A very important Ruhi Su book

Ruhi Su … also passed. (1)

Book of Ruhi Su ‘ Gülüm Dermişler they called CD added.

His wife Sıdıka Su and his son Ilgın Su were the editorial consultants .

I must copy a poem and a few sentences from the Introduction . Metin Altıok’s beautiful poem with Füsun Akatlı’s sentence impressed me:

“They came from a dewdrop/Ruhi,/Ruhi and Ruhis./Ruhi of Dungeons,/Ruhi of Squares

/They smiled warmly/ They came from the Whirling/Foam of Days/Ruhi and Ruhis./Ruhi of Songs,/Ruhi of Love” They gave a hand to each other.”

Füsun Akatlı has defined Ruhi Su ‘s identity very accurately:

”Ruhi Su was not an ordinary folk music artist, but an intellectual and contemporary musician who developed and integrated his talent with his education. In one word: musician.”

Ruhi Su was a good opera singer. As a voice master who knows Western technique, he explained what it means to sing a song with his instrument and voice.

This book yells in our faces the horror of being unable to do one’s job and being prevented, so that we don’t forget to do it again.

You come to Istanbul, the doors are closed in your face, you go to Ankara, there were prohibitions in the city before you. I’m highlighting a memory that made me sad in

Füsun Akatlı‘s  Book of “and Ruhi Su Passed…”

One evening at the State Theatre, the artist goes to celebrate his friends backstage, and some flee to avoid seeing him.

Read those who are afraid of an artist’s freedom, those who hand over art to power, and record it in your memory.

Because these events are the litmus paper of the personality.

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RUHI SU’s Life: Akatlı wrote his life with the literary style of a critic and the meticulousness of a researcher.

His life is very important.

Because the suffering and persecution of the intellectuals of the republic are reflected in a lifetime with all their horror.

In the Life Story section, you will learn about Ruhi Su‘s troubles and the horrors of the prohibitions that prevent her from practicing her profession.

You will be amazed by the resilience of an artist who is not even given baglama in prison and works with wooden baglama.

The biographies of artists such as Ruhi Su, give us sad information about the nature of artist-power-state relations in Turkey.

If you read the life stories of the artists instead of reading the political and social history of those days – I repeat often – you can learn about those days, that period much more accurately, much more purely.

If Ruhi Su did not exist, people in big cities would not be aware of the folk songs, and intellectuals would not like it. Because they couldn’t realize the philosophy behind it, capturing the sincere voice of the Anatolian people.

* * *

(1) …and Ruhi Su has passed…, Füsun Akatlı, Ruhi Su Culture and Art Foundation Publications (with the support of the Ministry of Culture).