At a time when poetry was often written in Persian, Yunus Emre chose the Turkish spoken by the people of Anatolia. In poems of striking simplicity, he explored the bonds between human beings, nature, and God. For Yunus, love was a way of understanding both oneself and the world.
His words, “We love the created for the sake of the Creator,” capture a vision that runs through his poetry. Divine love, mortality, self-knowledge, and compassion find a voice that has endured for centuries. The clarity of that voice invites readers to look inward and to draw closer to others.
Selected Poems of Yunus Emre brings this poetry to Arabic-speaking readers in Mehmet Hakkı Suçin’s translation.