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A Brave New Quest: 100 Modern Turkish Poems (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)

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"A Brave New Quest: 100 Modern Turkish Poems" is a beautiful , rare jewel . Illuminate by a sapphire blue with white, flame and peacock cover photographed detail from Iznik tile in the Rutwem Pasha Mosque, in Istanbul, this is the only anthology of modern Turkish poetry translated into English. Coming from a nation where virtually everyone is a poet, the anthology contains a vibrant, varied and sophisticated sampling of modern Turkish poetry. Here you will find poems about fear, death, love, nature, change, bewilderment of the senses, transfiguration, cruelty and social injustice, pain, hope, laughter, tears, joy and despair, and above all passionate longing. Poets whose work are included in this translation include Nazim Hikmet, Fazil Husnu Daglarca,Orhan Veli Kanik, Behdet Necatigil, Attila Ilhan, Melih Cevdet Anday, Edip Cansever, Ece Ayhan, Kemal Ozer, Ulku Tamer, and so many more. Each poetic work is selected and translated with loving care for the fine imagery, the lyrical syllables even in English. Editor Talat S. Halman has many starry credentials to explain the fine workmanship in "A Brave New Quest." Besides being a leading translator of Turkish literature and many books about modern Turkish playwrights and poets, he is an award winning avatar for Turkish culture and literature. Besides translating major works of English into Turkish and vice versa, he is an accomplished playwright, poet, and writer. Awards he has received include Columbia University's Thornton Wilder Translation Prize, the 1999 Service Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences for enhancing the recognition of Turkish literature, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000. His offering in "A Brave New Quest" seems equivalent to a prism that allows the rainbow of beauty and complexity of modern Turkish poetry to sing, quietly, to an English speaking audience. It is very difficult to select a quotation from such a fine collection, but here is one choice from a poem called (untitled) by Nazim Hikmet:

Let us give the world to the children at least for one day
Let them play with it as if it's a spangled balloon
Let them sing and dance among the stars

Let us give the world to the children
Like a huge apple or a warm loaf of bread
at least for one day
so that they'll have enough to eat

Let us give the world to the children
so that even if it's for one day
it will learn what friendship is

The children will take the world
out of our hands
and they will plant immortal trees. (p. 20)

Here is yet another fragment, the sixth definition of poetry from fifteen in a from a poem entitled "Responses for Poetry" by Ulku Tamer:
Poetry is the drinking bucket's fountain
the well's traveler.

It is the guard at the source (p. 160).

"A Brave New Quest: 100 Modern Turkish Poems" will enthrall, entice, and enlighten its lucky readers. May its copies fly off the shelves into the hands of those who truly appreciate what poetry has to offer.