Sami Ayhan rose to be general manager of the Türkiye Öğretmenler Bankası (Teachers' Bank of Turkey), yet banking, his profession, never made him give up poetry. Born in Gümüşhacıköy in 1929, this poet of the Republican period signed some of his writings M. Sami Ayhan. What can be read about him today in any connected form amounts to the short entry by Necati Tonga in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature) and the memoirs of his close friend Halil Soyuer, on which that entry draws. His only book of poems was printed in Ankara in the early 1970s, while most of his poems stayed in the pages of the review Çaba, whose editorial office he ran.

His Life

Born in Gümüşhacıköy, Sami Ayhan took his degree at the Faculty of Political Science (Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi) in Ankara. After graduating he went into banking and worked his way up to general manager of the Teachers' Bank. He then joined Türksan Holding, and in 1966 the company sent him to Germany. He later carried his impressions of the Turkish workers employed in Germany into some of his poems. After a while he left Türksan and went into business on his own account.

He also gathered his professional experience into a book: Türkiye'de Para ve Merkez Bankacılığı (Money and Central Banking in Turkey) appeared in 1971. He is recorded as having married in the last years of his life. He died in Ankara on 19 March 1982. His link with Gümüşhacıköy rests on the birthplace given in the entry; the sources at hand say nothing about where he spent his childhood and youth or about any later ties to the district.

Literary Life and Works

He began writing poetry while a student at the Faculty of Political Science. Even so, his first book was not in verse: Portre Yazılarla Atatürk (Atatürk in Portrait Writings), printed in Ankara by Güney Matbaacılık in 1955, is listed among his works as an essay. His real tie to literary circles came through the review Çaba. Sami Ayhan served as managing editor of this monthly of art and literature, published in Ankara between 1966 and 1969 under the direction of Halil Soyuer, and it was in its pages that most of his poems appeared. He later collected the poems from the review in a single book titled Şiirler (Poems).

The source gives the date of this book in two ways. The text of the entry says that it came out in 1971, whereas the list of works in the same entry records Şiirler under 1970 as a printing of the Nüve Matbaası in Ankara. Soyuer's recollection quoted in the entry also gives 1970. Since the book itself has not been seen, it cannot be settled here which is correct, and the fairest course is to mention both dates.

Ayhan wrote mostly in free verse. Love, social questions, nature and devotion to Atatürk are the main themes of these poems, to which the Turkish workers he met in Germany were added. In Anılarla Şairler Albümü (An Album of Poets in Memories), Soyuer describes the sensibility that shaped his friend's poetry as follows:

Sami Ayhan, sanki anasından toplum için doğmuştu. Toplumun dertlerini dert edinmişti kendisine. Çemişkezek'in bir dağ köyünde at sırtında şehre getirilen bir yaralının kanı Sami'nin içine akardı. 1970 yılında yayımladığı Şiirler adındaki kitabı böyle kanayan şiirlerle doludur.

"Sami Ayhan seemed born for society. He had made society's troubles his own. The blood of a wounded man carried on horseback to town from a mountain village in Çemişkezek would flow into Sami. His book Şiirler, published in 1970, is full of such bleeding poems." Soyuer's testimony is a friend's word, and it describes the man's character more than it judges the poetry. Still, it is valuable for showing the distance between the banker and this socially minded sensibility. On the picture the source gives, what weighs most in the poetry of an executive who rose as far as general manager is the wounded man from a remote mountain village; without the poems themselves, this judgement can rest only on Soyuer's word.

His Poetry

Copyright note: Since the poet died in 1982, his works are protected by copyright until the end of 2052; during this period his poems cannot be published on this site on separate pages.

A short quotation within the limits of copyright could have been given, but no published sample of Sami Ayhan's poems has been found. Neither the book Şiirler nor the issues of Çaba have been seen, and the source entry quotes no lines by the poet. What can be said about the character of his poetry is therefore limited to the themes mentioned above and to Soyuer's verdict.

Chronology

1929: Born in Gümüşhacıköy.

1955: Portre Yazılarla Atatürk is published in Ankara.

1966: Goes to Germany on assignment from Türksan Holding. The review Çaba, directed by Halil Soyuer, begins to appear in Ankara the same year; Ayhan is its managing editor throughout its run, which lasts until 1969.

1970: Şiirler is printed in Ankara by the Nüve Matbaası (1971 according to the text of the entry).

1971: Türkiye'de Para ve Merkez Bankacılığı is published.

1982: Dies in Ankara on 19 March.

Bibliography

  • Necati Tonga, "Sami Ayhan", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 02.04.2018 (updated 12.11.2020). https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/sami-ayhan
  • Halil Soyuer, Anılarla Şairler Albümü I, Ankara: Ankara Basım Sanayi, 1982, p. 45 (as quoted by Tonga).

Online sources