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Nâzım Hikmet

Turkish communist poet, playwright and novelist (1902-1963) · Turkey · On the map · Writers · Died at 61 · also Poland

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A Turkish poet who spent most of his adult life either imprisoned or exiled for his politics, yet his verse traveled farther than he ever could - translated into more than 50 languages.

Nâzım Hikmet is read about 665 times a day, in 67 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 1 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

1963Died3 June 19631960“Because of you, each day is a melon slice / smelling sweetly of earth / Because of you, all fruits reach out to me / as if I were the sun.”In their words29 August 1960From Because of You

“Separation isn't time or distance / it's the bridge between us / finer than silk thread sharper than swords”In their words6 June 1960From Separation

1957“The world's not run by governments or money / but people rule / a hundred years from now / maybe / but it will be for sure.”In their words12 September 1957From Optimism

1956“Loneliness feels like prison.”In their words23 March 1956From New Year's Eve

“My country or the stars / Or my youth, what's farthest?”In their words10 March 1956From In the Snowy Night Woods

1941“I've never regretted I was born too soon. / I'm proud to be / a child of the twentieth century. / I'm satisfied / to join its ranks / on our side / and fight for a new world...”In their words12 November 1941From On the Twentieth Century

1902Born15 January 1902

People around Nâzım

Also in Deutsch

Media & music

In their own words 4

,
Nâzım Hikmet
,
4 statements, newest first

  1. The strangest of our powers / Is the courage to live / Knowing that we will die, / Knowing nothing more true.

    10 March 1956 · From In the Snowy Night Woods, Own words

  2. Don’t live in the world as if you were renting / Or here only for the summer, / But act as if it were your father’s house.

    From Last letter to my son, as quoted in Nel cuore delle parole. Alla scoperta del gusto di comunicare, Own words

  3. It's this way: / being captured is beside the point, / the point is not to surrender.

    From It's This Way, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this person

Mehmed Nâzım Ran was born on 17 January 1902 and became known as Nâzım Hikmet, writing poetry, plays, novels, screenplays, and memoirs across a restless career. Critics praised the "lyrical flow of his statements" and called him a "romantic communist" and a "romantic revolutionary" - labels that came with a cost. He was arrested repeatedly for his political beliefs, and the cycle of prison and exile consumed most of his adult years. He died on 3 June 1963, but the work outlasted the borders that held him.

Country
Turkey
Category
Writers
Topics
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1902 to 1963 · aged 61

Where to find them

IMDbWebsitenazimhikmet.org.tr

In common with Nâzım

Vadim MedvedevAlso in Two Boys from the Same District (1957)Zdeněk ŠtěpánekAlso in Legend of Love (1957)Karl FarkasAlso in The Million Hunters (1934)