On Tanpınar and Yahya Kemal
Now, both of them, who loved the Bosphorus so much, seem to have plunged into an endless conversation, side by side in the Rumelihisarı cemetery. On both of their graves, one can see roses, carnations, and chrysanthemums left by faithful hands according to the season.
On the marble covering Yahya Kemal, there is this quatrain:
"Death is a tranquil spring country for the soul;
It burns like incense in the heart for years on end.
And beneath the cool cypress trees that shelter the grave,
Every morning, a rose blossoms, and every night, a nightingale sings."
On the marble covering Tanpınar, this quatrain is read:
"Neither am I within time
Nor completely out of it;
In the seamless, vast moment's
Unbroken flow I sit."
These two quatrains reflect each one's temperament, life philosophy, and therefore their similarities and differences within two distinct technical and aesthetic perspectives.
Like a window opening to infinity, in Tanpınar's poetry, there is a concept of time that transcends the limit of life; in Yahya Kemal’s poetry, there is a view that encompasses death within the boundaries of life. In a way, both converge on the line of the immortality of the soul. In contrast to Yahya Kemal’s view leaning towards pantheism, Tanpınar seems to have a cosmic view closer to the "Stoics." This difference, stemming from the changes in temperament and the family and environment in which their childhood years passed, plays an important role in their understanding of poetry.
Likewise, the positions of these two intellectual and artistic figures, who are molded by Western culture, against our national culture are also different: Yahya Kemal leans more towards a mystical idealism nourished by Iranian-Turkish poetry, while Tanpınar turns towards a Western rationalism influenced by Turkish logic and morality (His father was a "Kadı").
During the disastrous Balkan War, when the family lands of Yahya Kemal were left outside our national borders, he was in his most enthusiastic, most passionate youth. However, as Tanpınar points out, he rarely touches on this theme in both his prose and poetry. In the poetic climate his temperament seeks refuge in, this is replaced by a theme of "history and conquest." He writes "The Raiders," "The Song of Mohács," "A Ghazal for Gedik Pasha," and later "Selimname."
Tanpınar, who spent part of his childhood in the homeland territories later lost, tends to limit national life with a sense of consciousness. He writes "Five Cities," Erzurum, Konya, Bursa, Istanbul, and Ankara.
While Yahya Kemal expresses the spirit of old victories and old raiders, Tanpınar explores the composition of elements of thought, feeling, and taste that establish a life order within time.
(...)
Now, both of them, who loved the Bosphorus so much, seem to have plunged into an endless conversation, side by side in the Rumelihisarı cemetery. Let's leave bouquets of love and admiration, overflowing from our hearts, on the marble that covers them.
Ahmet Kutsi Tecer
Return to the main page