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A Turkish police officer questions a Kurdish boy about an attack on fellow officers that left one dead and another wounded. The attack occurred in Diyarbakir, Turkey, a predominantly Kurdish town, and came several days after violence that began with a suicide bombing that killed 32 along the Turkey-Syria border: photo by Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse, 23 July 2015
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A Turkish police officer questions a Kurdish boy after one Turkish policeman was shot dead in Diyarbakir [photo Bulent Kilic]: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 23 July 2015
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Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @ozzyozann: image via Agence France-Presse @ AFP, 26 July 2015
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Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @ozzyozann: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
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Turkey accused of shelling Kurdish-held village in Syria (Istanbul photo by @Kilicbil): image via Kaycee Nightfire @KcNightfire, 27 July 2015
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Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
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Turkey: Istanbul police, protesters clash in flashpoint district. Photo @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
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Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
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Turkish President Says Can’t Continue Peace Talks with #Kurds #TwitterKurds #Turkey #PKK #HDP: image by Mewan DolamariHans Solo @thandojo, 28 July 2015 ![Embedded image permalink]()
A Turkish police officer questions a Kurdish boy about an attack on fellow officers that left one dead and another wounded. The attack occurred in Diyarbakir, Turkey, a predominantly Kurdish town, and came several days after violence that began with a suicide bombing that killed 32 along the Turkey-Syria border: photo by Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse, 23 July 2015
I...Autobiography
I was born in 1902
I never once went back to my birthplace
I don't like to turn back
at three I served as a pasha's grandson in Aleppo
at nineteen as a student at Moscow Communist University
at forty-nine I was back in Moscow as the Tcheka Party's guest
and I've been a poet since I was fourteen
some people know all about plants some about fish
I know separation
some people know the names of the stars by heart
I recite absences
I've slept in prisons and in grand hotels
I've known hunger even a hunger strike and there's almost no food
I haven't tasted
at thirty they wanted to hang me
at forty-eight to give me the Peace Prize
which they did
at thirty-six I covered four square meters of concrete in half a year
at fifty-nine I flew from Prague to Havana in eighteen hours
I never saw Lenin I stood watch at his coffin in '24
in '61 the tomb I visit is his books
they tried to tear me away from my party
it didn't work
nor was I crushed under the falling idols
in '51 I sailed with a young friend into the teeth of death
in '52 I spent four months flat on my back with a broken heart
waiting to die
I was jealous of the women I loved
I didn't envy Charlie Chaplin one bit
I deceived my women
I never talked behind my friends' backs
I drank but not every day
I earned my bread money honestly what happiness
out of embarrassment for others I lied
I lied so as not to hurt someone else
but I also lied for no reason at all
I've ridden in trains planes and cars
most people don't get the chance
I went to opera
most people haven't even heard of the opera
and since '21 I haven't gone to the places most people visit
mosques churches temples synagogues sorcerers
but I've had my coffee grounds read
my writings are published in thirty or forty languages
in my Turkey in my Turkish they're banned
cancer hasn't caught up with me yet
and nothing says it will
I'll never be a prime minister or anything like that
and I wouldn't want such a life
nor did I go to war
or burrow in bomb shelters in the bottom of the night
and I never had to take to the road under diving planes
but I fell in love at almost sixty
in short comrades
even if today in Berlin I'm croaking of grief
I can say I've lived like a human being
and who knows
how much longer I'll live
what else will happen to me
East Berlin, 11 September 1961
Nâzim Hikmet Ran (b. Salonica, 15 January 1902 - d. Moscow, 3 June 1963): Autobiography, 11 September 1961, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, 1993
I never once went back to my birthplace
I don't like to turn back
at three I served as a pasha's grandson in Aleppo
at nineteen as a student at Moscow Communist University
at forty-nine I was back in Moscow as the Tcheka Party's guest
and I've been a poet since I was fourteen
some people know all about plants some about fish
