OUR FOLK POETS PHONE CARD

YUNUS EMRE

Yunus Emre, filled with  Sufist feelings and thoughts, was the pioneer of Turkish poetry in Anatolia. It is known that he lived in 13th century but it is not certainly known where he died and where he was buried due to availability of limited information about his life.

Yunus Emre was the representative of an opinion the base of which was to reach God through feelings. With the effect of Sufist philosophy he defended the principle of not hurting others' feelings and he emphasized this principle in almost all of his poems. To Yunus Emre, the concept of goodness covers  longing for God, trust in God, patience,  good heart, generosity,   honesty, shame and satisfaction. Ostentation, haughtiness, lust, jealousy, fury, stinginess, grudge, gossip and hypocrisy all together form badness.

Most of his poems were composed in various modes by our old composers, furthermore, they have been a subject for contemporary art music treated with  Western technique. Ahmet Adnan Saygun introduced him both at home and abroad with Yunus Emre Oratorio that  he prepared    by collecting a lot of works of this well-known poet, in 1942.

KARACAOĞLAN

Karacaoğlan who was supposed to live in 17th century  is one of our folk poets from nomadic Turkmen tribes. Karacaoğlan who was the first and most popular representative of Turkmen minstrel tradition formed his poems  on two basic elements such as love and nature. Nature as a vital  part of nomadic life was the subject that he used most  after love. Separation, homesickness and death are among the subjects that he used in his poetry.

There is no certain information about his birth and death places and his life period.

AŞIK VEYSEL

Full name of Aşık Veysel -one of the important representatives of Turkish folk poetry- is Veysel Şatıroğlu. He lost one of his eyes due to smallpox when he was a child and then he lost his other eye as a result of an accident.

He was affected by the poets like Yunus Emre, Pir Sultan Abdal, Karacaoğlan and Dadaloğlu and the other poets around him. Aşık Veysel having a new and original place in folk poetry tradition rejected improvisation and formed his poetry as a result of long studies. He was not interested in ordinary subjects and used his austere Turkish Language masterly.

In his poems, the joys and sorrows of life, optimism and despair are all together.

Aşık Veysel, born in 1894, died of lung cancer in 1973 and in accordance with his last will he was buried with folk songs.