Poet, writer and anthologist
(b. 1924, Konya - d. 09 October 2017, Istanbul). He is from Erzurum. He
has used the pen name Fezaî. He attended the Konya Secondary School (1938),
Konya High School (1942), and graduated from İstanbul University, Faculty of
Science, Department of Chemical Engineering (1950). In Konya he opened a
chemistry laboratory connected with his work. After a short time, he closed it
and he has never been interested in chemistry since. He worked in business for
a while in Konya. He was elected as Senator for Konya in 1968. He was involved
in culture and tourism activity in Konya and he was one of the founders of the
Konya Journalists Association and the Konya Tourism Association (1957). He
organized a remembrance ceremony for Mevlânâ, a festival of folk poets and the
Turkish Javelin Championship Games, which are held every year. He organized the
Rose Festival, the Rose Competitions, the Pigeon Beauty Competitions and the
Historical Konya Cuisine Competition featuring the food of Konya in 1954. He
served as a senator until 1978 and at the same time as the Chief of the
Turkey-Pakistan Friendship Association. He was appointed as the Chief Adviser
of the Ministry of Promotion and Tourism in 1978. He was a member of the Board
of Directors of the Republic of Turkey Tourism Bank. He founded the Konya
Culture and Tourism Association in 1977. He worked as the General Director of
the Turkish Cooperative Association between 1977-1980, as the member of the
Publication Consultative Board of Contemporary Cultural Works at the Ministry
of Culture and Tourism for six years and as a member of the publication board
of the magazine Millî Kültür at the
same ministry for four years. He is a member of the Turkish Language
Association, the Promotion Foundation of Turkey and the Atatürk Culture Center.
He became the Konya Honorary Consul to Pakistan. He continues his studies on
literature and folklore in Ankara.
His first work was a poem
written as a reply to a questionnaire on jobs published in Son Posta newspaper in 1937. His poems were published in the
magazines Afacan, Mektepli, Çocuk Sesi ve Arkadaş. His other poems
were published from
WORKS:
POETRY: Bir Aşkın Şiirleri (Poems of a Love, 1947), Masmavi (Pretty Blue, 1952), İstanbul
Caddesi (İstanbul Street, 1956), Günaydın
(Good Morning, 1957), Dinle Neyden
(Listen to the Flute, 1958), Gecenin Bir
Yerinde İki Ceylan (Two Gazelles at a Night, poems in prose, 1966), Selçukya’da Aşk (Love in Seljukia,
1967), Mesnevi’den Bin Bir Beyit (A
Thousand and One Couplets from Mesnevi*, 1982), Feyzi Halıcı’nın İtalyanca Şiirleri (The Italian Poems of Feyzi
Halıcı, translated by Anna Masala, 1987), Mevlânâ
Mesnevi 1. Cilt (Poems of Mevlana, Volume 1, 1992), Yaylaya Bir Gelin
Geldi (A Bride Came to the Highlands, under the name Âşık Fuzuli, 1988), Dörtlemeler 1 (Quatrains 1, 1993), Dörtlemeler II (Quatrains II, 1995), Seçme Şiirler (Selected Poems, 2000), Dörtlemeler (Quatrains, all quatrains,
1997).
RESEARCH-COLLECTION:
Çağrı’da Yeniler (The New Ones in
Çağrı, two volumes, 1962-1963), Saz
Şairlerinin Diliyle Atatürk (Atatürk in the Language of Musical Poets,
1981). Konya, Tarihi, Kültürü Bilimsel
Toplantısı (Konya, its History, Culture and Scientific Meeting, 1984), Âşık Şem’î, Hayatı, Eseleri (Âşık Şem’î,
His Life and His Works, 1982), Türk Halk
Edebiyatı ve Folklorunda Yeni Görüşler I-II (New Opinions on Turkish Folk
Literature and Folklore I-II, 1985), Mevlâna
Celalettin Hayatı, Düşünceleri ve Eserleri (Life, Thoughts and Works of
Mevlana Celalettin, 1986), Yabancı Yemek
Uzmanlarınca Türk Mutfağı (Foreign
Food Experts on Turkish Cuisine, 1988), Halk
Şairlerinin Diliyle Yemek Destanları (Food Ballads by Folk Poets, 1990), Ali Eşref Dede’nin Yemek Risalesi (The Food Booklet of Ali Eşref Dede, 1993), Nasrettin Hoca Fıkralarının Şerhi
(Explanations of Nasrettin Hoca’s Anecdotes, Mevlevi Poet Burhan, 1994), Hünkar Hacı Bektaş Veli’den Özdeyişler
(Aphorisms from Hünkar Hacı Bektaş Veli, 1995), Bir Şiirin Hikâyesi (The Story of a Poem, 1996), Bir Şiirin Hikâyesi II (The Story of a
Poem II, 1999), Şiirleşen Bir Ömrün
Hikâyesi: Gültekin Samanoğlu (The Story of a Poeticized Life: Gültekin
Samanoğlu, 2003).
TRAVEL LITERATURE: Struga Şiir Akşamları (Struga Poetry
Evenings, 1982).
He has also prepared many anthologies and translated from English.