Hikmet, Nazim (1902–1963)

Nazim Hikmet is one of the most remarkable poets of the 20th century. UNESCO declared 2002 the year of Nazim Hikmet in honor of his 100th birthday. Coming from a well-to-do family in (today's) Turkey, Nazim enrolled in the Naval Academy, but got a discharge after 5 years. Nazim taught school in Anatolia, in territory that was controlled by the nationalists fighting their occupiers following World War I. He quickly became disillusioned with the nationalists, and joined the Turkish Communist Party in the 1920s. In 1921 he moved on to study at the University of Moscow, where he met the Futurist poet Mayakovsky.

On his return to Turkey in 1924, Nazim wrote in local journals in Istanbul. In 1926 he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and exile in absentia for one of his poems. He fled to Russia and came back with the hope of benefiting from a general amnesty in 1928, but he was jailed immediately upon return. In 1936, he published one of his most famous works, The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin, which depicted a 15th-century revolutionary religious leader in Anatolia. Among his later books is the five-volume Human Landscapes from my Country (1966–1967), a 20,000-line epic. He was again imprisoned in 1938 for promoting rebellion among military cadets who were reading his verse. All in all, he spent almost 2 decades in prison, where he continued to write. His works were not published or legally sold between 1938 and 1965, but his poems printed outside the country have circulated widely.

He was released from prison in 1950, as part of a general amnesty, thanks in part to an international campaign led by Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso. That same year he shared with Pablo Neruda the Soviet Union's International Peace Prize. For fear of an attempt on his life, Nazim fled Turkey, and spent the rest of his life in exile in Poland, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union, where he also became disillusioned with Stalin's regime. Nazim's poems were full of love and nostalgia for his home country. He was also very much in touch with his times. His poetry offered a sharp indictment of imperialism and war. After the United States dropped the atom bomb at the end of World War II, Nazim wrote his poem “I Come and Knock on Every Door” from the mouth of a 7-year-old girl killed in Hiroshima. The poem achieved fame in the English-speaking world after it was turned into a song by the Byrds and Pete Seeger, among others.

In his early poems, Nazim showed the influence of Mayakovsky, although he never used free verse completely. Nazim's poetry was marked by change of meter and irregular use of rhymes. Nazim's verse sprung from life itself. His poems were as much about everyday life, honest work, separation, and love as about war and oppression. He combined Turkish folk poetry with avant-garde trends. He broke with the Ottoman literary traditions and skillfully employed colloquial speech.

As a playwright, Nazim was influenced by Brecht's epic theater. In his plays, Nazim attacked the evils of capitalism and hypocrisy. Although he did not think his plays were of much significance, Nazim's social satires enjoyed success in many countries.

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