Written to give advice to children and young people, Nurlu Yol (The Luminous Path) came out in 1944 and from its seventh edition in 1971 onwards was printed under the title Aydın Yol (The Bright Path). Its poet, Naci Gürses, was a hafız (one who knows the Qur'an by heart), born in Amasya in 1916, who worked as a bookseller at Şehzadebaşı in Istanbul. The poem "Allah Deyu", added to the book later, is the record of a visit to Amasya and names the city's river, its vineyards, Har Dağı and Çakallar. As the poet died in 1974 and his work is still protected, the page goes no further than short excerpts.

His Life

Little is known of his life, and nearly all of it comes from his book itself and from two short studies introducing it. He was born in Amasya, the son of Hoca Mustafa Sabri Efendi. He finished middle school and became a hafız at a young age. After his military service he settled in Istanbul and worked as a bookseller in the Damat İbrahim Paşa sebil (public fountain kiosk) at Şehzadebaşı. His placing the title "hafız" before his name on the cover of his book shows that he presented himself first of all as a man of religious learning. He died in 1974; where he died, and how, the sources do not record.

Bookselling shaped his publishing life as well. In 1944 two of his books were printed at once: a compilation titled Yeşil Mevlüd Türkçe Dualı ve Türkçe Kasideli (The Green Mevlid, with Turkish Prayers and Turkish Kasides) and the poetry book Nurlu Yol. Both came out in Istanbul from the Ak-ün press. The sources do not explain why Nurlu Yol remained in demand long enough to reach a seventh edition by 1971; with its language aimed at children and its advice-giving themes, it may be supposed to have been read in family and school circles.

Born in Amasya and settled as a bookseller in Istanbul for his adult years, Gürses shows in the poem "Allah Deyu" that he had not forgotten his home town. The poet notes at its head that he wrote it "on a visit to Amasya, in emulation of Yunus Emre". According to Arda Korkmaz's study, the poem proceeds in the manner of a hymn (ilahi) saying that everything exists by calling out "Allah deyu", "saying Allah": Amasya's river flows saying Allah, and the apples in its gardens give off their scent saying Allah. Then come the rocks of Ferhat and Şirin, the "golden-coloured" quinces, the snow falling on Har Dağı, the coolness of Çakallar and its swaying apple boughs, the honey of the bees, the mountains and the nightingales in the vineyards. Gürses explains in footnotes that Har Dağı is a mountain in Amasya and Çakallar a summer retreat; these notes show that the poem was written with readers who did not know Amasya in mind. In the last quatrain Amasya is called "evliyalar otağı" (pavilion of the saints) and "Yeşilırmak yatağı" (bed of the Yeşilırmak), and the poet, following the pen-name tradition of folk poetry, speaks his own name. The place of Çakallar in this poem is also mentioned in our article Garden and Vineyard Culture in Amasya.

His Poetry

Copyright note: Gürses died in 1974, and his poems stay protected until the end of 2044. No poem has therefore been given a page of its own; this section takes only one couplet and one quatrain. Once the protection lapses, Gürses's poems too will be published, each as a page of its own.

In the foreword he wrote for the seventh edition of his book, Gürses states his aim in a single sentence: "To instil clean and noble feelings in the tender minds of our little ones." The subjects of his poems were chosen accordingly. Devotion to God and to Islam, Turkishness, reading, diligence, love of the homeland, care for nature and good conduct are the main themes. The metre is syllabic throughout, and most of the poems move in a run of quatrains. The first edition of Nurlu Yol contained ten poems: "Kardeşim Oku", "Nurlu Yol", "Kâinatın Yapanı Var", "Türk Bayrağı", "Türk Oğluyum", "Atana Benze", "Türk Askeri", "Egemenlik Savaşımız", "Anadolu" and "Doğrul Kardeş". In the 1971 edition "Egemenlik Savaşımız" and "Doğrul Kardeş" were removed and "Aferin Küçük Ali'ye", "Havacılarımıza", "Ali'nin İlk Yazısı" and "Allah Deyu" were added. Of the fourteen poems Korkmaz counts, ten are in the eight-syllable metre; "Kardeşim Oku" is in an 11+10 pattern, the two poems about Ali are in seven syllables, and "Havacılarımıza" is a single quatrain in fourteen syllables.

At the opening of Aydın Yol stand the two repeated lines of the first poem, "Kardeşim Oku". The poet placed this couplet at the head of the book like a maxim:

Okuyan dağları aşmış gidiyor
Cahiller düz yolda şaşmış gidiyor

In English: The one who reads has crossed the mountains and goes on, while the ignorant lose their way even on a level road. "Nurlu Yol", which gave the first edition its title, is framed as God speaking to His servant and showing him the right path; most of its quatrains end with the refrain "demiş" ("He said"). The opening quatrain is built on this refrain too:

Allah sana kulum demiş
Nurlu olsun yolun demiş
Doğrulukla çalışırsan
Hiç bükülmez kolun demiş

In English: God called you "My servant", He said "may your path be full of light"; "if you work with honesty, your arm will never be bent", He said. The later quatrains of the poem set everyday advice within this simple frame: respect for parents and teachers, giving up one's seat on the bus to the elderly, not walking about licking an ice cream in front of the poor, using the misvak (a tooth-cleaning twig). Gürses explains words such as "misvak" and "gıybet" (backbiting) in footnotes. The book also contains a section of aphorisms titled "Düşünelim" (Let Us Think), an essay titled "Tavsiye" (Advice) and a grace to be said at table.

Korkmaz places Gürses outside the Garip movement, the dominant current of the years in which he published, and within the line of the National Literature (Memleket Edebiyatı) of 1923-1940: syllabic metre, the quatrain, a tone leaning towards oratory and a didactic, epic manner belong to that line. He reads "Allah Deyu" as a hymn recalling the language and diction of Yunus Emre. According to Korkmaz no study had been made of Gürses before; the paper he presented in May 2024 at the International Amasya Social Sciences Research Symposium, dedicated to Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, brings the poet into literary scholarship for the first time.

Chronology

1916: Born in Amasya.

1944: Nurlu Yol and Yeşil Mevlüd Türkçe Dualı ve Türkçe Kasideli are printed in Istanbul at the Ak-ün press.

1971: Nurlu Yol, in its seventh edition, is reprinted at the Tan press under the title Aydın Yol, with the poem "Allah Deyu" added.

1974: Dies.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Books

  • Gökhan Serdar Özaktaş, "Naci Gürses", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 21.09.2019 (updated 09.11.2020). https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/naci-gurses
  • Naci Gürses, Nurlu Yol, Istanbul: Ak-ün Basımevi, 1944 (as cited by Korkmaz).
  • Naci Gürses, Aydın Yol, Istanbul: Tan Matbaası, 1971, pp. 2-44 (as cited by Korkmaz and Özaktaş).

Online sources