Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was a Turkish poet, writer, and translator born on October 4, 1910, in Diyarbakır, and passed away on October 12, 1956, in Vienna. He was one of the leading figures of Turkish poetry in the Republican era. Tarancı is known for his poem "Thirty-Five Years" and remained committed to the "art for art's sake" principle. In his poems, he often explored themes such as the joy of life, death, lost loves, happy romances, loneliness, the bitterness of bohemian life, and longing for childhood.

Among Tarancı's major poetry books are "In My Life Silence" (1933), "Thirty-Five Years" (1946), "Beautiful from Dream" (1952), and "Afterward" (1957), which was published posthumously. He also wrote various short stories, which were compiled and published under the title "Let days don't diminish from my window" (2006). Tarancı also translated works from French literature. Many of the letters he wrote to family members, friends, and close acquaintances were published under the titles "Letters to Ziya" (1957) and "Letters to My Home and Nihal" (1989).

Born in Diyarbakır, Tarancı was from the Pirinççizade family. After completing his primary education in Diyarbakır, he went to Istanbul, where he attended the French Saint-Joseph School and then the Galatasaray High School for his secondary education. It was during his years at Galatasaray that he met Ziya Osman Saba, with whom he remained friends until his death. After high school, he attended the Mülkiye School in Yıldız and later studied at Science Po in Paris. During this time, he worked as a broadcaster for the Turkish broadcasts service of Radio Paris to support himself. Due to World War II, he left Paris by bicycle, passing through Lyon and Geneva, and returned to Turkey. During the war, he served in the military in Burhaniye.

After the war, he worked as a translator in Ankara. In 1954, he was taken to Vienna after suffering a stroke, and while receiving treatment at a hospital there, he passed away on October 12, 1956, due to pneumonia.

The house where Tarancı was born and raised in Diyarbakır was purchased by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1973. After being restored, it was opened as a museum on October 29, 1973, the 50th anniversary of the Republic.

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• A Day Comes
• A Distant Climate
• Abbas
• Booze Hound
• Colors
• From a Dead Person
• I’m Not A Man Meant To Die
• In My Life, Silence
• Insomnia
• Let Days Don’t Diminish From My Window
• Locksmith’s Table
• My One Moment
• Night is a Result
• On Nedîm
• Rain Was Falling
• So Immersed I Am
• The Absent-Minded Dead.
• The Age of Thirty-five
• The Place I Think About
• What If I Said
• Where Are We, My Beloved?
• Why After

Poems about Cahit Sıtkı: 
In My Dream by Ziya Osman Saba
Impossible Coincidences by Ziya Osman Saba

Articles about Cahit Sıktı:
Memories of Cahit Sıtkı by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
My Days with Cahit by Ziya Osman Saba