The Poem of Age 35
Age 35!
That makes half of the way!
We are in
the middle of life like Dante.
The vigour
of our youth,
-Crying
and begging is in vain today,
Ends
without caring about your tears.
Did it snow
on my temples or what's this?
God, is
this wrinkled face mine?
Or these
purple rings beneath my eyes?
Why do
you seem as enemies,
The
mirrors which I knew as my friends for years?
How men
change by time!
The man
in any picture is not me.
Where are
those days, where is that glow and excitement?
This merry
man is not me.
My care
freeness is just a lie.
Our first
love is something like a dream,
I find
strange even its memory now.
Our ways separated
one by one,
With the
friends we had begun living.
Our
loneliness grows gradually.
I've
noticed too late that stone is hard.
Water
drowns and fire burns!
Each new
day brings a new trouble,
And men
can discover all these just at this age.
Quince's yellow,
pomegranate's red; autumn,
Which I
adopt a little more each year.
Why are
the birds wandering in the sky?
What
funeral is this? Who is dead?
After how
many gardens is this one that I see as scattered?
Unfortunately
death is for everybody.
You'll
fall asleep but you won't wake up again.
Who knows
where, how, when?
You'll
have a single prayer's glory,
On that
throne-like gravestone.
Who is Cahit Sıtkı TARANCI
Cahit Sıtkı was born in 4th October 1910 in Diyarbakır and passed away
in 12th January 1956 in Vienna. After starting a
primary school in Diyarbakır he went to Saint Joseph French High School as a
tradition of his wealthy family for secondary shcool. He finished his high
school in Galatasaray High School which was another French based on high school
in Turkey. In those schools,
Tarancı learnt French very well and was affected by Baudelaire,
Rimbaud,Mallarme. He started to write poems in high school years and his poems
were published in the magazine of Galatasaray High School, Academy. After Tarancı finished high school, he
continued his education in the School of Political Sciences in Istanbul between
the years 1931 and 1935. Then he left for Paris,to study in the Institut
d'Études Politiques de Paris, but he had to return to Turkey without completing his education in
the wake of World War II in 1940.From 1944 on, he worked as a translator in the state-owned
news agency Anadolu Ajansı , the Turkish Grain Board (TMO) and the Ministry of Labor. In
1951, he married Cavidan Tınaz. Following a severe illness in 1954, he became
paralyzed. As the treatment of his health problem did not succeed in Turkey, he
was taken to Vienna. He died on January 12, 1956 in a hospital there at the
age of 46. His body was brought to Turkey and was laid to rest at the Cebeci
Asri Cemetery in Ankara.
Masterpiece of Tarancı
Cahit Sıktı was an important poet in Turkish Literature and wrote
a lot impressive works. However, The Poem of Age 35 is the one which gave him a great success
and reputation. In this poem, Tarancı reveals his feelings about the
death,loneliness and experiences in the life. A simple but effective language
is used in this poem.
There are 35 lines,which refers to the age,and it starts with an
allusion to Dante. “We
are in the middle of the life like Dante.” As poet goes to French based on high
schools, he knows European Literature, and shows in the beginning of his poem.
As it is known, Dante starts his masterpiece Divine Comedy as “In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to
myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost.” Poet thinks the age 35 is a kind of limit of joy in the
life and after this certain age humankind start to question his experiences in
the life and miss the health and power that they used to have in 20s.
In the second
stanza, poet looks at the mirror gets shocked. He realizes the gray in his
hairs and the physical changes in his face. He thinks the mirrors which used to
be friends with him, are the biggest enemies now.
In the third stanza,
poet looks at old photos of him. He can not understand how time passes so fast
and why stop aging is impossible. He hardly recognizes himself in the photos as
the person he sees in the mirrors is not the same. He seeks for his previous
days and joyfulness. He thinks the person who smiles in the photos can not be
him, because he has a lot of concerns.
In the fourth
stanza, poet hardly remembers his first love. He says his friends are far away
now. The feelings he had, are gone now. The only thing poet has is nothing but
loneliness.
