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Oktay Rıfat Horozcu | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1914-06-10)10 June 1914 |
| Died | 18 April 1988(1988-04-18) (aged 73) |
| Turkish literature |
|---|
| By category |
| Epic tradition |
| Folk tradition |
| Ottoman era |
| Republican era |
Ali Oktay Rifat, better known asOktay Rifat, (10 June 1914 – 18 April 1988) was aTurkish writer andplaywright, and one of the forefrontpoets of modernTurkish poetry since the late 1930s. He was the founder of theGarip movement, together withOrhan Veli andMelih Cevdet.
Oktay Rifat had a great influence on modern Turkish poetry, standing outside traditional poetic conventions and creating a new movement.
Oktay Rifat was born on 10 June 1914 in the city ofTrabzon, son of poet and linguistSamih Rifat, who was also governor of Trabzon.[1]
He was raised in a family that included many artists and writers. His great-grandfather Macar Hurşid Bey was a composer well versed in both Turkish and western music, and his grandfather Colonel Hasan Rıfat Bey was interested in poetry.
He graduated from Ankara Erkek Lisesi (Ankara High School) in 1932, and while he was a student ofAhmet Hamdi Tanpınar in high school, he wrote his first poems. He completed a Bachelor of Law from theUniversity of Ankara but he did not lose his interest in literature and his passion for writing. In 1937, he was appointed toParis,France by the State Ministry to do hisPhD, however came back after three years without completing his degree due to outbreak ofWorld War II.
He moved toIstanbul in 1955, and started to work as a legal adviser for theTurkish State Railways in 1961. He retired in 1973, and died in Istanbul on 18 April 1988. He was interred atKaracaahmet Cemetery inÜsküdar district of Istanbul.
Oktay Rifat started writing poetry as a high school student, and his first poems were published between 1936 and 1944 in the literature journalVarlık (Existence).
In 1941, together with his friendsOrhan Veli Kanık andMelih Cevdet Anday, he published the famous bookGarip, which formed the first example of theGarip, or 'Strange' movement.[1]
His poems, which use all the richness of his nativeTurkish language, includeKarga ile Tilki (The Crow and the Fox), for which he won the Yeditepe Poetry Prize in 1955. His work rejected older, complex forms, favouring simplicity and fresh rhythms.[2]
Oktay Rifat also published novels such asBir Kadının Penceresinden (Through a Woman’s Window) andDanaburnu (Calf Nose), theatre plays such asKadınlar Arasında (Among Women, first staged in 1948) and translated older works into Turkish from Latin and Greek.[1]
In 1998 he was honored with monuments in Istanbul. These include a statue made byNamık Denizhan and as an inclusion in the parks main sculpture,Gürdal Duyars'Şairler Sofası. Both artworks were erected in theŞairler Sofası Park in Istanbul and inaugurated in 1998 with opening of the park.[3][4]
