Poet (b. 1877, Beirut /
Lebanon - d. 1926, Paris / France). She was the daughter of Flag Officer Köse
Raif Paşa. She traveled to many places due to his father’s duty, and she didn’t
have the opportunity to study at official schools. Hence, she didn’t have a
regular education. She took French and music lessons in her younger years. Due
to her father being a civil servant, who was a friend of Mithat Paşa, she went
to various provinces. After the Constitutional Monarchy, she settled in Paris and
married Şahabettin Süleyman there, who was the second of her three husbands.
Her body was brought back to İstanbul from Paris and buried in Rumelihisar
Graveyard.
In her poems, besides the
love of nature, grief and childish joy, nationalist feelings were also dealt
with. İhsan Raif, who also experimented with poems in the style of the bards
with the influence of Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı, wrote in her poems using the woman
as the beloved like male poets. Despite not succeeding too well in regard to
artistic value, she attracted attention because in her poems she brought a very
delicate sensitivity. She was accepted as an important poet due to her style
and being the first woman poet to write in syllabic meter. She collected her
poems in her only book, Gözyaşları (Tears, 1914).
