Orhan Veli Kanık's best-loved poems and lines
The top 3 according to 41 votes from people: I never knew songs were so beautiful / and words so inadequate / before I fell into this sorrow. · I am listening to Istanbul, my eyes closed. · If I wept, would you hear my voice / in my lines?. (Updated Jan 11, 2023.)
"I am listening to Istanbul, my eyes closed", "I Can't Tell" and Süleyman Efendi's corns: the lines everyone in Turkey knows by heart by Orhan Veli Kanık (1914–1950), founder of the Garip movement who rejected metre and rhyme, with the title of each poem.
Automatically translated (original in Türkçe). See the original
Top 13
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1
I never knew songs were so beautiful / and words so inadequate / before I fell into this sorrow.
From the poem "I Can't Tell".
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2
I am listening to Istanbul, my eyes closed.
From the poem "I Am Listening to Istanbul".
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3
If I wept, would you hear my voice / in my lines?
From the poem "I Can't Tell".
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4
Before sunrise, / while the sea is still white, you will set out.
From the poem "Towards Freedom".
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5
There is a place, I know, / where everything can be said; / I have come quite close, I can hear it; / I can't tell.
From the poem "I Can't Tell".
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6
He suffered from nothing in this world / as much as from his corns.
From the poem "Epitaph".
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7
This fine weather has been the ruin of me.
From the poem "Fine Weather".
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8
I stand staring after the departing ship; / I cannot throw myself into the sea, the world is beautiful; / I am a man, I cannot cry.
From the poem "Departure".
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9
You say: if only this fight would end, / if only I weren't hungry… / Why not just say: if only I died!
From the poem "Comfort".
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10
Is this sea so beautiful every day? / Does the sky always look like this? / … / Something's up here.
From the poem "Something's Up".
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11
Neither the atom bomb / nor the London Conference; / tweezers in one hand, / a mirror in the other: / does she care about the world!
From the poem "Poem with Tweezers".
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12
What makes a poem a poem is only the particularity of its tone, and that belongs to meaning.
From his writings on poetry.
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13
What have we not done for this homeland! / Some of us died; / some of us made speeches.
From the poem "For the Homeland".
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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