İlhan Berk facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
İlhan Berk
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| Born | 18 November 1918 Manisa, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 28 August 2008 (aged 89) Muğla, Turkey |
| Occupation | Poet, essayist |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Period | 1935–2008 |
| Literary movement | Postmodern literature |
İlhan Berk (born November 18, 1918 – died August 28, 2008) was a very important Turkish poet. He was a key writer in a style called "İkinci Yeni," which means "The Second New Generation." This group of poets brought a fresh, modern way of writing to Turkish poetry. İlhan Berk was highly respected and had a big impact on other writers in Turkey.
Contents
A Poet's Life Story
İlhan Berk was born in Manisa, Turkey, in 1918. When he was a child, he saw the terrible Fire of Manisa. This event might have influenced his later writing. He trained to be a teacher in Balıkesir. Later, he studied French Language at Gazi University in Ankara.
From 1945 to 1955, Berk worked as a teacher. After that, he started a new job at the publishing office of Ziraat Bank. There, he worked as a translator from 1956 to 1969. He became very good at translating poetry. He translated works by famous poets like Arthur Rimbaud and Ezra Pound into Turkish. In his later years, İlhan Berk lived in Bodrum, a beautiful town. He passed away there on August 28, 2008.
Exploring İlhan Berk's Poetry
İlhan Berk's poems often focused on making everyday "objects" seem important and special. He wanted to break down the usual way we understand things. His poetry was inspired by mythology and mixed ideas from both Western and Eastern poetry. This helped him create a very unique and modern style.
His poems often explored themes like history, geography, and visual arts. He wrote about cities such as Istanbul, Paris, and Ankara. Berk used a wide range of words in his poetry. This included common everyday words, but also very specific terms, like musical words or names of plants.
Many of İlhan Berk's works are now available in English. Some of his well-known English collections include A Leaf About To Fall: Selected Poems (2006), Madrigals (2008), The Book of Things (2009), and New selected poems 1947-2008 (2016). These were all translated by George Messo.
Awards and Recognition
İlhan Berk received several important awards for his poetry:
- 1979 Turkish Language Association Award
- 1980 Behçet Necatigil Poetry Award
- 1983 Yeditepe Poetry Prize
- 1988 Sedat Simavi Literature Award
See also
- List of contemporary Turkish poets
Resources
