مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - FOLK CULTURE ELEMENTS IN THE POEMS OF MEHMET AKIF ERSOY

Abstract :

Mehmet Akif is among the first names that come to mind when talking about the poets using poems for the benefit of the society they live in. As well as his poems on freedom, autocracy, segregation, nationalism-racism issues discussed under the general theme of nation; the poems he wrote on moral breakdown of the society, corruption of the Muslim-Turkish family structure and lack of education and its negative results are of great importance as they problematize social issues. Turkish proverbs such as “Do a favor and throw into the sea, the God will appreciate it even if the fish does not,”, “Set a thief to catch a thief” and “Sometimes the innocent suffer along with the guilty as well as Turkish idioms such as “make free with”, “broke and shabby” and “Someone’s true colors have been shown” are commonly encountered in his poems. Mehmet Akif used such proverbs and idioms quite frequently since he always made the statement: “If you want to communicate with the public, then you should mingle freely with the crowd.” and “Use the public words by abiding by the public pronunciation and meanings of these words.” He followed his own advice by using the structures unique to the public speech. As can be understood from his words: …I have no business with the imaginary / … All I say is based on reality (“Fâtih Kürsüsü, p. 268), he preferred to use public words and expressions to escape from the imaginary and reach reality while working on the stories created by the public.