Tevfik Fikret

Tevfik Fikret Poems

Tevfik Fikret Biography

Tevfik Fikret (December 26, 1867 – August 19, 1915) was the pseudonym of Turkish poet Mehmed Tevfik. Mehmed Tevfik was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, in 1867. His father (Hüseyin Efendi), originally from Çankırı in Anatolia, was mostly absent, as he was exiled for being a political foe of the ruling regime; while his mother (Hatice Refia Hanım), a Greek Muslim convert from the Ottoman island of Sakız (Chios), died when he was very young. He received his education at the prestigious Galatasaray Lisesi and graduated in 1888 as the valedictorian with the highest grades. He later became the school's principal. His sister suffered a tragic early death. In 1890 he married his cousin Nazime, and the couple had a son named Haluk in 1895. He left Galatasaray in 1894 and started teaching at another prestigious institution on the Bosphorus, Robert College, in 1896, where he kept working until his death. In 1906, he built a house inside the Robert College campus for his wife and son. Named Aşiyan, the house is now a museum. He was investigated by the Ottoman police numerous times because of his political views and writings, and his association with known political opponents of Sultan Abdülhamid II. His works were deeply influenced by the French Symbolists, many of whose works he translated into Turkish. Possessor of a bold, innovative style, his frequent use of arcane words contributed to the difficulty of his works. In 1894 he published the literary magazine Malûmat. In 1896 he became the chief editor of the famous Servet-i Fünun magazine where he worked with other Ottoman literary lumineries such as Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, İsmail Safa, Mehmet Rauf, Samipaşazade Sezai and Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın. In 1908, after the Young Turk Revolution, he began publishing the newspaper Tanin, which became a strong supporter of the ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti). He was eventually disappointed with their politics too, and returned to Galatasaray Lisesi as the principal. During the 31 March Incident (31 Mart Vakası) of 1909, he chained himself to the school gates as a protest and resigned the same day. He had projects for a new school and magazines, however, due to complications from diabetes he refused to treat, he died in 1915 and was buried in the family plot at Eyüp. Along with many of his avant-garde contemporaries, he contributed to the literary magazine Servet-i Fünun ("The Wealth of Knowledge") until it was censored by the Ottoman government in 1901. Fikret's volumes of verse include Rubab-ı Şikeste ("The Broken Lute") from 1900, and Haluk'un Defteri ("Haluk's Notebook") from 1911. Because of his very fiery writings and poetry in which he criticised the despotic Ottoman regime of Abdülhamid II, he was immortalized as the "freedom poet".)

The Best Poem Of Tevfik Fikret

Haluk's Credo

There is a universal power, supreme and limitless
Holy and sublime, with all my heart, so
do I believe
The earth is my homeland, my nation all humankind;
A person becomes human only by knowing this, so
do I believe
We are Satan, and jinn, there's no devil, no angels
Human beings will turn this world into paradise, so
do I believe
The perfect is immanent in creation; in that perfection
By way of the Torah, of the Gospels, of the Koran
do I believe
The children of humanity are each other's siblings... a dream?

Then so be it, for in that dream, with all my heart and soul,
do I believe
No one eats human flesh; deep-down, in this solace
-Forgetting my ancient ancestors for a moment-
do I believe
Blood nourishes violence and violence blood; this enmity
Is a flame in the blood that blood never quenches, so
do I believe
Surely this graveyard-existence will be followed
By refulgent resurrection, with utter certainty, so
do I believe
Before the miracle of that great sorcerer, reason,
Superstition will sink frustrated, into the earth, so
do I believe

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