He is a poet and author
(b. 7 July 1931,– d. 5 December 2014,
He taught as a professor
at
His poems, critical
reviews, translations, and articles on literature and politics have appeared in
journals and newspapers such as Yenilik, Türk Dili, Yeditepe, Şiir Sanatı,
Varlık, Milliyet, kitap-lık . Between 1969-71 and 1982-2000, he wrote
hundreds of articles under the general names of “Doğrusu” and “Can Kulağı”, “7
Gün 7 Yazar”, “Kültür” in the Milliyet newspaper. Between 1972 and 1975 he
worked as a columnist with a column titled “Doğrusu” at the Akşam newspaper.
Beginning in 2005, he wrote weekly articles in the newspaper supplement Cumhuriyet Ankara. In addition, he
carried out the guest editorship of some issues of the journals Books
Abroad, Contemporary Literature in Translation, Literature East & West,
Pacific Quarterly Moana, Review of National Literatures, The Journal of
Literary Translation, The Literary Review and The Poetry Society of
American Bulletin and was on the editorial board of World Literature
Today. During his years in
Prof.Halman has about
sixty books published in English and Turkish, two thousand newspaper and
journal articles and about five hundred scientific articles, encyclopaedia
articles and critical reviews. Among these important works, we can count an
anthology comprising the poems of old civilizations, translations of all sonnets
of Shakespeare, ancient Egypt, Middle East and Eskimo poems, books comprising
his selected articles, his translations of Faulkner into our language, books
about American poets, and his books in English about Mevlâna and Yunus Emre. He
has also published translations in English. Some of his books have been
translated into French, German, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew and Japanese.
He was awarded the
Outstanding Service Awards of TUBA (
“Talat Sait Halman has kneaded the sufism of
the Eastern people with the rationalist, pragmatic understanding of the West
within a philosophical system and reached a new synthesis. That new individual,
although he lives a slovenly life, has grown with love and known looking at the
world with the eyes of love. (…) Talat Sait Halman was a poet who has
comprehended the essence of our old literature. That’s why it has been easy for
him to introduce Yunus Emre and Mevlâna to the Western world. That mystic poem, which rescues the individual
from a monotonic life and enables him to test himself, possesses a potential
able to change the world. So, Talat Sait Halman is the cultural envoy of that
potential. Indeed, there is no need to furnish him with such a title. He is a
poet, suffering from the memories, who dedicated himself to such an endeavour. In
forgotten corridors of our literature, there are many hidden poets who look undiscovered
and if Talat Sait Halman, who brought them to light, did not exist, the world
could not know our contemporary poetry enough. However, those who ignore his
deep knowledge of poetry, take the development of our contemporary poetry as
surprising a foreign culture, as if self-created.” (Mustafa Şerif Onaran)
***
“Talat Halman was
born as a poet. I guess some branches of art are learned in the course of time,
but the shortest path to write poetical lines well and easily is to be born as
a poet. Yunus, Dante, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tagore and others like them were
also born as poets. Even though
cultural background is necessary to produce good poems, what has carried some
nations to where they are today was this poetic side of theirs. (…) Talat was writing poems
in aruz prosody while he was a kid; sometimes as lyrically as possible,
sometimes by adding a joke.” (Prof. Ataöv Türkkaya)
WORKS:
POEMS: Can Kulağı (1968), Bin Bir: Özdeyiş
Şiirleri (1976), Canevi (1980), Tuyuğlar ve Başka Dörtlükler
(1981), Uzak Ağıt (1991), Dört Gök Dört Gönül (1994), İki’ler
(1997), Sessiz Soru (1998).
HUMOR: Şiirlerle Laz: Karadeniz Fıkraları (1992), Hepimüz
Lazük: Karadeniz Fıkraları (1996).
REVIEW: William Faulkner (1963), Doğrusu (100
articles from Milliyet, 1999), 21. Yüzyılda Üniversite ve Kültür (2002),
A’dan Z’ye Yunus Emre (2003).
DRAMA: “Türk” Shakespeare: Kahramanlar ve Soytarılar (2003).
TRANSLATIONS INTO TURKISH: Duman (1952), Çalınan
Taç (1953), Eskimo Şiirleri (1969), Wallace Stevens: Seçme
Şiirler (1970), Langston Hughes (1971), Eski Mısır Şiiri
(1972), Eski Uygarlıkların Şiirleri (1974), Yaşayan Amerikalı Şairler
(1992), Amerikalı Kadın Şairler (1992), Eski Mısır’dan Şiirler:
Güneş-Tanrı ile Sevgi Ozanı (1994), Eski Anadolu ve Orta Doğu’dan
Şiirler (1996), Candan Cana: Mevlâna Celaleddin Rumi’den Seçme Rübailer
(1999), Baba Tahir Üryan: Aşk Çırçıplak (2003), Shakespeare: Soneler
(2003), Mevlâna’dan Seçme Rubâiler: Sevda Yüce Gözlerle (2003), Soneler (from Shakespeare,
2004).
POEMS IN ENGLISH: Shadows of Love (1979), A
Last Lullaby (1990).
REVIEWS IN ENGLISH: Yunus Emre and His Mystical Poetry (1981), Mevlana
Celaleddin Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes (with Prof. Dr. Metin And,
1983), Turkish Legends and Folk Poems (1992), An Overview of Turkish Literature (2005).
TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH: Selected Poems (1969) - Hiroshima
(1970) (from Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca), I am Listening to Istanbul: Selected
Poems by Orhan Veli Kanık (1971), The Humanist Poetry of Yunus Emre
(1972), On the Nomad Sea: Selected Poems of
ABOUT HIM: Mehmet Kaplan / Cumhuriyet Devri Türk Şiiri (1973, s. 534-541), Feyzi Halıcı / Parlamenter Şairler (1990), Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Albümü 1920-1991 (1994), Gündüz Vassaf / Ahlakın Dinsiz Olanı (Virgül, Şubat 1988), Ertan Adalı / Talât Halman’dan “Sessiz Soru” (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 27.08.1998), Erendiz Atasü / Talât S. Halman’la Şiirleri Üzerine (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 7.10.1999), Behçet Necatigil / Edebiyatımızda İsimler Sözlüğü (18. bas. 1999), Şükran Kurdakul / Şairler ve Yazarlar Sözlüğü (gen. 6. bas. 1999), TBE Ansiklopedisi (2001), İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Hikmet Altınkaynak / Dünyayı Paylaşan Yazarlar (2001), Dil Dergisi Talât Sait Halman Özel Sayısı (editör: Hüseyin Atabaş, Nisan 2001), Adnan Binyazar Kültür ve Sanatla Yoğrulmuş Bir Yaşam: Talat Sait Halman - Mustafa Şerif Onaran / Edebiyatımızın Çelebi İnsanı - Türkkaya Ataöv / Sınıf Arkadaşım Ozan Talat (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 14.12.2001), Bibliography of Talat S. Halman (Bütün Kültürel ve Yazınsal Çalışmalarının Dökümü, 2001), Festschrift: Cultural Horizons / A Festschrift in Honor of Talat S. Halman (2001), İş’te Kitap (Bahar 2002), Aklın Yolu Bindir (2003), Mehmet Nuri Yardım / Yazar Olacak Çocuklar (2004), Mehmet Atilla Maraş / Şair Milletvekilleri 1 - 22. Dönem 1920-2005 (2005), Emre Erdem / ‘Kültürümüz Görkemli Bir Sentezdir’ (söyleşi, Radikal Kitap, 20.1.2005), TYB Kültür ve Sanat Yıllığı (2015).