萨巴哈丁·阿里

萨巴哈丁·阿里（土耳其语：Sabahattin Ali，1907年2月25日—1948年4月2日），土耳其小说家、诗人、记者。1907年生于奥斯曼帝国埃格里德雷（今保加利亚境内）的一个军人家庭。1920年代末留学德国，回到土耳其后长期任职德语教师。因为作诗讽刺土耳其国父穆斯塔法·凯末尔·阿塔图克被捕，1933年获释。1936年入伍，并于第二次世界大战中两次服役。后再度入狱，1944年获释。1948年过境保加利亚时被杀害。

阿里的作品有短篇小说集《磨坊》、《呼声》，长篇小说《我心中的魔鬼》、《孤儿优素福》等。他是土耳其最多产的现代短篇小说家之一，同情社会底层的遭遇，并持反法西斯立场。

Sabahattin Ali (25 February 1907 – 2 April 1948) was a Turkish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist.

Early life

Sabahattin Ali was born in 1907 in Eğridere township (now Ardino in southern Bulgaria) of the Sanjak of Gümülcine (now Komotini in northern Greece), in the Ottoman Empire. He was born to, Selahattin Ali, an Ottoman officer, and Husniye. His father's family were from the Black Sea region.

Ali lived in Istanbul, Çanakkale and Edremit before he entered the Teacher School in Balıkesir. His elementary and middle school education was interrupted by WWI, contributing to his difficult childhood. He was then transferred from Balikesir to the School of Education in Istanbul, where he graduated in 1926 with a teacher's certificate. His various poems and short stories were published in the school’s student paper. After serving as a teacher in Yozgat for one year, he earned a fellowship from the Ministry of National Education and studied in Potsdam, Germany from 1928 to 1930. When he returned to Turkey, he taught German language in high schools in Aydın and Konya.

Later years

While he was serving as a teacher in Konya, he was arrested for a poem he wrote criticizing Atatürk's policies, and accused of libelling two other journalists. He wrote a poem to Atatürk later stating "I was sentenced to prison for 1 year. What saddens me the most is not the sentence, but that your name is dragged into this as a means of personal revenge. I did not do such a thing and I want you to believe it. I ask for forgiveness. I can prove my innocence to an unprejudiced court free of ill thoughts and needless fears".

Having served his sentence for several months in Konya and then in the Sinop Fortress Prison, he was released in 1933 in an amnesty granted to mark the 10th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Turkey. He then applied to the Ministry of National Education for permission to teach again. After proving his allegiance to Atatürk by writing the poem "Benim Aşkım" (literally: My Love or My Passion), he was assigned to the publications division at the Ministry of National Education. Sabahattin Ali married Aliye on 16 May 1935 and had a daughter, Filiz. He did his military service in 1936. He was called back to military service twice during WWII, like most Turkish adult men at the time. He was imprisoned again and released in 1944.

Ali founded and edited a popular weekly magazine called Marko Paşa (pronounced "Marco Pasha"), together with Aziz Nesin and Rıfat Ilgaz. In the period between 1941 and 1944 he was among the directors of a monthly sociology journal entitled Yurt ve Dünya based in Ankara. He was among the contributors of the literary magazine Adımlar in 1944.

Social Realism and Sabahattin Ali

Sabahattin Ali's stories were about the daily struggles of ordinary and poor people in cities and rural Anatolia, where he had been appointed as clerk and worked for years. Some of his books and stories have the theme of conflict between classes, such as Kuyucaklı Yusuf.