Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse [Hardcover]

Nazim Hikmet (Author), Randy Blasing (Translator), Mutlu Konuk (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

When, on the eve of the Second World War, Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) -- Turkey's most acclaimed and popular poet -- was sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison for his Communist beliefs, he embarked on the writing of his epic, Human Landscapes from My Country. This 17,000-line verse-novel is made up of a traveler's vivid encounters with Turkish men and women from all walks of life. In colloquial language, Hikmet stages their private hopes and griefs, and through these many human dramas, he documents Turkey's historic transformation into a secular republic. Human Landscapes from My Country is "lively . . . cinematographic . . . [able] to capture the least scholarly reader" (Denise Levertov).

Human Landscapes from My Country was published in a abridged English-language version by Persea Books twenty years ago. This new edition marks a major event in contemporary world literature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A vital part of modern Turkish literature, Hikmet (1902-1963) was a poet whose lyrics, as sung by leftist performers such as Pete Seeger, had international resonance, and whose repeated imprisonments drew protests from the likes of Pablo Picasso and Jean-Paul Sartre. This novel in verse, written during one long prison sentence in the 1940s, reflects the emotional and physical torments the poet experienced. More gritty than lyrical, it is powerfully plainspoken: "But Selim was no Communist. He didn't even know what communism was ...But the cops thought different. They laid Selim on the floor. And when Selim got up, he couldn't step on his feet. They laid Selim on the floor. And when Selim got up, he couldn't see." A revised version of a 1983 abridged Persea edition, this volume disappoints in at least one respect: a facile preface by Edward Hirsch, who states that Hikmet's "voice is sad and reads like music; it is joyful and sounds like happiness." Hikmet's writing is poetry under siege, and the blunt heroism of his characters makes them more Marxist ideals than believable human beings. The poetic element may not survive well in translation, but the content and context make this a lastingly fascinating work. As translator Konuk writes, the book describes "people from different social backgrounds and classes, ranging from the dispossessed and the unemployed to senators and industrialists... from factory workers and peasants to doctors and professors' wives." This is recommended for all modern literature collections, as evidence of the indomitable human will toward free speech in spite of great suffering.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

One of the great works of modern literature. -- Raymond Carver

The content of this major work is highly moving. Highly recommended. -- Virginia Quarterly Review

[Hikmet's] special gift is to show that every human life is a story, and a compelling one. -- The Hudson Review

[L]ively...cinematographic...[able] to capture the least scholarly reader. -- Denise Levertov

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Persea Books; 1 edition (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892552735
• ISBN-13: 978-0892552733
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,344,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, and a good edition, October 26, 2002

By 

dndnd (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse (Hardcover)

Nazim Hikmet and his poetry and prose are famous for various reasons, and I think with this specific edition the value of the poetry is very well communicated even to those who read Nazim for the first time. The translation, the glossary and the introductions are what make this edition great. As to what makes this book great... it is a very telling story of the history of the time in Turkey. The characters come alive and pass us by as we turn the pages and the reader becomes a part of the epic. While reading the story I felt like I was in Turkey and was turning my head to see where the noises were coming from only to be included in the daily lives of so many very well developed characters....

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human Landscapes of a Nation, November 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse (Hardcover)

Nazim Hikmet's great Epic Poetry is written in simple lines that carry more than they seem. So much about a culture and its human side. Nazim Hikmet, regardless of his politic side, is a humanist that always believed in human beings and wished for the best for those who suffer. Human Landscapes is a masterpiece of his humanist side.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magnificent Epic, December 14, 2011

By 

Charles B. Taylor "Chuck Taylor" (College Station, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse (Karen and Michael Braziller Books) (Paperback)

Are you ready for a 465 page poem? So much are readers seemingly put off by poetry that most of what you get these days are collections of short poems in thin books that cost more than a novel and have spines so thin you can barely read the title.
Actually, this English translation of Turkey's world writer, Nazim Hikmet, wiitten in free verse splayed across the page like Naked nude, is no more a challenging read than a novel of the same length.
Hikmet wrote this poem while in prison, where he was tossed after it was learned that Turkish soldiers were reciting his poems. You get a panoramic look of Turkey from the 1880's up to World War II, and a picture of humanity that is universal. The structure of this epic novel in verse is a train ride across Turkey with passengers telling their stories, Some of the passengers are prisoners being transferred.
The multitude of stories told have an earthiness a bit like Chaucer's epic, the Canterbury tales, and the structure of a group of people traveling and telling stories is the same. War is a major subject, as with Homer and Virgil. In Hikmet you hear the stories of both the rich and the poor. An American friend of mine who lives in Turkey tells me he can discuss poetry with waiters in a restaurant. Poetry is still important to that culture. You get that sense reading Hikmet. Unlike Pound's unfinished Cantos, which he could never get to cohere and which tend to be elitist, Hikmet's epic lives in the salt of the earth.