Rıfat Ilgaz

Rıfat Ilgaz Poems

Rıfat Ilgaz Biography

Rıfat Ilgaz (24 April 1911 – 7 July 1993) was a poet who was born in Cide, in the Kastamonu Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey). He was a teacher, poet, and writer. Ilgaz was one of Turkey’s best-known and most prolific poets and writers, having authored over sixty works. Ilgaz started writing poetry during his junior school years and evolved into one of the prolific social-realist writers of 20th century Turkish literature. His poems are considered prime examples of socialist-realistic writing. While he has never really been a partisan of political ideologies, the fact that he has written about the sufferings of the people placed him at a left wing perspective. Like other writers of his time, Ilgaz was imprisoned as a result of one of his publications. In addition to his writing, he led an accomplished career as a lecturer in Turkish literature. Rıfat Ilgaz died in Istanbul in 1993 due to lung failure.)

The Best Poem Of Rıfat Ilgaz

Are You A Thinking Man?

Doom-birds shuttling back and forth seem
to weave in the air the rug of despair.
Positions have been taken up, there's gunfire back there,
Cannon-balls darkly shake the earth under your feet
Can't you hear?

Lift up your head you've slept enough,
If you call this a heart, these arteries
Let them not beat or pulse any more,
Be something, a voice, a light, a fist.

Before evil winds bring your roof down on your head,
Before flood-waters acre after acre carry off
The land you walk on to the vast seas
Make haste

Now is the time to start things with the rising sun
Back, go back to the books you had spat upon
The sweat of hard work in their every line
The sun shining on their every page
Don't feel ashamed the guilt is not all yours
Tear up the degrees you were given at thirty
Be a child with an alphabet

Roads are blocked, fields surrounded,
Barbed wire rampant everywhere
Birds of prey circling overhead.
Don't say ‘I give up, it's beyond me'
Open both arms, open them wide
And be a scarecrow.

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