Abstract:

This paper is about the prominent modern Turkish poet Yahya Kemal’s relation to Skopje, an Ottoman border city in Balkan geography which contributed much to his growth. He was born and raised, received his education, fell in his first love, wrote tentative poems, and lived in this city until he came to İstanbul. In other words, Skopje shaped his national and religious identity as a careful preserver of his heirloom. This fatherland which still carries the traces of Ottoman civilization helped the poet take his first step to poetry and had a role in equipping him with a rich literary culture. His poems which reflect the Ottoman raider (akıncı) spirit were also fueled with Balkan geography. The poet was raised by hearing and experiencing the slinky and bloody events caused by Christian groups against Muslim-Turks in the chaotic environment in which a world empire began to break up. He always felt the sorrow of losing his fatherland and being unable to get back there again. He yearned for his life in Skopje when he was in İstanbul and Paris. He reminisced about Balkan folk songs narrating the legendary loves of Rumelian people and the conquests over mountains, rivers, and lowlands as a witness to history. Skopje shows on all occasions that it is a Turkish city to the core with the mosques, tombs, schools, islamic monasteries, madrasas, bazaars some of which are named after the sultans who conqured, founded and developed the city, and the warriors who defended the city. With its mansion life of extended families, with Vardar, Rakofca farm, Skopje, Thessaloniki, and Plovdiv, Balkan geography always lived in Yahya Kemal’s mind and heart. After returning from Paris, he lived in İstanbul until his death and said his life is not long enough to love even a district of it. However, his poems embraced the İstanbul districts which are similar to Skopje. He tried to quench his loneliness and homesickness with the spiritual aura of these districts and felt at peace there.

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