Dağlarca, inventor of modern-day epic Turkish poetry, dies

Dağlarca was born in 1914 in İstanbul. He graduated from the War Academy and, after 15 years of service, he left the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in 1950. He then worked as an inspector for the Labor Ministry. He retired in 1959 and dedicated himself to poetry.

However, Dağlarca's relationship with literature was rooted in his earliest years. His literary career was launched at age 13, when he won first place in a story contest for students. In 1933, his first poem appeared in the periodical titled "İstanbul." Starting from his years at the War Academy, Dağlarca wrote poems for leading literature magazine Varlık. In 1935, his first volume of poetry, "Havaya Çizilen Dünya" (The World Drawn in Air) appeared and in 1940, and fame found him as his second book "Çocuk ve Allah" (The Child and God) was published.

Dağlarca's poems generally concentrated on the relationship between man and the cosmos and between nature and the supernatural. Yet the poetry volumes that he published in the 1950s took a different twist and portrayed the relationship between the individual and society, as well as between the individual and nature. During the 1960s, the social changes going on in the country caught up with him, and he became increasingly sensitive to domestic and international issues and aware of national interests. In his poems, he took a stance against exploitation, condemned imperialism and sympathized with the struggle of abused peoples. Dağlarca is also known as the figure who introduced the genre of the epic poem into Turkish literature. Dağlarca believed "poetry should emphasize the elements that turn a society into a nation; it should feature its triumphs and pains."

Dağlarca led a life dedicated to poetry and chose not to express himself in any other genre. He was one the most prolific Turkish poets of the republican era, with more than 60 collections of his poems published. A selection of his poetry has also been translated into English and featured in the 1969 anthology "Selec-ted Poems" by Talat Sait Halman.