Reconnecting with Divan Poetry

DIVAN POETRY IS THE TERM used for poetry collections by one author, particularly in the Ottoman and Persian contexts, that are highly symbolic and often conflate the sacred and the profane in expressions of sensuality influenced by Sufi thought. Although Sufi poetry was often sidelined in the wake of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's modernizing and secularizing reforms, divan poetry continues to be central to the literature of Turkey, as it was for the former Ottoman Empire.

It has retained its significance in the writing of Zafer Şenocak (b. 1961, Ankara). He asserts, “Für eine nach Einheit und Reinheit suchende Ästhetik sind die Mischkulturen des Orients, und insbesondere die osmanische Kultur, ein Greul, im besten Fall unverständlich” (The mixed cultures of the Orient, and Ottoman culture especially, are an abomination for an aesthetic that searches for unity and purity; in the best case they are unintelligible). At a time when Muslim elites are ignoring mystical thinkers, the new poems of Übergang: Ausgewälte Gedichte 1980– 2005 (Crossing: Selected Poems 1980–2005, 2006) reconnect with what Şenocak calls the “identitätssprengender Charakter” (identity-exploding character) of Sufi divan poetry that evokes ideas both of faith and of the cosmopolitan without taking them as guiding principles. In this way the polarization of fixed identities and ideologies is avoided, such as the perceived gulf between Germans and their Muslim fellow citizens.

Şenocak has a broad and diverse oeuvre, encompassing poetry (both his own and translations), novels, short stories, and essays. He writes in both German and Turkish, treating topics as diverse as memory, gender, identity, and migration—he himself migrated from Turkey to Germany as a child in 1970. Islam is a recurring theme in most of Şenocak's writing, and his poetry is no exception. The poetry cycle “nâzım hikmet: auf dem schiff zum mars” (1998; nâzım hikmet: on the ship to mars, 2009), from the collection Futuristenepilog (Epilogue of the Futurists, published with the poet and performer Berkan Karpat in 2008), links the Turkish writer Nâzım Hikmet (1902–63) with both communism and Sufism, using imagery from technology and space travel. The poetry collection Übergang also deals with Islamic themes, particularly in relation to mysticism and Turkey's Ottoman heritage, which he conflates with aspects of German culture. As the title of the collection suggests, Şenocak touches upon migratory, cultural, historical, political, generational, and religious transitions and crossings in these poems.