Publisher's Synopsis
Give what you have in your hand,
then turn to the one you've given joy,
look at the face of happiness!
It's your own face reflected
smiling and radiant, in the mirror.
Then Turn
Oktay Rifat who died in 1974 aged 74 was in the forefront of Turkish literature for half a century. With friends Orhan Veli Kanik and Melih Cevdet Anday, he took part in the revolutionary movement in 1941 which moved Turkish poetry away from complex forms to the themes and rhythms of ordinary speech. As well as a poet, Oktay wrote plays and novels, was a translator and a painter. The versions here are by two of the foremost translators from Turkish, Ruth Christie and Richard McKane.
