Orhan Veli Kanik

                           Poet 
       b., 1914, Istanbul; d., November 14, 1950, Istanbul

Son of the conductor of the Presidential Symphony, Orhan Veli received
a good liberal education but left University of Istanbul in 1935 before
completing his studies. He worked in the Ankara Post Office until he was
called up during World War II. On his discharge in 1945 he obtained a post
as translator in the Ministry of Education but left his job in less than two
years to lead a Bohemian existance. His younger brother, Adnan Veli, 
himself a writer, was imprisoned for political offense in 1949 but Orhan
Veli was able to publish a literary journal, Yaprak [Leaf], for 28 issues
until a cerebral hemorrage ended his life.

Orhan Veli was more influenced by the sketch image of the Japanese haiku
than by any Turkish or even conventional Western poetic source. He felt
that we ``must free ourselves from poetic conceptions and from the effort
to make the use of words beautiful.''

     I am listening to Istanbul, with my eyes closed.
     The drunkeness of ancient feastings in my head.
     A seashore villa with dim -lit boathouse
     With howling of the dying west wind
     I am listening to Istanbul, with my eyes closed.

It is no exaggeration to say that Orhan Veli and the Garip movement represents
a watershed in Turkish literature. After him free verse and an unlimited
range of themes became the rule, while ``aruz'' meter and ``the rose and
the nightingale'' became anachronisms. Though not a prolific writer
himself, Orhan Veli broke the conventional mold of polite Turkish verse.
While discarding rhyme and meter Orhan Veli espresses an almost nihilistic
world view that replaced him firmly in the company of modern western man.

     The problem and so on, it was not thus.
     ``To be or not to be'' for him:
     One evening he went to sleep:
     He just didn't wake up.
     They took him; they carried him out.
     Washed him, said their prayers, buried him.
     If he creditors hear that he has died
     Surely they will forgive his debts.
     As for the money owed to him,
     The late lamented, had no credit due to him for sure.

from Comtemporary Turkish Writers - A Critical Bio-Bibliography
Louis Mitler - Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, 1988.
p. 142-144.