Orhan Veli Kanik

Orhan Veli Kanik Poems

These fine days have been my ruin.
On this kind of day I resigned
My job in 'Pious Foundations'
On this kind of day I started to smoke
...

I listen to Istanbul, my eyes closed:
First, a light wind blowing
A soft wind swaying
The leaves in the trees,
...

Everything happened all of a sudden.
All of a sudden daylight beat down on the earth;
There was the sky all of a sudden;
...

Ones who don't live alone don't know
How much silence scares one;
How one talks to himself;
How one runs to mirrors,
...

I didn't believe I would have thoughts like this,
I would be sleepless at nights,
I would be so silent.
...

I am not far from you
Your eyes shall know to look, I am in your looks
Perhaps closer to you than yourself
...

This is the city to walk around in the rain
Staring at the barges in the harbor
And to hum songs through the night.
...

Hanging around on the Bridge,
Gleefully I watch all of you...
Out there, some of you row backward
Or pick mussels off the buoys;
...

9.

We live free
Air is free, clouds are free
Valleys and hills are free
Rain and mud are free
...

How pleasant is the color of tea,
In the morning,
In open weather!
...

This good weather ruined me,
I resigned in such a weather
From my government job.
I got used to tobacco in such a weather,
...

April

It's impossible
To write poems
...

I wouldn't love you this much
If there was another tree besides you
In our neighborhood.
But if you
...

Do you know why you appear
In my dreams night after night,
Why I'm tempted by Satan
On immaculate sheets?
...

If I cry, can you hear my voice,
In my lines;
Can you touch,
My tears, with your hands?
...

I shall die without anyone knowing,
There shall be
a little blood by my mouth.
The ones who don't know me shall say
...

What have we not done for this our fatherland!
Some of us have died;
Some of us have made speeches.
...

I

I know, it is not easy to live,
To give your heart and sing about your darling;
...

Before dawn,
While the sea is still snow-white, you will set sail;
The grip of the oars in your palms,
...

20.

You have one kind of beauty
in the mirror
another in bed.
Ignore their whisper
...

Orhan Veli Kanik Biography

Orhan Veli Kanık (13 April 1914 – 14 November 1950) was a Turkish poet. Together with Oktay Rıfat and Melih Cevdet, he founded the Garip Movement. Orhan Veli was born in Istanbul. His father was a conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. His younger brother, Adnan Veli, was a well known journalist whose memoir of his time in prison on political charges, "Mahpushane Çeşmesi (The Prison Fountain)", was published in 1952. Orhan Veli studied at the Ankara Gazi High School before he started his university education which lasted one year at Istanbul University's philosophy department before dropping out in 1935. He was employed by the Ministry of Education as a translator from 1945 to 1947. Later, he worked as a freelance translator and journalist. In 1949, he helped the publication of Yaprak, a literary magazine. As also evidenced from the contents of some of his deeply humorous poetry, he was a heavy drinker. His death was due to a brain hemorrhage a few days after he fell into a pot hole on the street while intoxicated. He is known for advocating a poetry without excessive stylistic elements and adjectives, and preferring a style closer to free-verse. He is known for his unique voice, and depth of emotion underlying the seemingly easy-coming nature of his verse. His poetry is highly admired by the public as well as in academic circles.)

The Best Poem Of Orhan Veli Kanik

Fine Days

These fine days have been my ruin.
On this kind of day I resigned
My job in 'Pious Foundations'
On this kind of day I started to smoke
On this kind of day I fell in love
On this kind of day I forgot
To bring home bread and salt
On this kind of day I had a relapse
Into my versifying disease.
These fine days have been my ruin.

Translated by Bernard Lewis (1982)

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