The Complete Poems

Orhan Veli Kanik (1914—1950), more commonly known as Orhan Veli, was a pioneering Turkish poet and one of the founding members of the Garip (Strange) movement. His innovative poetics wore a unique signature of austerity and accessibility. With arresting insight and playful irreverence Veli’s poems transformed the Turkish literary world. When he died at the age of 36, he was acknowledged as one of the most important Turkish writers of his generation. Now, at last, this edition of The Complete Poems makes the full breadth of his achievement available in English for the first time. It brings together poems from the five collections published during the author’s lifetime, as well as uncollected material from newspapers and magazines, and poems only published posthumously. The Complete Poems includes an informative introduction, endnotes, and chronology, placing the poems in their historical context and touching on many of the themes which shaped Orhan Veli’s distinctive voice.