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Metis Fiction
Poetry
13 x 19.5 cm, 89 pp
ISBN No. 975-342-003-X
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Prints:
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1st Print: September 1992
16th Print: August 2005
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Download high resolution copy
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About the Author
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One of the most prominent and prolific contemporary writers of Turkey, Murathan
Mungan has published poetry, short stories, plays, novels, screenplays, radio plays,
essays, film and theater criticism, and political columns. He has over fifteen poetry
books, among them Osmanlıya Dair Hikâyat (Stories on the Ottomans, 1981),
Metal (1994) and Yaz Geçer (Summer Too Passes, 1992) which has attained
the status of a cult book due to its continuing popularity. A selection of his poems
were translated and published in Kurdish as Li Rojhilatê Dilê Min (In the
East of my Heart, 1996). His works have also been translated into Bosnian, Bulgarian,
Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Persian and
Swedish. Most recently a selection of his short stories were published in German
under the title Palast Des Ostens (2006) and his semi-autobiographical
narrative
Paranın Cinleri (Money Djinns, 1997) in Greek this year. An Italian
translation of the same work is forthcoming. Also his 2004 novella
Çador (Chador) will be published in French and Italian. Mungan’s
trilogy of plays, “The Mesopotamian Trilogy” has enjoyed successful theater runs
across the country and the last play of the trilogy,
Geyikler Lanetler (Deer Curses, 1992) is on the 2007 program of the
Arca Azzura Theater in Italy. His latest publications in Turkish are Kâğıt Taş Kumaş
(Paper Stone Fabric, 2007) a play in three parts; Büyümenin Türkçe Tarihi
(The History of Growing Up in Turkish, ed., 2007), a volume of short stories from
the history of modern Turkish literature, edited in collaboration with the foremost
literary critics in the country; and most recently, Yedi Kapılı Kırk Oda
(Forty Rooms with Seven Doors, 2007), a book of short stories.
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Other Books from Metis
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Çador
(Chador), 2004, novella
Geyikler Lanetler
(Deer Curses, The Mesopotamian Trilogy III), 1992, play
Paranın Cinleri
(Money Djinns), 1997, narrative
Yüksek Topuklar
(High Heels), 2002, novel
Kadından
Kentler (Cities of Women), 2008, Short Stories
Click here for full Mungan list
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Murathan Mungan
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Summer Too Passes
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Yaz Geçer
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Excerpt
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"In Summer Too Passes I tried to do something that requires courage. I tried
to reveal the hidden poetics of everyday language, to put in words the profundity
of that which is simple. That’s how I wanted to sculpt the poetic voice of this
book. Poems to be whispered, softly. Like records that do not play well at a different
revolution speed. They are poems that yield all their meanings, release all their
secrets when they find their voice. The book evokes the image of the sea for me,
vast and deep as can be."
– Murathan Mungan
As a poet Murathan Mungan has achieved what few have been able to: a wide following
with no literary compromise and no self-repetition. He makes it new each time, exploring
further and further poetic possibilities in style and voice without ever sacrificing
the aesthetic. Summer Too Passes by this master of contemporary Turkish poetry
has attained the status of a cult book.
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from "A Solitary Opera"
it lay between us like a dead snake
my tired, stained and hopeless past
but there was something you did not know my love
in you I fair-copied all my past loves
My past
that you coveted, raged
that made you upset, or jealous, let’s say
that is, you thought lived to the utmost
in the solitude of things unsaid
in glances astray
in the untamed details of everyday
was striking back now and then. And of course not dwelled upon. And you still thought
you were just anyone in my life, a bit more loved, a bit more important.
It probably was true at the start. Starting like an ordinary adventure, any old
affair, you were redeemed to a love encompassing my life, growing and rooting, grasping
my being, conquering my existence, day by day.
And you still did not know my love
In you I fair-copied all my past loves
And when you knew, you had only one choice left
Like all winners
You left.
…
Translated by Bülent Somay.
Longer sample manuscript available in English
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