Poet (b. 17 December 1922, Bursa). His full name is
Ahmet Faruk Oray. He attended İstanbul Gedikpaşa American
Primary School (1934) and
İstanbul High School for Boys (1939). He attended to İstanbul University
Faculty of Law, however he was obliged to quit during the second year due to
health problems. From 1941, he worked as an assistant legal adviser at the
İstanbul Water Company for eight years. In 1953, he settled in Ankara and worked as an
accounts controller at the Mengerler Company of Ahmet Veli Menger Holdings
until 1994 (official retirement in 1980). He also worked as a bookkeeper at
private companies. He is a member of the Professional Association of Scientific
and Literary Work Owners of Turkey.
His poems
were published in the review Çınaraltı,
when he was at high school, with the encouragement and approval of his teacher
of literature Orhan Seyfi Orhon. His first poem Bayrak (Flag) was published
in Çınaraltı in 1942 and other
articles and poems in the reviews Çağrı,
Türk Dili, Yazı, Gülpınar, Karınca, Sümerbank, Yeni Defne, YOYAY and in
block calendars from 1988. He ranked first at the poetry contest held by the
Turkish National Students Association in 1953 with his poem Fetih (Conquest) and collected many awards
and honorary mentions in various contests. He ranked second, after Behçet Kemal
Çağlar, at the contest for the Anthem for the Faculty of Law at Ankara University
in 1967. He also ranked first at the poetry contest of the Fenerbahçe Sports
Club, where Behçet Necatigil, Cemal Reşit Rey and Sabahattin Kudret Aksakal
were jurors and this poem was set to music. He received an honorary mention at
the Erdoğan M. Akdağ Literature Contest in 1995 with his work Yıllar Geçti de (Years Went By, But…).
He translated various works from English and had his poems set to music.
WORKS
(Poetry):
Öğretmenim (My Teacher, children’s poetry, 1968), Yıllar Geçti de (Years Went By, But…,
1983), Şiirlerle Faruk Oray (Faruk
Oray with Poems, 1994).
