Cemal Süreya
Template:Short description Template:Expand Turkish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer Template:History of Turkish literature
Cemal Süreya, known by his given name as Cemalettin Seber (1931, Erzincan – 9 January 1990, Istanbul), was a Turkish poet, writer, and translator. He was one of the pioneering poets of the İkinci Yeni (Second New Poetry) movement, a modernist movement in Turkish poetry. Although he made his first attempts at poetry with sketches in middle school and aruz in high school, his true poetic work began during his university years. In addition to his poetry collections; Üvercinka (1958), Göçebe (1965), Beni Öp Sonra Doğur Beni (1973), Uçurumda Açan (1984), Sıcak Nal (1988), Güz Bitigi (1988), and Sevda Sözleri (1990); he also wrote essays, critiques, diaries, and anthologies.
The most frequent themes in his works are love, women, loneliness, social and political criticism, death, the idea of God, portraits, and poetics in verse. He also translated nearly forty books from French into Turkish. With the exception of Onüç Günün Mektupları (1990), all of his articles and poems were first published in magazines and newspapers and then turned into books. Süreya, who held a socialist worldview, published the magazine Papirüs, in which he expressed his literary views and used it as a tool to express his ideas as an intellectual.
Biography
Cemal Süreya, whose real name was Cemalettin Seber, was born in Erzincan in 1931. His exact birthday is unknown. He was born into a half-Kurdish, half-Zaza, Alevi-faith family that migrated from Pülümür to Erzincan. His father, Hüseyin Seber, who was born in Erzincan in 1905 and worked in the transportation business, was a Kurd. His mother, Güllü Hanım, known as "Gülbeyaz" and born in Karatuş in 1915, was a Zaza. His father, Hüseyin Bey, died in a traffic accident in 1957 and his mother, Güllü Hanım, died at the age of twenty-three due to bleeding following a miscarriage.
He graduated from the Political Sciences Faculty of Ankara University. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Papirüs literary magazine. Cemal Süreya is a notable member of the Second New Generation of Turkish poetry, an abstract and postmodern movement created as a backlash against the more popular-based Garip movement. Love, mainly through its erotic character, is a popular theme of Süreya's works. Süreya's poems and articles were published in magazines such as Yeditepe, Yazko, Pazar Postası, Yeni Ulus, Oluşum, Türkiye Yazıları, Politika, Aydınlık, and Somut. He is known to have been a primary influence on the poetry of Sunay Akın.Template:Citation needed He lost a letter "y" from his pen name – originally Süreyya – because of a lost bet with Turkish poet Sezai Karakoç.<ref name="Cemal Sureya">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Bibliography
Poetry
- Üvercinka (1958)
- Göçebe (1965)
- Beni Öp Sonra Doğur Beni (1973)
- Sevda Sözleri (Terms of Endearment, 1984)
- Güz Bitiği (1988)
- Sıcak Nal (1988)
- Sevda Sözleri (1990)
Articles
- Şapkam Dolu Çiçekle (1976)
- Günübirlik (1982)
- Onüç Günün Mektupları (1990)
- 99 Yüz (1990)
- Günler (1991)
- Aydınlık Yazıları/Paçal (1992)
- Oluşum'da Cemal Süreya (1992)
- Folklor Şiire Düşman (1992)
- Papirüs'ten Başyazılar (1992)
- Uzat Saçlarını Frigya (1992)
- Aritmetik iyi Kuşlar Pekiyi (1993) – for children
See also
References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Siirgen.org – Biography and bibliography of Cemal Süreya Template:In lang