Sabahattin Ali: The Poet Of Pain And Love
Intriguing episodes from Sabahattin Ali’s life, his loves, his arrests, and his death in 1948. A portrait that traces the real story behind his works through moments from his own life.
I have always been curious about what kind of life the writers we read and love actually lived, and what they felt while writing. Today, we will talk about Sabahattin Ali, one of the most painful and passionate pens in Turkish literature. The story of this man, who wrote his own life in every line and poured his pain onto paper with ink, is more dramatic than his novels.
The Friendship Behind His Name
There is a story even behind Sabahattin Ali’s name. His father, because of his friendship with Tevfik Fikret and Prince Sabahattin, gave his first son the name Sabahattin and the other Fikret. Even a name shows how a cultural accumulation and an intellectual circle can shape a life.
Selahattin Bey Sabahattin Ali (Left) and Tevfik Ali (Right)
An Unsettled Childhood
It is said that Sabahattin Ali grew up in an unsettled family environment. Perhaps the roots of his famous melancholy, that deep sense of loneliness, were hidden in those childhood years. Throughout his life, he put what he lived into poems, stories, and essays, as if writing was as natural and as necessary as breathing for him.
A Suicide Attempt And A Friendship
Young Sabahattin, who was threatened with being sent back to his family because he was constantly interested in art at school, falls into a bleak state of mind and says he will take his own life. At that time, he leaves a letter to his friend Naci Çevik. His friend understands what is happening, informs the teacher on duty, and Sabahattin is caught in the schoolyard.
This event changes the course of his life. The school principal does not expel him and finds a way to transfer him to Istanbul. As a great stroke of luck, in Istanbul, Ali Canip Yöntem, a literature teacher at the Muallim Mektebi, helps him publish his writings in important magazines.
“For My Father”: A Loss, A Poem
Sabahattin Ali points to his father’s death as an event that left a great mark on him. After this, on January 15, 1927, he writes the poem “For My Father”. After the Surname Law, he takes the surname “Şenyuva”, but he wants to use his father’s first name “Ali” and cannot get permission. For this reason, he prefers to use it as “Alı”. He shows his devotion to his father by insisting on carrying his name.
Fear Of Creditors And The Germany Chapter
During his years as a teacher, he tells friends in the Ministry of Education circle that he wants to leave Yozgat because he fears creditors might kill him. After this, he is included in the groups formed under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s initiative to ensure teachers fully master foreign languages, among the groups sent to England, Germany, and France, and he spends a certain period of his life in Germany.
Frolayn Puder: Love Number 28
Here, in Berlin, he meets one of the most important loves of his life: Frolayn Puder. This woman, known among his friends as “number 28”, is said to have inspired the novel Kürk Mantolu Madonna.
In a letter he wrote to Ayşe Sıtkı İlhan, he says:
“In Germany, I was exceedingly in love with a woman named Frolayn Puder. (Among friends she was famously known as ‘number 28.’) At the time, that well-known film The Blue Angel was showing in Berlin, and the song ‘Sonny Boy’ from it was on everyone’s lips. Now, when I hum it, I remember those misty, rainy October days when I used to go with 28 to museums or to the cinema. On the way, I would constantly drift into her face and wouldn’t see where I was going, and she would slightly turn her head toward me with a faint smile, as if to say she forgave this foolishness of mine. Among all the people I have ever loved, no one treated me as well as she did. Even though she would not let me so much as smell the tip of her finger, she never hurt me; she knew perfectly how to keep between us a certain distance that neither widened nor narrowed…”
These lines show Sabahattin Ali’s soul, his great love, and his unhappy passion very clearly. He had many people in his life for whom he felt love and did not receive a response, but in his letters he notes that the place of two names is different.
Melahat Muhtar: A Love That Was Returned
The second is Melahat Muhtar, his student. Sabahattin Ali, whose love was returned, wrote the poem “Çocuklar Gibi” for Melahat Muhtar.
