The Silent Ship
{{Short description|Poem by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı}}
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The Silent Ship ({{langx|tr|Sessiz Gemi}}) is one of the best-known and best-loved poems by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı.{{cite journal |last1=Vasti |first1=Syed Tanvir |title=Eight Months in the Life of Yahya Kemal |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |date=January 2011 |volume=47 |issue=1 |page=147 |jstor=27920345 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27920345.pdf |access-date=16 July 2023}}{{cite web |title=Sessiz Gemi Şiiri - Yahya Kemal |url=https://www.milliyet.com.tr/siirler/ozdemir-asaf-siirleri/sessiz-gemi-siiri-yahya-kemal-6356152 |website=milliyet.com.tr |publisher=Milliyet |access-date=16 July 2023}} It is a poem primarily about death, but also about the feelings of those who love but cannot be together, those who miss someone whom they have given up, and those who regret the absence of their loved ones.{{cite web |last1=Kadem |first1=Sabit |title=Sessiz Gemi Şiiri & Sözleri - Yahya Kemal Beyatlı |url=https://hidayetrehberim.com/sessiz-gemi-siiri/ |website=hidayetrehberim.com |publisher=Hidayet Rehberim |access-date=17 July 2023}}
Turkish text
Artık demir almak günü gelmişse zamandan
Meçhule giden bir gemi kalkar bu limandan.
Hiç yolcusu yokmuş gibi sessizce alır yol;
Sallanmaz o kalkışta ne mendil, ne de bir kol.
Rıhtımda kalanlar bu seyahatten elemli,
Günlerce siyah ufka bakar gözleri nemli,
Biçare gönüller! Ne giden son gemidir bu!
Hicranlı hayatın ne de son matemidir bu.
Dünyada sevilmiş ve seven nafile bekler;
Bilmez ki giden sevgililer dönmeyecekler.
Birçok gidenin her biri memnun ki yerinden,
English translation
If the day has arrived at last to weigh anchor from time
A ship departs from this harbour to an unknown clime
As if it has no passengers, silently it makes way
No hand nor handkerchief is waved as it sails away
The journey is distress for those left behind on the quay
Their tearful eyes scan the black horizon day after day
Desperate hearts: this will neither be the last ship to go
Nor the final bereavement of a life filled with sorrow
In this world, the beloved and the lover wait in vain
Not knowing that the loved ones will never come back again
Those who sailed away are surely happy with their sojourn
Years went by since that voyage, yet not one soul will return{{cite book |last1=Halman |first1=Talât Sait |title=A Millennium of Turkish Literature |date=2011 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, NY |isbn=9780815650744 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glbkeEywls0C&q=halman+millennium+turkish+literature |access-date=16 July 2023}}
Structure
The poem consists of six rhyming couplets in the masnavi form. It follows the traditional, syllable-based aruz metre of Ottoman poetry, with the syllables following the pattern “mefûlü/ mefâilü/ mefâilü/ feûlü”.
Metaphor
The poem uses the journey into the unknown as a metaphor for death, with the ship itself representing the human soul and the loved ones in the quay, the friends and family of the departed.
The poem was written in the context of the deep and enduring love that Yahya Kemal felt for :tr:Celile Hikmet, artist and mother of poet Nazim Hikmet.{{cite web |title=Sessiz Gemi Şiiri Sözleri: Yahya Kemal Beyatlı Sessiz Gemi Şiiri Sözleri, İncelemesi Ve Hikayesi |url=https://m.sabah.com.tr/fotohaber/yasam/sessiz-gemi-siiri-yahya-kemal-beyatli-sessiz-gemi-siiri-sozleri-incelemesi-ve-hikayesi/2 |website=sabah.com.tr |publisher=Sabah |access-date=16 July 2023}} Despite his love, Yahya Kemal never worked up the courage to propose to her, and eventually, to mutual regret, they separated. He wrote of her departure on a ferry from Heybeliada, where she had spent the summer, to return to Istanbul in the autumn. “
Now, while the ferry was leaving the pier, people were waving handkerchiefs and crying… Until she left the island felt full… as soon as she left it was empty for me.{{cite web |title="Sessiz Gemi" Şiirinin Hüzünlü Hikayesi… |url=http://www.musikidergisi.net/?p=1615 |website=musikidergisi.net |publisher=Musiki Dergisi |access-date=16 July 2023}}
It has been argued by some that the ship in the poem represents a coffin. However Yahya Kemal himself made clear that this was not the case, and the silent ship raising anchor from time and departing the quay was a metaphor for the soul leaving friends and family behind as it departed from its previous existence.{{rp|32}}
Publication history
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı published various individual poems in literary magazines during his lifetime, but never published a collection in book form.
