Umit Inatci, Yarilma.

Umit Inatci, Yarilma (Istanbul and Lefkosa: Ars Operandi Yayinlari, 2006) (Paperback)s 96 pp; 20 YTL.

Writer, art historian, artist and critic, Umit Inatci, in his recently released book of poems, Yarilma, is the first Turkish Cypriot writer to combine philosophy and poetry. It is possible to discern in the images and metaphors, as well as in the formal and structural features of Inatci's work, the synthesis of his intellectual and artistic background. This book, it must be said, is clearly aimed at the more educated and experienced reader.

Yarilma is divided into three parts: "Beyazlasma", "Dugumlu Tumceler" and "Dilbozmasi siirseyler ve Fesfese". Each part follows a theme, reflecting different paths in the rich mosaic of the poet's background.

The poems of the first part of the book refer to emotional, phenomenological states in which the poet assumes the voice of a Cypriot with two different levels of self-understanding. Self-referential images communicate the poet's protest and acute understanding of the Cypriots' misfortunes. Inatci communicates his anti-war stance to readers with a strong, authorial, even omniscient voice. This can be observed particularly in condemnation of the massacre of the innocent. Striking colors of red, black and grey are used to describe the mood of death in war (9, 15) as opposed to the poet's emotional reaction, love of humanity, which is described with metaphors of naturalistic images. Love of humanity is expressed as "a fragile, white lily" (2) a "clove", (1, 14) and sometimes as a beetle (4, 22). In the poem "Daralma", which describes experiences of disintegration and alienation in Cyprus, the poet speaks of a human body, split and fragmented into multiple pieces. In other pieces, "Yasama" and "Kirilma", in social-critical mode, not only victory, but peace also is conceived of as a utopia. According to Inatci, the horrible experiences and the disappointments of Cypriots lie in their refusal to apprehend their own situation, especially as it manifests itself in social deterioration. The last poem of the first part has dream-like elements, in which nothingness is paradoxically described with the metaphor of the color white. The most distinctive feature of this poem is the dynamics of images; one can sense the motion as all objects are absorbed into whiteness.

The second section, "Dugumlu Tumceler", consists of philosophical poems. As the poet puts it, "once poetry slips into philosophy, I put on philosophy's winged beret, (might be a fancy-dress party of reason) struggling for the chivalry of opinion" (1-4, 43). Poetic images replace thoughts, especially when the latter cannot be properly said in philosophical discourse and traditional language structures. Inatci also speaks of the difficulties in using poetry as a discourse to communicate opinions: "Every knot I made in sentences is the physical existence of an agonizing act of thinking and spasm of images" (1-6). Here poetry has become a privileged discourse to discuss philosophical issues. Besides his emphasis on the contrasting and striking images, Umit Inatci speaks of the experimental nature of his writing. The philosophical poetry is an example of the phenomenon of the proliferation of the authorial voice implicit in the literary text: "The act of thinking-writing is also an act of duplicating myself in and through my writing ... What is written has already been experienced. What is said has been said before" (12-14, 43).

"Philosophy" here does not imply adherence to the work of any particular philosopher or school of thought; rather, there is a synthesis of various philosophical themes such as ethics, happiness, death, love, eroticism, god, atheism, and history. In Inatci's treatment of these themes, belief in god is questioned in a typical Nietzschean manner, especially in "Tanrilik ve Bosluk Simetrisi", Kaderin Derin Matematigi", "Tanrinin haksizligi", "Ya Yoksa?", "Erkek Tanri Erki". In the first of these poems, Inatci develops a philosophical notion of death using a synthesis of Epicurus, Nietzsche and William James' pragmatic attitude to the belief in god. According to Inatci, god is born out of the void. Drawing on the argument wherein the fear of the gods is seen as the origin of the fear of death, Inatci speculates that the origin of the belief in god lies in a field which may be termed the "non-experienced", a field forever shut off to the thinking subject and thereby to questioning and argumentation (9,58). Also, the pragmatic interpretation of the belief in god is highlighted. Here, god is a relative concept that contains mystical and mythical elements. The belief in god's existence is a matter of the "will to believe" (11, 59); hence, the will of god is a frequently used strategy of opportunists in realization of their aims (10, 59).

The theme of happiness is dealt with in "Mutluluk ve Huzun Bakismasi". After a brief analysis of theories of happiness in the history of thought, Inatci defines happiness as a transformation, a state of recovery that comes from pain and sadness, mediated by anger and revolt, a typical Nietzschean argument (3-4,61). Inatci highlights the necessity of experiencing and understanding such opposing moods; it is not possible to comprehend pain without having experienced happiness and vice versa. In short, the knowledge of the difference is absolutely necessary to the grasping of both.

