One of the most popular poets of Turkish poetry: Who is Orhan Veli Kanık?

Orhan Veli Kanık was born in 1914 in the Beykoz district of Istanbul. He brought the language of the people on the street into poetry.

He left his university education unfinished and started working as a civil servant at PTT (Post and Telegraph Office) in Ankara in 1937.

The poet, who was fond of alcohol, could not engage in a regular working life throughout his life.

Orhan Veli Kanık is a poet who was initially perceived as strange and subjected to very harsh criticism due to the innovations he brought to poetry.

Orhan Veli Kanık or Orhan Veli (14 April 1914 – 14 November 1950) was a Turkish poet. Kanık is one of the founders of the Garip Movement together with Oktay Rıfat and Melih Cevdet. Aiming to fundamentally transform traditional form in Turkish poetry, he introduced colloquialisms into the poetic language. Besides his poetry, Kanık crammed a large volume of works including essays, articles and translations into just 36 years.

He was first found strange and then subjected to ridicule and humiliation with his unorthodox works. Orhan Veli Kanık, one of the rare poets who had a great reputation during his time, encountered all the negative reactions as well as great love and admiration.

Although Orhan Veli Kanık does not have a published novel, it is known that he has started writing a novel. The name of the book is "Outside Their World", but the poet was not able to complete the book until his death.

Poet Orhan Veli Kanık passed away in Istanbul on November 14, 1950.

The famous poet, who fought against order and convention throughout his life, also showed this attitude in his love life. One of the most famous poems of Orhan Veli, who never married throughout his life, and even the last poem he had in his pocket when he died, "Love Official Parade", summarizes the poet's love life. It is claimed that the famous poet, who wrote down his feelings about all the women in his life in this poem, dedicated this work to Nahid Hanım, a teacher he met on a ferry.

HOW DID ORHAN VELİ KANIK DIE?

Orhan Veli fell into a hole dug by the municipality in Ankara, where he went for a week on November 10, 1950, and was slightly injured in the head. He returned to Istanbul two days later. The poet, who fainted while having lunch at a friend's house on November 14, was hospitalized. The cause of the illness, which started due to a ruptured blood vessel in the brain, could not be understood by the doctor and Kanık was treated with a diagnosis of alcohol poisoning, but it was later understood that he had a brain hemorrhage.

The poet, who fell into a coma at eight o'clock the same evening, died at Cerrahpaşa Hospital, unable to come out of the coma at 23.20 at night. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, one of Turkey's most famous novelists, his literature teacher at the high school, had the opportunity to visit Kanık at the hospital and described this incident as follows: "I saw Orhan, my student in the first year of secondary school, under the oxygen tent for the last time at Cerrahpaşa Hospital. I will never forget the day I saw him naked, barely breathing. The intelligence that brought sweet disagreement and flavor to our poetry had ceased to be itself.”

A campaign was launched under the leadership of the famous poet Sabahattin Eyüboğlu for the construction of the grave of Kanık, who was buried in Aşiyan Cemetery in Sarıyer. Money was collected for the grave with the campaign supported by artists and readers. The list of supporters was published in Varlık Magazine, and money was collected for this in schools. Afterwards, Abidin Dino designed the tomb. The building was built by Nevzat Kemal from pink granite. Master pen Emin Barın wrote Orhan Veli's name on the inscription.

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Orhan Veli: A people's poet

https://allpoetry.com/Orhan-Veli-Kanik


Orhan Veli Kanik Poems

https://www.poemhunter.com/orhan-veli-kanik/