Arrest And Prison
Because of the poem “Hey Anavatanından Ayrılmayanlar” that he wrote for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and İsmet İnönü, he is arrested on December 22, 1932, and receives a 1-year sentence. He benefits from the general amnesty issued for the 10th anniversary of the Republic and is released after 10 months.
Sabahattin Ali’s Prison Cell, Later Turned Into A Museum
As a result of the meetings he held to be appointed again, he writes the poem “Benim Aşkım” about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and after being kept waiting for a while, he is able to return to public service.
The “Communist” Label And A Rejected Proposal
He states that he wrote plays and that they would be staged to turn the communist label attached to him on its head. During this time, he leaves a note at the end of a letter to his friend Ayşe Hanım and proposes marriage. But Ayşe Hanım rejects him, saying, “if you thought I was serious in my writings, you have shown great childishness.”
By 1948, Sabahattin Ali could no longer endure it. As the managing editor of the satirical magazine Marko Paşa, which he published together with Aziz Nesin, he was exhausted by the never-ending lawsuits, arrests, and prison days.
He told Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, “You can’t live in this country anymore! In this air, a person suffocates!” He drank heavily at an exhibition and shouted, “I can’t live in this country anymore. I will leave.”
The “Communist” Label And Trouble That Followed
In 1930, while he was appointed as a German teacher at Aydın Middle School, an investigation is opened against him on the claim that he was making communist propaganda, and he is arrested and imprisoned. Later, he goes to prison again because of the poem “Hey Anavatanından Ayrılmayanlar.”
After he got out of prison, he faced financial hardship and his passport application was rejected. The dissident communist stamp never left him. Each time, he was marginalized with the words “filthy communist.”
The Escape Plan: March 28, 1948
On Sunday, March 28, 1948, when he stopped by the Cimcoz family, Sabahattin Ali hid from them that he was going to flee Turkey. He said he was taking cheese to Edirne. In reality, his aim was to cross the Bulgarian border and reach Europe. Because he was not given a passport through legal means, he tried to reach this goal through illegal routes. Before attempting the Bulgarian border, he had also tried to escape through the Syrian border, but he failed.
The person who would help him escape to Europe was Barber Hasan, his wardmate from Üsküdar Paşa Kapısı Prison. Barber Hasan introduced Sabahattin Ali to Ali Ertekin.
Who Was Ali Ertekin
Ali Ertekin, a Turkish citizen of Yugoslav immigrant origin, has various claims about his past, including that he received a military court sentence, became involved in border matters, and was on the agenda with different accusations. This man, with a dark background and whom some said was a police agent, would guide Sabahattin Ali on his final journey.
April 2, 1948: Murder
It is told that although there were three people in the truck at first, they later left the driver behind and continued on the road together. According to Ali Ertekin’s court statement, Sabahattin Ali said various political things on the way. Ertekin, who would later claim that Sabahattin Ali had “provoked his national feelings,” confessed that he killed the famous writer by striking his head repeatedly with a club.
The Body Being Found And The Trial
His body was found on June 16, 1948, about 35 kilometers inside the border, near the village of Hed(i)ye, by shepherds. Months later, Ali Ertekin went to the police and confessed his crime.
The sentence given, the conduct of the case, and what followed became a subject of debate for years. The fact that the punishment was short despite the confession, that some hearings were conducted under secrecy, and that claims about the background were never fully clarified left a lasting fog over this murder.
The Veil Of Mystery
Claims by the defense about various institutions and relationships, accounts that some testimonies were taken in closed sessions, and the fact that Ali Ertekin later disappeared from view caused the questions to multiply. The veil of mystery over the murder has not been fully lifted for many years.
The End Of His Border Journey Fell Onto Newspaper Pages Like This.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Sabahattin Ali’s life is more painful and more tragic than his works. A man who fell in love with women “even though they would not let him even smell the tip of their finger,” who insisted on carrying his father’s name, who went to prison many times because of his poems, who tried to flee the country because of the communist stamp, and who was ultimately killed at the Bulgarian border at the age of 41.