It can be said that the majority of the poems in this second section lack the variety of artistic features and the poetic techniques applied in the first section. Moreover, the philosophical discourse sometimes absorbs the poetic discourse. However, "Dugumlu Tumceler" is rich in thought, and the reader may enjoy reading the many philosophical issues at leisure, interwoven with individual and collective concerns. In my opinion, "Tarihin Sonu, ve Sonculuk" holds a distinctive place in this part of the book. Starting with Fukuyama's claim announcing "the end of history", Inatci refutes logo-centric interpretations of history on the basis that to end history is a meaningless proposition; history already contains in its own flow the temporal events of "before(s)", "after(s)", "pre(s)" and "post(s)". Furthermore, as a subsidiary and irregularly flowing memory, history is not progress-oriented. To end history would mean the end of humanity together with several human concerns such as art, philosophy, politics, economy, etc. (8-9, 52). In this poem, the metaphor of memory is the most prominent poetic device. The structure of the poem is like a memory, lacking a consistent argumentation in chronological order, allowing readers to travel trough different segments in memory. The poet himself is part of this metaphoric description. The closing part of the poem recounts the poet's stepping out of memory and pre-occupation with daily concerns. As he puts it, "It's almost five in the morning. Sleeplessly, I cannot stop my mind thinking, I will soon get out of history and move into time. My neck has been longing for the neck-tie. I am hungry. Can anyone crave beans at this time of the day?" (10-14, 54)

In the third section, "Dilbozmasi siirseyler ve Fesfese", one can observe Inatci's application of philosophy of language to his poetry, which I believe is the most outstanding feature of this book. The philosophy of language in Umit Inatci's poetry is a synthesis of several views: Wittgeinstein's view that only that which is experienced can be constructed in language; Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes' Structuralist thesis on the linguistic nature of meaning; Derrida's thesis that all meaning results from a kind of (Ur)writing, including the act of reading itself. A quotation from Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man serves as the preface of the third section, introducing readers to the principles of Structuralism; for the Structuralist, language is a dynamic activity, a "social object" as well as a "field of action" in which, paradoxically, the writer has always already lost the god-like authority traditionally associated with the writer. Here, language is treated as a system of signs made up of the phonological and semantic play of opposites. It is this dual aspect of writing that makes reality ambiguous.

It may be argued that the title of the book, Yarilma, is a persistent metaphor of this particular view of language. The poems of this third section thrive on the self-conscious interplay of writer and reader. When the poems of the third part are closely examined, there may be observed a "crack" in the pairs: subject-meaning, image-thought, poet-reader, thinking-feeling. In addition, phonological, lexical and grammatical games serve as poetic devices--signs appealing to the senses with ambiguous meanings. This can especially be seen in poems like "TumC'siz sozcukler", "Dil-im", "Manti-kli siir," "Baska siir veya Hicsiir". In the first poem, the letter "c" is absent; the title of the poem can either be understood as words without sentences or words without the letter "c" and so, throughout the poem, it is left up to the reader to construct meaning or, alternatively, settle for no meaning at all. "Mantikli siir" and "L-imansiz" are the best examples of phonological and grammatical play; with the use of the dash (-) in reading the title one can either experience the loss of the sound "k" that further creates the oppositions in meaning. Similarly the dash (-) in "L-imansiz" either means homeless traveler or an atheist--an ambiguity persisting throughout the poem. Interestingly, the capital letters scattered in the words stand independently from the text, serving as visual symbolpictures that create ambiguity in meaning.

Inatci's authorship, however, is not as invalidated as orthodox Structuralism would suggest. In some cases, the author is part of the sign systems and metaphorical pathways of the poem; what he says here is confined to the semantic and sensuous limits of a sign which appeals sometimes to our senses, or to our minds--the play of signification. In other cases, the author assumes the authority of a prophet, speaking out his views, especially in "Eros'un Oklari" and "Kisilik ve Dikinelik". Readers begin to see themselves as part of the poem in their failure to construct meaning; they are split between the images of the imagination and the inherent irregularity of conventional language. To read and to understand is thus to opt for any one of the oppositional meanings. Fortunately, frustration regarding the poetic techniques and construction of meaning and imagery can be overcome by means of the prefaces which make the poems accessible to readers, in varying degrees.

Umit Inatci's Yarilma is a brilliant book of poetry with its extraordinary style of dealing with the local and personal themes, enriched with his artistic and intellectual background. I can recommend the book also for the variety of subjects it offers, which makes it appealing for readers with different tastes and interests. It is a valuable poetry book that must be kept by any intellectual.

Ayten Sururi

Eastern Mediterranean University