The Feast of Plunder

Eat, gentlemen...

This feast of gluttony is yours

Eat until you are full, until you choke, until you burst!

Eat, for if you do not eat today, who knows if there will be any left tomorrow?

Gentlemen, you are very hungry, it is evident on your faces

Eat... this feast of pleasure is yours,

This table awaits your favor, your splendor.

Those heads, brains, livers, all those bloody morsels of yours...

Eat until you are full, until you choke, until you burst!

The poor country gives, it gives whatever it has:

Its wealth, its body, its life, its hope, its dreams

All its resignation, all its fading joy.

Just swallow, do not think of what is forbidden or permitted...

Today's stomachs are strong, today's soups are hot,

Snatch, stuff, grab it all, bowl by bowl...

Eat, gentlemen... 

Eat until you are full, until you choke, until you burst!

Eat and swallow, greedily, bowl by bowl...

Excerpts from Tevfik Fikret's poem 'Han-ı Yağma' (The Feast of Plunder)

Today your stomachs are strong, your soups are still hot, do not think at all of what is forbidden or permitted... said Tevfik Fikret... Even if your bloody morsels seem a bit too large for the never-satiated gullet of your impoverished soul, you will surely digest them... Tevfik Fikret had stamped his anger toward the plunderers of the 'Han' (Inn/Feast) onto an era with the seal-like power of his poem.

''The Feast of Plunder'' was a poem that was both a torment and a reward for an intellectual who dedicated his life to the decision to save his dying, ailing country.

Written in 1912, The Feast of Plunder was penned to criticize the deputies and position-holders of the era who, ignoring the miserable state and future of the country, lived in luxury, and while they never let the name of God or the sacred words of religion fall from their lips, were busy adding wealth to their wealth by using their positions, without regard for what was forbidden or permitted.

Tevfik Fikret knew very well how these nouveau-riche, pompous, so-called gentlemen and ladies, who recognized no limits, balance, morality, or manners in plundering the country, were violently usurping the rights to life, education, living like human beings, and even the honor and dignity of the country's youth, children, and women, through the gold watches on their arms, the diamonds around their necks, their yachts, mansions, islands, servants, and chefs—in short, through the plunder they committed.

So, how is it that the moral decay described in the poem The Feast of Plunder, written approximately one hundred and twelve years ago, continues to blow like a destructive hurricane across the skies of the country today with all its terror?

Could the real question to be asked be this: Why is the profile of the plunderer in this poem encountered so often in our country? Could the reason for this collapse, the consequences of which we are experiencing so violently, stem from the fact that general moral criteria have not been properly instilled within society?

For ultimately, we know very well that the most important concept in rescuing the country from the 'Feast of Plunder' situation it finds itself in was the work of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the patriots of his era, their high morality, intellectual level, and honesty. Only in this way could the preservation and reconstruction of the country be achieved.

In this vein, there are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from The Feast of Plunder. The compass of this magnificent poem, which pointed to the plunderers of its time, shows us a completely different direction today. It appears that even if the names and positions of the characters in the poem change, the general characters continue to exist on the same low moral ground. After setting this aside as an observation, we must pay attention to this detail: constantly being amazed by the tabloid shows of these characters will not save us from being trapped within the walls of the plundered inn. The path to salvation lies in correctly analyzing Mustafa Kemal and those who struggled alongside him, and in creating the education system necessary to raise youth of that caliber in society. In other words, the compass of the poem points us not to the dark thieves in the poem, but to the owner of the pen that wrote it and his fellow writers.