In the fifth and
sixth stanzas, poet talks about his experiences in the life. He says sky has
different colors,too. He claims he understands the basic things such as flame
burns so late. Therefore, he thinks he is too young to die. He sees a funeral
and complains about that. He is afraid of being next.
In the last stanza,
poet accepts death is inevitable. He thinks it as a sleep,but an eternal one.
What is scary about dying is that you do not know where,how and at what age. He
thinks death is a kind of being king for a second,because when you die
everybody scares from you and they show great respect.
Aesthetic Categories: Good/Bad
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı
thinks art is for art,it is not a tool to improve society. He thinks poetry
should not focus on social or personal benefits. The only aim of it to create
good and beautiful works. Therefore, he uses some poetical elements to make his
poems good.
Firstly, Tarancı
uses syllabic meter in his poem. Every line has 11 syllables. He even omits a
vowel from the first line of the last stanza,which is another common element
for Turkish Literature, in order to decrease the syllable from 12 to 11. This
is one the most common style in Turkish Literature. This technique gives the
poem a better harmony so that it sounds better. Moreover, he shapes the poem
like the title. There are 7 stanzas and each of them has 5 lines. When it is
calculated, it is 35 like the age of 35,title of the poem.
Secondly, Tarancı
uses harmony and rhyme in the poem. Since there are specific ends of the tenses
in Turkish grammar, writer creates a kind of harmony in the poem,which is
called as Redif. Besides the harmony, Tarancı uses
rhyme in the poem. However, rhyme is not directly the similar sounds at the end
of the poem in Turkish Literature. It is because Turkish is a agglutinating
language. Rhyme in Turkish Literature occurs after the inflection suffix is
omitted from the end of the word. If one letter is the same after the
inflection suffix is omitted it is “poor rhyme,” if two of them are the same,
it is “solid rhyme” and if it is more than two letters, it is rich rhyme.
Tarancı uses solid rhyme more than once and shows his ability to write a poem.
Finally, Tarancı
uses allusion to Dante and a metaphor to Turkish funerals, which makes his poem
good. He gives Dante's name directly and refers his masterpiece Divine Comedy in The
Poem of Age 35. Tarancı also
uses funeral metaphor it he last line of the poem. In Turkey, before put the
coffin in the soil, it is put in a specific place outside of the mosque.
People, pray for the death person the last time and wait on their hand on foot.
Tarancı think death person a treated like a king. However, the ironic part is
he/she is not aware of his/her kingdom.
Critics
The Poem of Age 35 is one of the best poems in Turkish
Poetry. Critics think this poem is a bridge between Garip Movement and
traditional Turkish poetry. The poem has the themes and language of the Garip
Movement which are death,loneliness and simple language. However, while poets
of Garip Movement use free style and rejected syllabic meter, Tarancı uses
traditional 11 meter and rhyme. This poem won a prize in a competition of
Republican People's Party ( CHP ) the first party of Turkish Republic. In 1946 The Poem of The Age 35 was chosen the best poem and it
made Tarancı one of most popular poets in Republican Era.
Influences
While writing the poem, Tarancı was affected by some European
writers such as Dante and Mallarme. However, the basic influence was the Garip Movement. Garip means
“poor and strange” in Turkish. Founder of this movement Orhan Veli Kanık chose
this title intentionally, because they selected middle class people rather than
elites in their works and they rejected all the rules of Turkish Poetry. They
think poetry should have a simple language,and subject does not have to be too
specific. This movement also called as the 1st New Movement as what they did was
quite new for Turkish Poetry. General themes of their poems are life,death,loneliness,
poverty etc. Even if they were looked down on in that time, a great honor is
given to them at present.
Interpretation
I think this poem is really a unique as it combines both Garip Movement and traditional Turkish poetic
style. Poet explains his feelings in a simple way;however, they do not make the
poem ordinary. Therefore, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı proves that poem does not have to
be too complex to be a good one. Especially the metaphor at the end of the poem
is quite good. Everybody becomes a king or queen for 5 minutes, but ironically
it does not have any worth.
Cengiz Güler
Works cited :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahit_S%C4%B1tk%C4%B1_Taranc%C4%B1
