Asaf Halet Çelebi
Asaf Halet Çelebi (27 December 1907 – 15 October 1958) was a Turkish mystical poet.[1] Although not very widely known, due to his erudite and often foreign-influenced style,[2] he is considered to be Turkey's first surrealist poet.[3]
Biography
Çelebi was born in
Çelebi studied at Galatasaray High School in Istanbul.[6][2] He started his higher education at the School of Fine Arts, which he left shortly after, and continued them at the Vocational School of Law.[2]
After graduating, he worked at the Ottoman Bank and the State Maritime Administration.[2] However, he has worked through most of his life as a librarian, and at the time of his death in 1958, he was employed as such at the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Letters in Istanbul.[6][2]
Asaf Halet Çelebi died on 15 October 1958, age 51, and is buried at the Beylerbeyi Küplüce Cemetery in Üsküdar, Istanbul.[2]
Literary work
In his youth Çelebi was still influenced by
As a librarian, Çelebi had a lot of time and opportunity to read, and his readings stood at the base of his poetic work.
During his youth, Çelebi wrote, without publishing them, poems in the classical Eastern formats of the
Çelebi had a deep understanding of Eastern and Western cultures. He wrote articles about Eastern civilisations and Persian literature, and researched Divan literature. His poetry was the result of his combined knowledge of philosophy, music, Ottoman culture, Persian culture and French poetry.[2] This makes it a prerequisite for his readers to acquire a certain level of knowledge, too, before they can fully understand the quality of Çelebi's work.[2]
Çelebi has translated Rumi's quatrains into Turkish and French, in 1939 and 1950, respectively.[7]
Bibliography
Poetry
- "He" (1942)
- "Lâmelif" (1945)
- "Om Mani Padme Hum" (1953)
Prose
- "Mevlâna" (1940)
- "Molla Câmi" (1940)
- "Eşrefoğlu Divanı" (1944)
- "Naima" (monography, 1953)
- "Ömer Hayyam" (1954)
- "Divan Şiirinde İstanbul" (anthology, 1953)
See also
References
- ^ Jale Erzen (October 2008). "The Dervishes Dance — The Sacred Ritual of Love". Contemporary Aesthetics. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Diba Bahadıroğlu (19 December 2017). "Asaf Halet Çelebi". Makaleler.com. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ISBN 9780815631460. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ^ Mevlevi Order, Mevlevi Order website, accessed 30 June 2019
- ^ What is Çelebi?, Mevlevi Order website, accessed 30 June 2019
- ^ a b c d Ramazan Gülendam. "Asıl 'Garip': Asaf Halet Çelebi (The Real "Stranger": Asaf Halet Çelebi)". Turkish Studies: International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic (in Turkish and English). 4 /1-II (Winter 2009). Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ISBN 9780791416358. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- Biyografi.net - Biography of Asaf Halet Çelebi (in Turkish)
- Aruz.com - Biography of Asaf Halet Çelebi (in Turkish)
External links
- Asaf Halet Çelebi - On his life and poetry (in Turkish)