ASH DIVAN: SELECTED POEMS

Poetry. Translated from the Turkish by Saliha Parker. The first book in English translation of works by this world famous Turkish essayist and poet. Enis Batur has been widely celebrated in his homeland and in Europe. The distinguished critic and anthologist Mehmet Fuat placed him among the strongest poets of his generation. Among poets, Melih Cevdet Anday wrote that he "found a certain prophetic quality, a saintliness in Batur's poetry," and Gulten Akin pointed to "wisdom in Enis Batur's poetry, wisdom backed by stories of a lifetime." Cemal Sureya praised him as "unlike anyone else," and Ahmet Oktay wrote that his "poetry is like those strange tropical plants that fold up at night, waiting for a possible prey." "Enis Batur...[and] Orhan Pamuk are the two important figures of a new Turkish literature that has freed itself from all archaic and folkloric bonds"--Marc Semo.