{{cite thesis |last=Selimi |first= Selim |date=2019 |title= YAHYA KEMAL BEYATLI'NIN ŞİİRLERİNİN SÖZ VARLIĞI VE SÖZ DİZİMİ |url=https://acikerisim.sakarya.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/20.500.12619/77140/T08400.pdf?sequence=1 |type= PhD |chapter=Giriş |publisher=Sakarya Üniversitesi |docket= |oclc= |access-date=17 July 2023}} He did however broadcast a reading of the poem on the radio, shortly after which an article about the poem, written by his friend :tr:Nihad Sâmi Banarlı was published in the Hürriyet newspaper on 15 October 1955.{{cite book |last1=Banarlı |first1=Nihat Sâmi |title=Yahya Kemal Yaşarken |date=1997 |publisher=İstanbul Fetih Cemiyeti |location=İstanbul |isbn=9789757618256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1xPGM3_yngC&dq=sessiz+gemi&pg=PA30 |access-date=17 July 2023}}{{rp|31}}
After his death the :tr: İstanbul Fetih Cemiyeti published a three-part edition of his poems, :tr:Kendi Gök Kubbemiz and The Silent Ship appeared in the second part, which was entitled Yol Düşüncesi (Reflections from the Road).{{cite book |last1=Beyatlı |first1=Yahya Kemal |title=Kendi Gök Kubbemiz |date=1989 |publisher=Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Yayınları |location=İstanbul |isbn=975-11-0336-3}}{{cite journal |last1=Baş |first1=Melike |title=A Cognitive Poetic Analysis of Yahya Kemal's 'Silent Ship' |journal=Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi |date=June 2021 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=95–103 |doi=10.32600/huefd.786677 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1260782 |access-date=16 July 2023|doi-access=free }}
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 2008, an edition of his private letters and other writings was published with the title Gemi Elli Yıldır Sessiz (The Ship Has Been Silent For Fifty Years).
Critical appreciation
Hüseyin Yaşar has suggested that the poem showed a significant influence from French poetry, particularly Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud.{{cite journal |last1=Yaşar |first1=Hüseyin |title="Sessiz Gemi"nun Sembol ve Fransiz Tesiri Açısından İncelenmesi |journal=D.Ü Ziya Gökalp Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi |date=2007 |volume=8 |pages=52–60 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/787215 |access-date=16 July 2023}} Peyami Safa drew attention to the similarity between the theme of Sessiz Gemi and Mallarmé’s poem :fr: Brise marine.{{cite book |last1=Safa |first1=Peyami |title=Sanat Edebiyat Tenkid |date=2016 |publisher=Ötüken Neşriyat A.Ş. |location=Istanbul |isbn=9786051554860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCnqDAAAQBAJ&dq=sessiz+gemi&pg=PT279 |access-date=17 July 2023}}
Kamil İşeri and Sercan Demirgüneş have argued, based on a semiotic and semantic analysis, that the poem has a theme of eternity and infinity that transcends death.{{cite journal |last1=İşeri |first1=Kamil |last2=Demirgüneş |first2=Sercan |title=The Semantical/Semiotical Analysis Of The Poem Named "Sessiz Gemi" |journal=Turkish Studies |date=2008 |volume=3-4 |issue=3 |pages=499–513 |doi=10.7827/TurkishStudies.375 |url=https://turkishstudies.net/turkishstudies?mod=makale_ing_ozet&makale_id=13637 |access-date=16 July 2023}}
Musical setting and recordings
The poem was set to music by Yahya Kemal’s friend Münir Nurettin Selçuk. Versions of this have been recorded by Müslüm Gürses,{{cite web |last1=Gürses |first1=Müslüm |title=Sessiz Gemi |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2sVyeSz96o |website=Youtube |access-date=17 July 2023}} Hümeyra{{cite web |last1=Hümeyra |title=Sessiz Gemi |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2sVyeSz96o |website=Youtube |access-date=17 July 2023}} and Sertab Erener.{{cite web |last1=Erener |first1=Sertap |title=Sessiz Gemi |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2sVyeSz96o |website=Youtube |access-date=17 July 2023}}
External links
- [https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sessiz+gemi&qpvt=sessiz+gemi&FORM=VDRE Recording of Yahya Kemal reading his poem (video)]