ALKAN, Erdoğan

Poet (b. 10 June 1935, Samsun). He is originally from Şarkışla. He attended the Samsun İnönü Primary School and the Samsun High School (1955), and graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences (1960). He worked as civil officer in Samsun, as the governor of the districts of Mesudiye, Derze, Vezirköprü, Ladik, Darende and Esbiye (1960-65); as the director of periodical publications at the Ministry of Tourism (1965-67); as an expert at the National Center for Productivity (1969-71); as a producer and director at the Ankara television of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, and columnist in newspapers, particularly in the newspaper Günaydın (1973-93). He worked as an economist in the Ministry of Agriculture in Belgium. After being expelled from his duty at the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation after the military coup on 12 March 1971, he became a lecturer at İstanbul University. He is a member of the Writers Syndicate of Türkiye, Turkish Association of Journalists and Travel Writers, and the Mulkiye Alumni.

His poems and translations have been published on in reviews such as Türk Dili, Varlık, Yazko Edebiyat, and Papirüs after 1955. He collected the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation Scientific Research Award in 1970, and the Yazko Grand Award for Translation in 1982 with his translation Rimbaud'dan Seçme Şiirler (Selected Poems of Rimbaud). He introduced many important works of famous poets, novelists and men of thought of the Western literature into Turkish with his translations. His radio sketch Kör Oldum Veysel Oldum (I Went Blind and then Veysel) was played on the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s radios in 1997.

WORKS:

POETRY: Güneş Tozları (Dusts of Sun, 1958), Ekuanil Çiçekleri (Flowers of Ekuanil, 1964), Kerem Gibi (Like Kerem, 1969), Kuş Ormanı (The Forest of Birds, 1981), Kıyı (The Coast, 1983), Eylül Çalgıcısı (The September's Musician, collected poems, 1985; new edition with additions and exclusions, 1994), Elimde Güller ve Rüzgâr (Roses and Wind in my Hand, 1992), Kerem Gibi (Like Kerem, with additions of folk poems, 2000), Eylül Çalgıcısı (The September's Musician, collected poems with additions, 2004), Sfenks (The Sphinx, 2005).

ANTHOLOGY: Bahar Şiirleri Antolojisi (An Anthology of Poems on Spring, in collaboration with T. Hayrioğlu, 1958), Millî İnkılap Nasıl Oldu? (How Did the National Revolution Take Place?, in collaboration with T. Uzunhasanoğlu, 1960), 100 Aşk Şiiri (100 Love Poems, 1998), Hapishane Şiirleri (Poems of Jail, 2003).

NOVEL: Kör Oldum Veysel Oldum (I Went Blind and then Veysel, 1991).

STUDY: Kitle İletişim Araçları (Means of Mass Communication, 1975), Sembolizm (Symbolism, 1985), İçimizdeki İnsan (Human within us, 1992), Ateş Hırsızı Arthur Rimbaud (Arthur Rimbaud, the Thief of Fire, 1993), Düş Gezgini Gérard de Nerval (Gérard de Nerval, the Traveler of Dreams, 1994), Karanlıklar Prensi Baudelaire (Baudelaire the Prince of Darkness, 1995), Şiir Sanatı (The Art of Poetry, 1995), Paris Komünü ve Komün Şairleri (The Paris Commune and Poets of the Commune, 1996), 1789 Devrim Şarkıları (Revolutionary Songs of 1789, 1997), Baudelaire ve Satanizm (Baudelaire and Satanizm, 1999), Hapishane Şiirleri (Poems of Jail, 2002), Elsa'nın Mecnunu Aragon (Aragon the Insane of Elsa, with additions, 2003), Alevî Mitolojisi (The Alawit Mythology, 2005), Arthur Rimbaud Yaşamı Sanatı Şiirlerinden Örnekler (Arthur Rimbaud, His Life and Art and Samples from His Poetry, 2005), Şiir Sanatı (The Art of Poetry, with additions, 2005).

MEMOIR: Âşık Veysel'den Nükteler (Anecdotes from Âşık Veysel, 2001).

Besides, he made translations from famous poets such as P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, C. Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Aragon, Pablo Neruda, and Lord Byron and from famous authors like J. P. Sartre, Balzac, E. Zola, Mayakovski and S. Freud.