Nâzım Hikmet
Nâzım HikmetThe Turkish revolutionary poet who survived a 28-year sentence with verse: giant of 20th-century letters who fused modernism and communism
“Bury me under a plane tree in any village cemetery in Anatolia” — his last wish, Moscow, 1963
Born in Ottoman Salonica, Nâzım Hikmet encountered Mayakovsky and Lenin in 1921 and became a lifelong communist, returning to Turkey to pioneer free verse and transform its poetry. From "835 Lines" to the 16,000-line epic "Human Landscapes from My Country," his vast body of work sang the lives of ordinary people and the War of Independence. A military court sentenced him to 28 years; he served 12, his imprisonment sparking a global campaign by Picasso, Sartre, and Robeson. After escaping to the USSR in 1951 he spent 13 years in the peace movement and anti-colonial solidarity. His poetry is translated into over 50 languages; UNESCO declared 2002 the 'Year of Nâzım Hikmet.'
Career timeline
- 1913Publishes first poem, "Feryad-ı Vatan" (The Cry of the Homeland)
- 1918Graduates from the Ottoman Naval Academy; serves as naval officer
- 1921Travels to Anatolia to join the War of Independence; meets Mustafa Kemal
- 1922–1924Studies at KUTV, Moscow; joins the Bolshevik Party
- 1924–1925Returns to Turkey; edits Aydınlık, organ of the illegal Turkish Communist Party
- 1929Publishes "835 Lines" — revolutionises Turkish poetry with free verse
- 1933–1935First imprisonment for "Gece Gelen Telgraf"; writes "The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin" in Bursa Prison
- 1938–1950Sentenced to 28 years for inciting mutiny; serves 12 years across four prisons
- 1939–1960Writes 16,000-line epic "Human Landscapes from My Country" in prison
- 1950Amnestied after international campaign and hunger strike; awarded International Peace Prize
- 1951–1963Exiled in the USSR; Bureau member of World Peace Council, anti-colonial and anti-war activism
- 1963.6.3Dies of a heart attack at his dacha in Peredelkino; buried at Novodevichy Cemetery