Student Poet's Work Sees Print

Selim Ferruh Adalı (IR-II) has just had his first volume of poetry, Yüzyıl Maymunu, published. The collection of 36 poems, which Selim began writing on Mother's Day of last year, are concerned with political issues, death, love, emotion, and many other things that have inspired him since. He says he enjoys writing because he can express himself better on paper.

Selim was born in Bucharest and has spent his life travelling and living in places like Athens, Cairo, and Ankara because of his father's profession. When he first started writing poetry, he was unsure of how people would react to his poems (he says he wasn't the top student in his Turkish Literature classes). Fortunately, he received praise and encouragement from close friends and relatives, so he decided to continue writing.

Selim's inspiration comes from things he experiences in daily life. For example, he wrote the poem Devler, Cüceler (The Giants, the Dwarfs) when he saw a dwarf puppet in a museum in Brussels. On another occasion, he stayed up until 5 o'clock in the morning and wrote 7 poems in a row! Writing poetry is not the only thing that he does well, however. The design on the front cover of his book, a monkey trying to hide his emotions with an iron mask, is his handiwork as well. In addition, he is interested in acting and theatre, and he wants to do research on the civilization of ancient Egypt, to which end he hopes to return to Cairo...