)

Fable of Fables

203

(2)

Chatting with Nezval who Died

205

(2)

Bees

207

(1)

Old Man on the Shore

208

(1)

Great Humanity

209

(1)

The Optimist

210

(1)

The Icebreaker

211

(1)

Last Poems

Two Loves

212

(2)

The Three Storks Restaurant

214

(1)

Morning Darkness

215

(2)

`My woman came with me as far as Brest'

217

(1)

In Beyazit Square

218

(1)

Flaxen Hair

219

(12)

`My time is coming'

231

(1)

Autobiography

232

(2)

`From stone, bronze, plaster, paper'

234

(1)

Where Have We Come From, Where Are We Going?

235

(2)

My Funeral

237

(4)

APPENDIX Early Poems (1913-1925)

`The Ways of God'

241

(1)

Dream

242

(1)

Old Man by the Brink of a Stream

243

(1)

Water Wheel in the Kitchen Garden

244

(1)

First Look at Anatolia

245

(1)

The Dark Fanatical Forces

246

(1)

Wanderlust

247

(2)

Notes

249

(4)

Index of Titles

253

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials