- Karacaoğlan
Karacaoğlan is a 17th century Turkish folk poet and
ashik . His exact dates of birth and death are unknown but it is widely accepted that he was born around 1606 and died around 1680. He lived around the city of Mut nearMersin .His poetry gave a vivid picture of nature, and village life, in Anatolia settlements. This kind of folk poetry, as distinct from the poetry of the Ottoman palace,was rediscovered only after the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and then became an important influence on modern lyric poetry, with Karacaoğlan beingits foremost exponent.Biography
There is very little known about his life. Some say he was born near Mount Kozan, near a villagecalled Varsak. Others suggest that he is from the village of the same name, but in modern day
Osmaniye . The Barak tribe ofGaziantep as well as the Çavuşlu tribe of Kilis claim he is fromtheir town. Most, however, believe that he was born nearÇukurova and lived among the Turkishtribes in that mountainous region of southern Anatolia. Karacaoğlan was his pseudonym. His real name is thought to be Simayil, Halil or Hasan. According toHodja Hamdi Efendi ofAkşehir , he was an orphan. He left town at an early age. In some of his poetryit is indicated that he took two of his sisters all the way toBursa orIstanbul . He spentmost of his life inÇukurova ,Maraş , andGaziantep . Even though not known with certainity, it is believed that he died inmodern dayMersin .He lived in an era when the
Ottoman Empire was under economic and political turmoil. The topicsof his poetry reflect the nature in which he was embedded, alongwith the Turkish nomadic culture of theToros mountains of which he was a part.The main themes of this poetry stemmed out of nature, love, longing for home, and death. As with other Turkish folk poetry of his time in Anatolia, and in contrast to the poetryof the Ottoman palace, his language was expressive, yet unadorned, direct, and simple. With a big heart, he fell in love with women andwrote poetry about them getting water from a fountain, or making bread.His poetry were in the forms of kosma, türkü, mani, varsagi, ücleme, destan, güzelleme and kocaklama.More than five hundred of his poems have survived to this day.External links
* [http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~sibel/poetry/karacaoglan.html His poetry in Turkish]
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