Rumi's Masnavi and Majalis-i Sab'a, Sa'di's Bustan and Gulistan, and the divan of Hafiz have all been rendered anew into Turkish by Hicabi Kırlangıç, and it is for these translations that his name is chiefly known today. Born in Amasya on 31 January 1966, Kırlangıç is a scholar of Persian literature; poetry, however, came before all of this, when he was fifteen. He has published three books of poems and twice served as president of the Writers' Union of Turkey (Türkiye Yazarlar Birliği). Two records can be consulted for his life: the entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature, TEİS) and a short biography published by the Writers' Union in 2013. No detailed study of his poetry has been seen.

His Life

After completing his primary and secondary schooling in the city of his birth, he studied Persian language and literature at the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography of Ankara University. He took his first degree in 1987 and his master's in 1989, and received his doctorate in 1996. He had joined the same faculty as a research assistant in 1988; he became associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2010. In the 2004-2005 academic year he taught as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran. In 2018, when the dictionary entry was written, he was head of the Department of Eastern Languages and Literatures.

Outside the university, too, he has been part of several institutions. He was among the founders of Nüsha, a quarterly scholarly journal devoted to Oriental studies, when it was established in 2001, and he took on editorial duties there. He is one of the founders of the Association for Rumi Studies (Mevlânâ Araştırmaları Derneği) and a member of its board. He twice served as president of the Writers' Union of Turkey, in 2006-2008 and 2014-2016. It is also recorded that he prepared radio programmes for a time and that some of his poems have been set to music.

Kırlangıç's link with Amasya is his birthplace and his school years; he received his education up to university in the city. What relationship he kept with the city in later years, and whether Amasya finds its way into his poems, are questions the sources leave untouched.

His list of translations, however, includes two works that touch on the history of Amasya. One is the Persian Selim Şah-nâme of İdris-i Bidlisi. Bidlisi wrote it at the command of Selim I (Selim the Grim), who had been born in Amasya, and recounted the sultan's life from his birth to 1518; Kırlangıç's study and translation appeared in Ankara in 2001 among the publications of the Ministry of Culture. The other is the Tezkire in which the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp set down in his own hand the events from his accession to 1559. That span of years includes the Treaty of Amasya, concluded between the Ottomans and the Safavids in 1555. The sources this page draws on do not say how the memoir treats the treaty; what is noted here is only the overlap of dates.

His Poetry

Copyright note: The poet is living, so his poems are not given pages of their own. Copyright will last until the end of the seventieth year after his death.

He entered literature through poetry. His first poems were published in 1981 in Aylık Dergi, which appeared in Ankara; between 1983 and 1988 he also worked on the review at intervals. After it closed, his poems appeared in Ayâne, Kardelen, Düş Çınarı, Dergâh, Edebiyat Ortamı, Yedi İklim and Hece. His translations from Persian literature and his articles were printed in the same reviews, as well as in Türk Dili and in the faculty's journal Doğu Dilleri.

His books of poems number three: Hayret Makamında (In the Station of Bewilderment, 1993), Düşte Yürüyen Derviş (The Dervish Walking in a Dream, 2004) and 3 Defter (Three Notebooks, 2015). Durmuş Beyazıt, author of the TEİS entry, writes that a plain manner of speech and a tender, heartfelt expression come to the fore in these poems, that the poet mostly addresses the beloved in his lines, and that he reworks the image of the beloved from the classical tradition in a modern form. The "station of bewilderment" in the title of the first book is a well-known stage of the Sufi path, and a dervish appears in the title of the second; one might say that the titles point in the same direction as the poet's work on Rumi and the Persian classics, but since the poems themselves have not been seen, this remains no more than an impression.

The law would have allowed a short quotation. The sources used, however, do not contain a single line by the poet, and so this page offers no sample of his verse.

Awards

In 2013, at the 10th International Festival of Turkic Poetry held in Kyrgyzstan, he received the Manas Grand Award, one of the three major prizes given by the Writers' Union of Turkey. In 2018 the same union gave him its translation award of the year for his verse translation of the Masnavi.

Works

  • Arap Siyasi Düşüncesinin Seyri, translated from Hamid Enayat, Istanbul: Yöneliş, 1991 (2nd ed. 1997).
  • Hayret Makamında, poems, Istanbul: Denge, 1993.
  • Kur'an'da Keramet, translation, Istanbul: İnsan, 1995.
  • Can Esintisi, essays on classical Persian poetry by Nasrollah Pourjavady, translation, Istanbul: İnsan, 1998.
  • Tezkire, translated from Shah Tahmasp, 2001. Publisher and place differ in the sources: TEİS gives "Atlas Kitap / Ankara", the Writers' Union biography "Anka Yayınları, İstanbul"; the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi also says Istanbul.
  • İdris-i Bidlisi, Selim Şah-nâme, study and translation, Ankara: Ministry of Culture, 2001.
  • Düşte Yürüyen Derviş, poems, Istanbul: İlke, 2004.
  • Rumi, Mesnevî, 2 vols., translated with Derya Örs, Istanbul: Ekim, 2007 (later editions Konya Metropolitan Municipality, 2008).
  • Rumi, Yedi Meclis, translation, Istanbul: Ney, 2007.
  • Sa'di of Shiraz, Bostan and Gülistan, translation, Istanbul: Kapı, 2012.
  • Hâfız Divanı, translation, Ankara: Hece, 2014.
  • 3 Defter, poems, Istanbul: Ebabil, 2015.

Chronology

1966: Born in Amasya on 31 January.

1981: His first poems are published in Aylık Dergi.

1987: Graduates in Persian language and literature from the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Ankara University.

1988: Becomes a research assistant at the same faculty.

1993: His first book of poems, Hayret Makamında, appears.

1996: Completes his doctorate.

2001: His translations of the Selim Şah-nâme and of Shah Tahmasp's Tezkire are published; the journal Nüsha is founded.

2006-2008: President of the Writers' Union of Turkey.

2007: His translations of the Masnavi and Yedi Meclis appear.

2013: Receives the Manas Grand Award.

2014-2016: President of the Writers' Union of Turkey for a second time.

2015: 3 Defter is published.

2018: Receives the translation award of the Writers' Union of Turkey.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Books

Other sources

Online sources