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I've Learned Some Things

Middle Eastern Studies
I've Learned Some Things
By Ataol Behramoğlu
Translated by Walter G. Andrews

An English-Turkish bilingual volume of poetry by one of Turkey's most celebrated poets.

Series: CMES Modern Middle East Literatures in Translation

Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin
January 2008
This is a print-on-demand title. Expedited shipping is not available.
$19.95
212 pages | 5.5 x 8.5 |
ISBN: 
978-0-292-71969-9
Description: 

I've Learned Some Things allows English-language readers the rare opportunity to experience the work of Ataol Behramoğlu, one of Turkey's most celebrated poets. The sixty-six poems in this collection span the author's extraordinary career and are stunning examples of the intense emotional quality of his work. Behramoğlu celebrates the rich fabric of everyday life by exploring both personal and social struggles, sometimes employing a whimsical tone.

 

Walter G. Andrews's skillful translation conveys the vibrancy of Behramoğlu's work to an English-language audience, and this bilingual edition allows Turkish-language readers to follow the original text.

 

Author: 

Ataol Behramoğlu, Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Istanbul University and a columnist for the newspaper Cumhuriyet, continues to write poetry as well as articles, criticism, travel literature, children's stories, plays, and translations.

Walter G. Andrews is Research Professor in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington and is also the Director of the Ottoman Texts Archive Project (OTAP). He has authored numerous articles and books on Ottoman literature and has translated several volumes of Ottoman and Turkish poetry, including Seasons of the Word: Selected Poems of Hilmi Yavuz.

Excerpts: 

VI

Past time
If remembered, is right now
Or else it's torn out and thrown away
Like a page from a notebook

What's torn out and thrown away
Can be a fluttering heart
Or else a summer night
Its stars dying in agony

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