Poet
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Ismet Özel 1944-... country: Turkey language: Turkish |
studied humanities and French literature in Ankara. His daring, uncompromising verse abounds in questions, interruptions and original imagery. Since 1974 he has manifested himself as an Islamic poet. He still publishes in collections the political and religious articles he writes for newspapers and literary journals. Ismet Özel (Turkey, 1944) studied political science and French literature in Ankara. Whereas his first collection of poems, A Nightly Race (1966) dealt with the dreariness of provincial life, his second collection Yes, Revolt (1969) broke away from this atmosphere, and from words like ‘suffocation’, ‘corpse’ and ‘revulsion’, still frequent in the first. Instead, the emphasis shifted to knowing and changing one’s self and the world. Özel’s second collection was widely acclaimed among young poetry readers. His poetry differed significantly from that of the social realistic poets of the 1940s, imbued as it was with the innovative spirit which the experimental group ‘The Second New Ones’ had instilled into Turkish poetry. His daring, uncompromising poems, full of questions, interruptions and original images, lent new poetic meaning to everyday words and expressions. His poem ‘Profession of Faith’, which he published in 1974, explained his ideological about-turn from left-oriented to Islamic poet. He continued along this line in his next two collections, published in 1975 and 1984, even though his views on poetry remained essentially unchanged. After 1984, Özel began to manifest himself increasingly as an islamic intellectual thinker, writing socio-political essays for newspapers and magazines. His essays have been reprinted in many collections. In 1999 he published A Fairy Tale About Joseph in which he tries to revive the classical genre of the epic poem. Özel has explained his poetic creed at length in his essay ‘Guide for the Poetry Reader’ (1980), in which he states: ‘Poetry is born as a melody for man longing for unity in an environment where the sense of unity has been impaired, where all loose elements and concepts have become mixed up and man has lost his place in the totality of things.’ Özel sees his own poetry as a ‘search for man’s place in life’. And he states: ‘The fruits of reading poetry can only be harvested between the old one has forgotten and the new one does not yet know.’ Author: Annemarike Stremmelaar Translated by Ko Kooman Geceleyin Bir Kosu (1966); Evet, Isyan (1969); Cinayetler Kitabi (1975); Siirler (1980); Siir Kitabý (1982); Celladima Gulumserken (1984); Erbain (1987); Bir Yusuf Masali (2000). Poets: |
