Beyond the Walls

Nâzim Hikmet (1902–63), Turkey’s greatest modern poet, was a political prisoner in Turkey for more than fourteen years and spent the last thirteen years of his life in exile, mainly in Russia, travelling widely through Europe and further afield. Talât Sait Halman was born in 1931 in Istanbul. He is a well-known Turkish poet, translator and cultural historian. In 1971 he served as Turkey’s first ever Minister of Culture. He translates poetry and prose both from Turkish into English and vice versa. Richard McKane is a poet and the translator of Selected Poems of Anna Akhmatova and, with Elizabeth McKane, of Mandelstam’s The Moscow Notebooks and The Voronezh Notebooks. Anvil has published The Pillar of Fire, his selection from the poetry of Nikolay Gumilyov. He has jointly translated with Ruth Christie extensive selections from two Turkish poets, Poems of Oktay Rifat and Beyond the Walls by Nâzim Hikmet. For many years he worked as a human rights interpreter.Ruth Christie was born and educated in Scotland. She studied Turkish at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has taught English literature and has been translating novels, short stories and poetry from the Turkish for many years. She has jointly translated with Richard McKane extensive selections from two Turkish poets, Poems of Oktay Rifat and Beyond the Walls by Nâzim Hikmet.

'one of the few important political poets of the century'Paul Zweig