Ahmet Hasim

Born 1884 in Baghdad; died June 4, 1933, in Istanbul. Turkish writer; initiator of symbolism in Turkish poetry.

Ahmet Haşim’s works have been printed since 1901. He collaborated in the “Approaching Dawn” literary circle, in which an attempt was made to revive the traditions of the “Serveti Fünun” and to create a Turkish neoclassicism which was to combine the form of classical poetry with the ideas of Western “pure art.” Ahmet Haşim wrote in the aruz meter. He stood for the simplification of the Turkish language. His principal themes were love and nature, and his verse occasionally reflects melancholy, despondency, and a striving to withdraw from society. He published the collections of verse Hours Spent at the Lake (1921) and The Cup (1 926), as well as travel sketches.