My Greatest Principle Is To Be A Human First

Our con­ver­sa­tion part­ner is the well-known Turk­ish poet, jour­nal­ist, and trans­la­tor, Coşkun Qarab­u­lut. Our dis­cus­sion revolved around lit­er­a­ture, poet­ry, per­son­al views, and the role of poets and writ­ers in today’s soci­ety.

—How do you per­ceive the rela­tion­ship between inspi­ra­tion and men­tal state in the process of writ­ing poet­ry?

—In my opin­ion, inspi­ra­tion is the essence of poetry’s exis­tence, even if it’s just a sin­gle word whis­per­ing in your ear. Inspi­ra­tion is like a divine touch to poet­ry. The soul of poet­ry is hid­den with­in this inspi­ra­tion. There are poets who write with expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge accu­mu­la­tion, of course. But I believe that such poems lack soul. Poet­ry, like a human being, must have both a soul and a body. Inspi­ra­tion is hear­ing a voice com­ing from the depths of the soul, and that voice’s exis­tence forms the mean­ing of the poem. Poet­ry should exist in the trace of a heart, not only with the mind but also with the voice of the heart.

—What obsta­cles do you most often face in your cre­ative process?

—No obsta­cle can stop me in the writ­ing process. As long as my think­ing abil­i­ty, mind, and heart are healthy, noth­ing can hin­der me. How­ev­er, the process of prepar­ing a book is an entire­ly dif­fer­ent sto­ry. Pub­lish­ing a book is real­ly an expen­sive endeav­or. Plus, the num­ber of read­ers is quite small, espe­cial­ly when it comes to gen­res like poet­ry and philo­soph­i­cal writ­ings. Pop­u­lar books sell a lot, but poet­ry, deep thoughts, or texts that touch the human soul rarely attract atten­tion. Nev­er­the­less, despite the dif­fi­cul­ties of this process, con­tin­u­ing to write is a way for me to bring out the truth with­in me. Writ­ing is some­times done just to find one­self.

—As a poet, how would you define the con­cepts of human­i­ty and ethics? How do you incor­po­rate them into your poet­ry?

—My great­est prin­ci­ple is to be a human first. Being vir­tu­ous, liv­ing with con­science and truth, and only then becom­ing a poet, writer, artist, or what­ev­er pro­fes­sion one choos­es. A per­son must first and fore­most be human. If a poet does not believe in what they write and does not live accord­ing to it, then their words are mean­ing­less. A poet’s words are the echo of their soul; if that soul is not gen­uine and sin­cere, the read­er will feel it. Writ­ing is not just the dance of words, it is the expres­sion of a soul.

—What is the high­est human virtue for you, and how do you try to pre­serve it?

—Sin­cer­i­ty is the most impor­tant thing for me. I nev­er want to use any­one or act out of self-inter­est in my writ­ings, thoughts, or life. Being sin­cere, express­ing things from the heart and with hon­esty, is very impor­tant. True sin­cer­i­ty requires a life free from mate­ri­al­ism or self­ish­ness. I believe that by reflect­ing my true self, I am fol­low­ing the right path both as a per­son and as an artist. Sin­cer­i­ty is the most essen­tial char­ac­ter­is­tic of writ­ing for me.

—What role do friends and fam­i­ly play in your life as a cre­ator?

—One of the main fac­tors influ­enc­ing a cre­ative state is a person’s abil­i­ty to find their inner har­mo­ny. A com­fort­able phys­i­cal envi­ron­ment helps thoughts flow freely. For a cre­ative per­son, the role of fam­i­ly and friends is sig­nif­i­cant; they not only pro­vide sup­port but also serve as sources of inspi­ra­tion. The fam­i­ly envi­ron­ment is cru­cial for a cre­ative per­son to express them­selves and find inner peace. A peace­ful fam­i­ly is the first source that nour­ish­es the cre­ative spir­it. Thus, the devel­op­ment of cre­ative thought is close­ly con­nect­ed not only to the exter­nal envi­ron­ment but also to the peo­ple around you.

—How does a poet’s inner world and mood reflect in their poet­ry? How do these moods shape your poems?

—A poet should not write with­out set­ting their mood right, because the poet must first have a state of mind that will be an exam­ple. They must have resolved how to move from the tran­sient and tem­po­rary to the eter­nal and absolute, to the ulti­mate, to infin­i­ty, in them­selves, in order to reflect this in their works and be a guide. Oth­er­wise, no one has time to deal with the scat­tered state of mind of a poet.

—Who are the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Turk­ish lit­er­a­ture who inspire you the most? How have their works influ­enced your cre­ative process?

—From the clas­sics, Yunus Emre, Ali Shir Nevai, and Ahmet Yese­vi have inspired me in dis­cov­er­ing the eter­nal beau­ty and truth of life, not its tem­po­rary aspects. Their wis­dom-filled words touch the depths of the human soul. As for the mod­erns, Nazım Hikmet’s social poems, Özdemir Asaf’s ref­er­ences to the inner world of a human being, Melih Cevdet Anday’s thoughts on the dif­fi­cul­ties of the mod­ern world, and Sunay Akın’s search for the mean­ing of life through cre­at­ing a smile have shaped my poet­ic style. These poets have had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on me both in terms of lan­guage and mean­ing.

—What is the most impor­tant thing for you when express­ing your per­son­al thoughts in lit­er­a­ture?

—Poet­ry is a search for light that tries to reveal the hid­den lay­ers of life. It is the desire to find the truths that lie behind what is vis­i­ble and leave a trace in the infin­i­ty of time. A poet wants to light this flame not only in their own inner world but also in the soul of the read­er. Words are desires that are pre­pared to restore their wings and fly; each one is a win­dow lead­ing to a path, a real­i­ty. To love the depths of life, to open one’s eyes to those depths, and to show them to peo­ple is, in a way, the essence of exis­tence itself.

—What are the biggest tri­als and dif­fi­cul­ties you have faced? How did these expe­ri­ences affect your cre­ative process?

—The biggest prob­lem I have faced in my life is the excite­ment of acquir­ing wealth and prop­er­ty, even by those who should know best that this world is tem­po­rary, such as reli­gious fig­ures who believe they will remain for­ev­er in this world. How­ev­er, every­thing has an end. Exis­tence in this world is as short and fleet­ing as a fairy tale. True wealth is found in dis­cov­er­ing the eter­nal in this tran­sient world. The great­est duty of a poet is to search for the path to eter­ni­ty with a mor­tal body and invite their read­ers to walk this path as well. Life is tran­sient, but with­in every moment in this tran­sient world, immor­tal­i­ty is hid­den. The poet calls their read­ers to find mean­ing: “By real­iz­ing the tran­sient, feel the eter­nal.” There­fore, every poet places their exis­tence not only in this fleet­ing world but also to dis­cov­er the truths beyond time.

Each word, each step, each wing, is a step tak­en on the path to eter­ni­ty.

Inter­viewed by:

Cahangir NAMAZOV,

A mem­ber of the edi­to­r­i­al team of “Butov Azer­bai­jan” news­pa­per and “YAZARLAR” mag­a­zine, rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Uzbek­istan.

Mem­ber of the Azer­bai­jan Jour­nal­ists Union.