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Article: Istanbul Poems.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One of the world's oldest and loveliest cities, Istanbul has inspired countless poets through the centuries. From Byzantine times to W. B. Yeats, Vita SackvilleWest, and Richard Howard, poets have found it fascinating. Ottoman poets were so enamored of it that they invented a poetic genre called "sehr-engiz" (literally "city excitement"), a long poem in a panegyric vein celebrating the natural and human beauties of Istanbul (and sometimes of other major cities). Istanbul was a recurring theme of adoration in many thousands of classical and modern poems.
English versions (by various hands) of Istanbul poems by more than sixty poets of the past six centuries have been ...