Poet and author (b. 25 April 1920, İstanbul - d. 19 April 1993). He
attended the Işık High School (1937) and graduated from İstanbul University,
Faculty of Literature, Department of Philosophy of (1943). He worked as a
teacher at İstiklal, Işık and Boğaziçi High Schools; as an inspector at the
Ministry of Employment (1949) and at İstanbul Municipality (1951); as a manager
at the Conservatory (1959) and in the Municipal Theaters (1961) and as a
teacher in Municipal Conservatory. He retired from here in 1977. He gave
lectures on esthetics and art theories at the State Academy of Fine Arts for a
while (1980-81).
He embarked on literature with poetry.
His first poem was published in the review Varlık
(1 August 1938), and his first short story was published in Küllük (1940). His poems also appeared
in reviews such as Hamle, İnsan and Oluş. In his poems, which were under the influence of the Strange
Movement, he later inclined to philosophical thoughts. He gave great importance
to the format of his short stories and plays; and he wrote about the paradoxes
of ordinary people in their relations with the immediate environment. He
focused on story-writing between 1952 and 1956. He collected the Sait Faik
Short Story Award with his book titled Gazoz
Ağacı (The Soda Tree) in 1955; the Turkish Language Institution Art Award
with Yaralı Hayvan (The Wounded
Animal); the award for the best playwright of the season of 1965-66 with his
play titled Kahvede Şenlik Var (The
Feast at the Café), the Avni Dilligil Theater Award in 1981; the Yeditepe
Poetry Prize with his poetry book titled Şiirler
(Poems) in 1980; the Sedat Simavi Foundation Literature Award with Buluşma (The Meeting) in 1990; the Enka
Short Story Award with Vavlar (The
Vavs) and the Ministry of Culture Honorary Award in 1990.
WORKS:
POETRY: Şarkılı
Kahve (The Café with Songs, 1944), Gün Işığı (The Daylight, 1953), Duru
Gök (The Clear Sky, 1958), Elinle (With Your Hands, 1962), Bir
Sabah Uyanmak (Waking Up in a Morning, with his first poetry book, 1962),
Eşik (The Doorstep, 1970), Çizgi (The Line, 1976), Şiirler (The Poems, all
poems, 1979; all his poems with the same title, 1988), Zamanlar (The Times,
1982), Bir Zaman Düşü (A Dream of Time, 1984), Buluşma (The Meeting, 1990),
Batık Kent (The Sunken City, his last poems, 1993).
SHORT
STORY: Gazoz Ağacı (The Soda Tree, 1954), Yaralı Hayvan (The Wounded Animal,
1956), Yaralı Hayvan, Gazoz Ağacı (The Wounded Animal, The Tree of Soda, five
new short stories supplemented to his first two story books, 1974).
PLAY: Evin
Üstündeki Bulut (The Cloud over the House, staged in 1948, was not published),
Şakacı (The Joker, 1952), Bir Odada Üç Ayna (Three Mirrors in One Room, 1956),
Tersine Dönen Şemsiye (An Umbrella that Turned Upside Down, 1958), Kahvede Şenlik
Var (The Feast at the Café, 1966), Sonsuzluk Kitabevi ya da Kuyruklu Yıldız
(The Infinity Bookstore or the Comet, 1969), Kral Üşümesi (Chilling of the
King, 1970), Bay Hiç - Sonsuzluk Kitabevi (Mr. Nobody – the Infinity Bookstore,
1981), Önemli Adam (The Important Man, 1983).
ESSAY - RESEARCH:
Geçmişle Gelecek (The Past and the Future; essays, speeches, 1978).
Besides, he translated poems
from Baudelaire and Eluard.