Anlatamiyorum

Description

The poet Orhan Veli is beloved in his native Turkey and Anlatamıyorum is one of his most beloved poems. He was a radical artist who sought to transform fundamentally the traditional forms in Turkish poetry. In Anlatamıyorum, he asks the reader if they can understand his suffering by reading his poems, by hearing his cries or touching his tears through the words themselves. He discovers the need for music and song to convey our emotion in times of despair. Finally, he tells us of a utopia where he can speak freely. This place is so close that he can even hear it, but he is not allowed to tell us where it is. This sense of denial runs through my setting of this poem, with its phrases interrupted or undermined by repetitions of ‘Anlatamıyorum’ (I can’t tell).