I know separation
some people know the names of the stars by heart
I recite absences
I've slept in prisons and in grand hotels
I've known hunger even a hunger strike and there's almost no food
I haven't tasted
at thirty they wanted to hang me
at forty-eight to give me the Peace Prize
which they did
at thirty-six I covered four square meters of concrete in half a year
at fifty-nine I flew from Prague to Havana in eighteen hours
I never saw Lenin I stood watch at his coffin in '24
in '61 the tomb I visit is his books
they tried to tear me away from my party
it didn't work
nor was I crushed under the falling idols
in '51 I sailed with a young friend into the teeth of death
in '52 I spent four months flat on my back with a broken heart
waiting to die
I was jealous of the women I loved
I didn't envy Charlie Chaplin one bit
I deceived my women
I never talked behind my friends' backs
I drank but not every day
I earned my bread money honestly what happiness
out of embarrassment for others I lied
I lied so as not to hurt someone else
but I also lied for no reason at all
I've ridden in trains planes and cars
most people don't get the chance
I went to opera
most people haven't even heard of the opera
and since '21 I haven't gone to the places most people visit
mosques churches temples synagogues sorcerers
but I've had my coffee grounds read
my writings are published in thirty or forty languages
in my Turkey in my Turkish they're banned
cancer hasn't caught up with me yet
and nothing says it will
I'll never be a prime minister or anything like that
and I wouldn't want such a life
nor did I go to war
or burrow in bomb shelters in the bottom of the night
and I never had to take to the road under diving planes
but I fell in love at almost sixty
in short comrades
even if today in Berlin I'm croaking of grief
I can say I've lived like a human being
and who knows
how much longer I'll live
what else will happen to me
East Berlin, 11 September 1961
Nâzim Hikmet Ran (b. Salonica, 15 January 1902 - d. Moscow, 3 June 1963): Autobiography, 11 September 1961, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, 1993
A Turkish police officer questions a Kurdish boy after one Turkish policeman was shot dead in Diyarbakir [photo Bulent Kilic]: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 23 July 2015
Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @ozzyozann: image via Agence France-Presse @ AFP, 26 July 2015
Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @ozzyozann: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
Turkey accused of shelling Kurdish-held village in Syria (Istanbul photo by @Kilicbil): image via Kaycee Nightfire @KcNightfire, 27 July 2015
Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
Turkey: Istanbul police, protesters clash in flashpoint district. Photo @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
Protests, clashes in Istanbul's Gazi district: photo by @Kilicbil: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 26 July 2015
Turkish President Says Can’t Continue Peace Talks with #Kurds #TwitterKurds #Turkey #PKK #HDP: image by Mewan DolamariHans Solo @thandojo, 28 July 2015
During clashes with riot police at a demonstration against the death of Gunay Ozarslan, in #Istanbul's Gazi, #Turkey: image by Hans Solo @thandojo, 28 July 2015
![nazim hikmet | by akabolla]()
![Nazim Hikmet | by J Kresve]()
![Untitled | by urb_mtl]()
![Nazim_Hikmet_04 | by canburak]()
Nâzim Hikmet (Bologna): photo by stefano, 9 December 2013
![ulucanlar prison | by nsnx]()
Ulucanlar Prison, Turkey: photo by 'Enes Dilber, 19 September 2014
II...It's This Way
I stand in the advancing light,
my hands hungry, the world beautiful.
My eyes can't get enough of the trees --
they're so hopeful, so green.
A sunny road runs through the mulberries,
I'm at the window of the prison infirmary.
I can't smell the medicines --
carnations must be blooming nearby.
It's this way:
being captured is beside the point,
the point is not to surrender.
Nâzim Hikmet Ran ((b. Salonica, 15 January 1902 - d. Moscow, 3 June 1963)): It's This Way, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, 1993
My eyes can't get enough of the trees --
they're so hopeful, so green.
A sunny road runs through the mulberries,
I'm at the window of the prison infirmary.
I can't smell the medicines --
carnations must be blooming nearby.
It's this way:
being captured is beside the point,
the point is not to surrender.
Nâzim Hikmet Ran ((b. Salonica, 15 January 1902 - d. Moscow, 3 June 1963)): It's This Way, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk, 1993
Ulucanlar Prison, Turkey: photo by 'Enes Dilber, 19 September 2014
Nâzim Hikmet (r.) with fellow inmates, Sultahnamet Prison, Istanbul [?]. "Si yo no incendio, si tú no incendias, como hacer luz de las tinieblas?"Nâzim Hikmet, poeta y paisano.: photographer unknown, n..d.; image by J. Kresve, 17 December 2008
Street sign (Paris): photo by urb_mtl, 19 July 2010
Nâzim Hikmet: photographer unknown, n..d.; image by canburak, 23 January 2013