Poetry
Odd
Garip
Orhan Veli Kanık · 1945
Synopsis
The author's poems published in 1941 in the joint collection that launched the Garip movement, reissued on their own in 1945 with a new preface. Written in free verse and in spoken language, they deal, according to the Küre encyclopaedia, with ordinary people, poverty, office work, city life and simple joys. The 1941 preface rejects metre and rhyme, puts meaning at the centre of the poem and calls for an art made for the people; Britannica sees in it a break with the Turkish poetry of the time, in its language as much as in its subjects.
Context
The first Garip appeared in 1941 in Istanbul: sixty-four pages, sixty-one poems by three school friends, twenty-four of them by this author, and a manifesto, “Şiire Dair”, first published in Varlık in 1939. The 1945 edition keeps only his poems and adds a preface, “Garip İçin”. According to the Küre, the book was hailed as a revolution and fought by the poets of the tradition. A bilingual edition appeared in Paris in 2025 from İstasyon, in French under the title Bizarre and in English under the title Odd.
Who it is for
Very short poems in spoken Turkish, which can be read in any order; a French translation has existed since 2025.
Prizes and reception
The book that opened the Garip movement, regarded by Küre as a turning point in the poetry of its country.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.