“World Poetry Day” Celebrates Mevlana’s Poetry

On March 21, a "Mevlana (Rûmî) Program" was held on UNESCO's "World Poetry Day" by Bilkent's Center for Turkish Literature at FEASS, C-Block Auditorium. This year, the program was dedicated to Mevlana in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of the great sufi poet. In the program, Mevlana's poems were read, along with translations into Turkish and English. Beşir Ayvazoğlu, writer, critic and editor made the opening speech, emphasizing Mevlana's life and poetry, and their significance in Turkish literary tradition. Following the opening speech, Anooshirvan M. Miandji, instructor of Persian at Bilkent, recited Mevlana's poems in the original Persian, with translations into Turkish read by Serhat Demirel, M. A. student from the Department of Turkish Literature at Bilkent University. Ozan Sağdıç read 100 of Mevlana's rubais in his own Turkish translation. Leyla Tepedelen, instructor of English at Bilkent's Department of Turkish Literature recited Mevlana's poems from Talât S. Halman's translations into English, while two students, Hilal Aydın and Öykü Terzioğlu, both M. A. students from the Department of Turkish literature, read the poems in Talât S. Halman's Turkish translation. The program closed with more readings by Hilmi Yavuz, poet, literary critic, and scholar of Turkish literature at Bilkent in Turkish translation by various Turkish poets.