topics: |  poetry | children | anthology | women | translation

TELL ME AGAIN : Nigar Hanim (1856-1918)

	       	  	(woman poet, Turkey, tr. Talat S. Halman)

	Am I your only love -- in the whole world -- now?
	Am I really the only object of your love?
	If passions rage in your mind,
	If love springs eternal in your heart --
	Is it all meant for me?  Tell me again.

	Tell me right now, am I the one who inspires
	All your dark thoughts, all your sadness?
	Share with me what you feel, what you think.
	Come, my love, pour into my heart
	Whatever gives you so much pain.
	Tell me again.

	    Nigâr was a Turkish poet (partly Hungarian ancestry) born to an
	    Ottoman nobleman.  She spoke eight different languages and played
	    piano from an early age.  In her early poetry she followed the
	    traditional divan style, but later moved to a more modern
	    style. Her book Efsus was the first book of poetry by a woman,
	    written in Western style.  Like Mihrî Hatun, she uses a feminine
	    style in her Turkish poetry - her themes, and choice of
	    vocabulary were very feminine, and she never tried to avoid her
	    feminine side in her poetry.  She is an important figure in the
	    post-Tanzimat Turkish poetry.

Other Reviews

			(Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL)
The elegant cover photo (from 1939) shows a model on top of the Eiffel Tower,
yards of fabric in her dress billowing gracefully in the breeze. The lives of
the women who speak through these poems are generally more prosaic
than this but often just as compelling. The collection of 20th-century poems
has an international scope and includes both unfamiliar and well-known
writers such as Gertrude Stein, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and
Gwendolyn Brooks. It is divided into seven sections: "Dear Female Heart,"
"News of a Baby," "A Freedom Song," "Domestic Economy," "Power," "I Live with
a Bullet," and "The Old Women Gathered." Most of the poems are complete but
some excerpts from longer works are included; subjects range from the
political to the personal. Beautifully reproduced black-and-white photos
introduce each section. Overall, this book is dense, challenging, and
provocative, and many students will appreciate the sophisticated look and
subject matter. Philip's introduction is interesting. It is unfortunate that
there is no biographical information about the poets, since many of them will
be new to readers.