Yüksel Pazarkaya

     Poet and writer (b. 24 February 1940, İzmir). He attended primary and elementary school in İzmir (1957) and then went to Germany. He studied German at Mainz University, Department of Languages. Later, he graduated from Stuttgart University, Department of Advanced Chemical Engineering (1966). He also studied German Language and Literature and Philosophy at the same university. He became a doctor at the Chair of Literary Sciences (1972). Between 1966-79, he gave lectures on German at Stuttgart University. He also worked as a guest professor at the universities of Princeton, St. Louis Washington, Philadelphia Bryn Mawr College, Columbus Ohio and Dresden. Between 1972-1985, he was the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at Stuttgart Public High School. He worked as the Director of the Daily Programs in Turkish at Köln Radio, on behalf of the German Association of Radio Stations. He continued his studies in Germany as a freelance writer.

His poems, short stories, critiques and translations were published in various reviews and newspapers in Turkey and Germany from 1960. He published a review with the title Anadil in Germany (13 issues, 1980-82). His play Ohne Bahnhof (The Train Waiting) on the problems of Turkish workers was staged by the Stuttgart Technical University Theatre in 1967, where he was among the founders and director between 1963-69. In 1964, he established the first Turkish theatre in Germany in Stuttgart. He translated many works from Turkish to German and vice versa. The TV series Komşumuz Balta Ailesi (The Axe Family, Our Neighbors), for which he wrote one of the scripts, was broadcast on a German TV channel. Some of his works were translated into Greek, French, English and Dutch. As the Turkish representative of the Concrete Poetry movement, which gained international popularity in the 50's and 60’s, his works were included in many anthologies from Japan to the United States. Besides the awards he collected in Turkey and Germany, he also received the Decoration of Merit of the German President (1986).

WORKS:

POETRY: Koca Sapmalarda Biz Vardık (We Were There At the Huge Deviation, 1968), Umut Dolayları (About Hope, 1969), Aydınlık Kanayan Çiçek (The Flower that Bleeds Luminously, 1975), İncindiğin Yerdir Gurbet (Away from Home is Where You’re Hurt, 1979), Saat Ankara - Takvim Dizeleri (Time is Ankara – Almanac Verses, 1981), Sen Dolayları (About You, 1983; with the title Sen Dolayları, Sevgi Dolayları, Umut Dolayları – About You, About Love, About Hope, 1992), Karanlıktan Yakınma (Complaining About the Darkness, 1988), Dost Dolayları (About Friends, 1990), Mutluluk Şiirleri (Poems of Happiness, album, 1995), Somut Şiir (Concrete Poetry, 1996).  

SHORT STORY: Oturma İzni (Well Fitting Footprint 1977), Güz Rengi (Autumn’s Color, 1998).

ANTHOLOGY: Modern Turkische Lyrik (Modern Turkish Lyric Poetry, anthology of poetry, 1971), Die Wasser Sin Weise Als Wir (The Water that’s Whiter than Us, 1973).

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: Ağaca Takılan Uçurtma (The Kite Stuck in the Tree, anthology for children, 1974), Utku (Victory, in six languages, 1974), Aya Uçan Minare (The Minaret That Flew to the Moon, novel, 1980), Oktay, Atatürk'ü Öğreniyor (Oktay Learns about Atatürk, novel, 1983), Rosen im Frost (Roses of Frost, 1982), Balık Suyu Sever (Fish Love Water, short story, 1987), Balina'nın Bebeği (The Whale’s Baby, short story, 1988), Kemal ile Burak-Cennet Ülkesine Yolculuk (Kemal and Burak-Travel to the Land of Eden, novel, 1998).

NOVEL: Ben Aranıyor (Me is Wanted, 1989).

ESSAY-INTERVIEW: Almanya Üzerine (On Germany, 1995).

RESEARCH: Behçet Necatigil-Gedichte (Behçet Necatigil-Poems, 1972), Die Dramaturgie des Einakters (The Dramaturgy of One-Act Plays, 1973), Mölln ve Solingen'den Sonra Almanya Üzerine (On Germany after Mölln and Solingen, 1995).

PLAY: Mediha (Mediha, 1992), Ferhat’ın Yeni Acıları (New Agony of Ferhat, 1993), Haremden Kadın Kaçırma (Kidnapping a Woman from the Harem, 1993), Köşetaşı (Milestone, 2000).  

MONOGRAPH: Kara Bıyıklıların Aksakalı Demirtaş Ceyhun (Demirtaş Ceyhun, the White Beard of the Black Mustached, 2004).  

He also translated the works of Orhan Veli Kanık into German and the works of Gert Heidenreich, Bertolt Brecht, Johannes Poethen, Goethe, Lessing, Rilke and Walter Helmut Fritz into Turkish.