Ottoman Lyric Poetry

New photographs of original manuscripts enhance this collection of free verse translations of 75 lyric poems presented with the Ottoman Turkish texts.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most significant forces in world history and yet little attention is paid to its rich cultural life. For the people of the Ottoman Empire, lyrical poetry was the most prized literary activity. People from all walks of life aspired to be poets. Ottoman poetry was highly complex and sophisticated and was used to express all manner of things, from feelings of love to a plea for employment.

This collection offers free verse translations of 75 lyric poems from the mid-fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries, along with the Ottoman Turkish texts and, new to this expanded edition, photographs of printed, lithographed, and hand-written Ottoman script versions of several of the texts--a bonus for those studying Ottoman Turkish. Biographies of the poets and background information on Ottoman history and literature complete the volume.

Walter G. Andrews holds a research professorship in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington. Najaat Black is a poet and fiction writer. Mehmet Kalpakli is assistant professor of Ottoman culture and literature at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

"Andrews has teamed up with a first-rate philologist (Kalpakli) and a talented poet (Black), and together they have tried to . . . break down resistance to Ottoman poetry and show it forth in something like itsnative glory."

"This is the finest literary translation of Ottoman Turkish lyrics ever done and will shape the reception of the poetry from now on. The selection is excellent—-aesthetically superior, historically representative, and stylistically coherent."—Victoria Holbrook, Ohio State University