Fine Days -- Orhan Veli

Guest poem submitted by Sarah Korah:

How about starting a collection of poems on Monday morning blues? Here's a
poem which makes me wonder if going going to work is the best way to spend a
fine day..

(Poem #1534) Fine Days These fine days have been my ruin. On this kind of day I resigned My job in 'Pious Foundations'. On this kind of day I started to smoke On this kind of day I fell in love On this kind of day I forgot To bring home bread and salt On this kind of day I had a relapse In my versifying disease. These fine days have been my ruin. -- Orhan Veli

        Translated by Bernard Lewis.

Prose and practicality win over the whimsical, and I get to work. But the
poet's description of his versifying disease and gleefully ruined life make
me smile. Yes, even on a Monday morning :-)

For the incorrigible, here's the original in Turkish:

 "Guzel Havalar

 Beni bu guzel havalar mahvetti,
 Boyle havada istifa ettim
 Evkaftaki memuriyetimden.
 Tutune boyle havafa alistim,
 Boyle havada asik oldum;
 Eve ekmekle tuz goturmeyi
 Boyle havalarda unuttum;
 Siir yazma hastaligim
 Hep boyle havalarda nuksetti;
 Beni bu guzel havalar mahvetti.

[Bio]

Turkish poet; born, 1914, Istanbul; died, November 14, 1950, Istanbul.

Orhan Veli Kanik was one of the founders of the Garip movement in Turkish
poetry. In 1941, he and two of his close friends -- Melih Cevdet Anday and
Oktay Rifat --burst on the scene with a joint book of poems entitled "Garip"
(Strange). Amid much vehement criticism from the traditionalists, the three
Garip poets vowed, in a manifesto that appeared in their book, to
revolutionize Turkish poetry. They sought, in their own words, "to alter the
whole structure from the foundation up. In order to rescue ourselves from
the stifling effects of the literatures which have dictated and shaped our
tastes and judgements for too many years, we must dump overboard everything
that those literatures have taught us. We wish it were possible to dump even
language itself, because it threatens our creative efforts by forcing its
vocabulary on us when we write poetry."

The Garip movement eliminated not only rigid forms and meters but also
metaphors, rhymes, conventional diction and stock epithets. Soon free verse
and an unlimited range of themes became the rule, while 'aruz' meter and
'the rose and the nightingale' became anachronisms.

Orhan Veli was more influenced by the sketch image of the Japanese haiku
than by Turkish or conventional Western poetic sources.