Some Advice to Those who will Serve Time in Prison ------------------- Nazim Hikmet

12.    Nazim Hikmet                                   Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison

Write an essay on the following:

1.       Discuss the poem as a defensive mechanism to survive the incarceration.

2.       Analyze Hikmet’s poem as a poem of protest

Nazim Hikmet is known as the first modern Turkish poet. But the Turkish government imprisoned him for long thirty odd years for his revolutionary communist ideas. But this imprisonment did not destroy his revolutionary spirit and he went on reading and writing literature in his prison life. He was the first Turkish poet to conquer the hearts of the common people.  Critics have compared him to Walt Whitman the great American poet.  As Ernest Hemingway declares in his famous novel “The Old Man and the Sea”, ‘man can be destroyed, but not defeated’.

In his poem “Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison” Hikmet offers various ways to  overcome the drudgery and hellish atmosphere of jail life. His advice is a defensive mechanisms for survival during his thirty odd years of imprisonment. It is a poem of protest.

Instead of hanging you to death, if you are put inside a prison for ten to fifteen years, you will be proud of it because you loved your  people and fought for their freedom, equality and brotherhood. But after the long imprisonment, when you come out into the free world, you will have many more years to lead a happy life. Then you will never say that it was better to be hanged to death than the imprisonment.

Inside the prison, you live but you have to face many difficulties. But in spite of all these, you must remember that life is very precious and even one day is very important for you because you are alive and every moment your enemy is defeated by your brave life inside the prison.  One part of you are so lonely like a stone at the bottom of a well. But the other part is very busy with the problems and issues of the world by reading and writing. Sometimes you shiver in the cold days in the prison. But you know that you are a man and you cannot be defeated.

Now Hikmet advises the prisoners not to do certain things when they are in jail. They should never wait for letters nor sing sad songs nor spend sleepless nights looking at the ceiling of the prison building. You may think they are good for you. But they are dangerous things and you should not do it. They may give you sad and dispirited thoughts.  Every morning you should shave your face and wash it properly and look at your face through mirror and enjoy the beauty and freshness of your face. You will feel happy and proud of your healthy body. Forget your age and think that you are always young and green and fresh. Comb your hair properly and kill all the lice in your hair. In the spring season, look at the sky at night and enjoy the beauty of the twinkling stars. Eat every piece of bread with relish and whenever you get chance, don’t forget to laugh, because laughing is the best medicine a man  gets in the prison life at free of cost.

When you go to prison the woman who loved you may reject you and go to another person. It is possible. But don’t worry about such silly things. It is like cutting off a green branch of a tree. The tree will grow fresh branches again.  Take it easy and don’t bother about such things. Don’t dream of roses and gardens inside a prison. Instead, dream of climbing to the top of mountains and travelling across the sea. These are the fitting dreams of a brave prisoner. Once again  I advise you to keep busy by reading and writing because they are the windows to the outer world. You can spend your time weaving and making mirrors. If you follow this time table strictly, you can survive in prison more than fifteen years as long as your jewel on the left side of your chest, I mean, your heart continues to beat properly with shining speed!                           Kjt/-20-03-2020