A TRIBUTE TO SEMIH TEZCAN

Authors : Robert Dankoff

Pages : 267-269

View : 21 | Download : 42

Publication Date : 2018-08-03

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :One of the things Semih and I enjoyed discussing over the years of our solidifying friendship was the fact that we were the same age, both of us born in 1943. When I learned of his death in September of 2017, just weeks after we had spent some wonderful days working together on İskendername, I immediately thought of this verse from one of the mersiyes at the end of that work (8648): Nėçün ėtmedüŋ ecel bebriyle ceng Ḳodı gėtdi yėrüŋi ol gūr-ı teng “Why did you not struggle with the tiger of Destiny? It has gone and left you only a narrow grave.” I first met Semih in 1983 at a Turcological conference at Indiana University. Then also much of our discussion revolved around İskendername. Semih presented me a copy of İsmail Ünver’s facsimile edition of that work, which had been published that same year and which I had used for my presentation at the Indiana conference. Since we shared an interest in Turkish mesnevis, we toyed with the notion of one day working on the topic together. We had no inkling, of couse, that our last collaborative effort would involve İskendername.
Keywords : Semih Tezcan, Türk Dili, Türkoloji,