Poet (b. 13 June 1926, Üsküdar / İstanbul – 25
March 2013). His family tree goes back to the Seljuk Vizier Celaleddin Karatay
and Mehmet Emin Vefa Karatay, a poet of Divan*, was his father. Namdar Rahmi
Karatay and Sadreddin Karatay, who are masters of satirical style and philosophers,
were his uncles. Baha Vefa Karatay who worked as the ambassador of Turkey in
Vienna and Sefa Karatay, who served as the Dean of İstanbul University’s
Faculty of Medicine and was a medical professor and artist, are his brothers.
He graduated from Konya High School (1994) and İstanbul University, Faculty of
Law (1948). He worked as an independent lawyer in İstanbul from 1950. In
Norway, where he went to study language, he worked at a factory and wrote and
translated poems for newspapers and magazines in that country. After retiring,
he continued his studies while living on Büyükada. In 1962-70, he was the
manager of the Emek Cinema Ltd. Company. Susuz
Yaz (Dry Summer), one of the films he supported, received the Golden
Bear Award. He was one of the founding members of the Association of Artists in
Turkey and is a member of the Turkish Authors Association.
His poems and translation of poems were frequently
published in the magazines Çağrı,
Yeditepe, Varlık, Varlık Cep, Çalı and in similar magazines. Most of the
poems of Scandinavian literature that have been included in world poetry
anthologies were translated by him.
WORKS:
POETRY: Çöle
Akan Nehir (The River Flowing into the Desert, 1951), İster İstemez (Willingly or Unwillingly, 1956), Gözdağı (Intimidation, 1958), Seni Var Saymak (Supposing You Exist,
1964)
ANTHOLOGY: Çağdaş
İskandinav Şiiri (Contemporary Scandinavian Poetry. From 35 poems, which
are included in this anthology, 6 Swedish poems were translated by Lütfü Özkök,
1962).
Karatay, who is also well known as a linguist, has three guides to speaking the languages of Norway and Denmark, Grameri İle Norveç Dili (The Norwegian Language and its Grammar, 2001), Norveççe Cep Sözlüğü (Pocket Dictionary of Norwegian, 2002).
REFERENCE: İlhan Geçer / Seni Var Saymak (Elif, Aralık
1934), Mehdi Halıcı / Konyalı Ozan Ata Karatay (Yeni Meram), Tahir Alangu /
Çağdaş İskandinav Şiiri Örnekleri (Vatan, 3.9.1960), Aydın Balçık /
İskandinavya’ya Uzanan Bir Kültür: Atâ Karatay (Ağustos 1998), Veysel Gültaş /
Kadı Burhaneddin’den Günümüze Hukukçu Şairler Antolojisi (2003), Mehmet
Bildirici / Ata Karatay’ı Ziyaret - Sadrettin Karatay’ın Yazıları (Çağrı, Şubat
2005), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye
Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2007, 2009).