You cannot write without living, and you cannot live without writing...

“You know me, I remain indifferent to many things, but once I set my mind to it, I would work for days. Is it like that now? Time slips away as quickly as stations past the windows of an express train. What remains in one's hands are not poems, translations, or other works, but voids. However, ‘do not worry, soon…’ with the winter ending, I will awaken with the spring. Enough of this laziness; it is time to wake up from these slumbers of negligence…” (Behçet Necatigil, Istanbul, March 3, 1950)

Oktay Akbal; a man who lived as long as the Republic, shaped by the philosophy of the Republic, and dedicated his life to the Republic… He produced numerous works in many fields, including short stories, novels, memoirs, and essays.

He passed away in 2015. While reading the book “Letters to Oktay Akbal (1943-2014),” which contains letters sent to him by distinguished writers who were the architects of our contemporary literature, I embarked on a journey through time.

There are 138 letters in the book published by İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları. In these letters written over 71 years, one finds loves, job searches, quarrels, friendships, companionships, ended friendships, old and new lives, the excitement of lines, verses, and essays penned for the first time, the conditions and difficulties of getting them published, the attitudes of the political administrations of the period, and much more.

The spirit, habits, and cultural-artistic tastes of the process experienced are also present in these letters.

However, while each reflects the problems, anxieties, joys, and angers of a unique world—the literary world—they also take us on a journey through time.

''HE WROTE, HE IS WRITING, HE WILL WRITE, HE WILL LIVE...''

Oktay Akbal began writing at the age of 15. He received his first letter in 1943, at the age of 20, from Kenan Harun (Kenan Harun was a poet and journalist). He met Akbal, who was working at the Servetifunun/Uyanış magazine, and they maintained their friendship for years, writing pages of letters to each other. Salah Birsel, Necati Cumalı, Bülent Ecevit, İlhami Emin, Ali Gevgilili, Kasım Gülek, Ruşen Hakkı, Nahit Ulvi Akgün, Sabahattin Kudret Aksel, Talip Apaydın, Prof. Dr. Neda Armaner, Özdemir Balkan, Tahsin Banguoğlu, Faik Baysal, Vehbi Belgil, Egemen Berköz, Adnan Binyazar, Dr. H. Wilfrid Brands, Georg Hazai, Cahit Külebi, Neziha Meriç, Yaşar Nabi Nayır, Behçet Necatigil, Fikret Otyam, Ziya Osman Saba, Naim Tirali…

Developments in the art and literature world since the 1940s, the state of the country…

Changing historical places; glimpses from the memory of ancient Istanbul, whose texture and spirit we have spoiled, and whose majesty and serenity we have turned upside down… People burning with longing for Istanbul and for the friends there, fighting a war of existence with their works and writings against the feeling of loneliness and becoming ordinary…

Those who had to go to distant towns and villages of Anatolia for duty, reminding themselves in every letter of the tally they kept for the day they would return, saying ‘only this much left,’ and the consolation found in writing no matter what…

“Ah! How disgusting and how beautiful it is to write…”

Lines always awaited… Eyes fixed on the post…

''DO NOT LEAVE ME WITHOUT LETTERS!..''

One should not think of this as nostalgia or exaggeration. In those days, a letter, three lines of text, a friend's greeting, sincere lines, news from afar, love etched into ink; it is indescribable. It is very difficult to explain, and it is understood only when experienced.

Today, in an environment where communication has become easier, letters and white paper are gone. There is electronic mail, messaging, social media, and video calls now. Eyes scan screens, not white pages. The postman knocks on our door for cargo, documents, and official papers… Those novel-like letters are gone! An email, a message, a photo, a post… The intent is explained in a short, easy, and fast way… Of course, technological progress and speed have many positive contributions to our lives, undeniably so. Every period is meaningful when it can be evaluated with its own unique conditions.

OH, THAT WRITING, THAT WRITING!.. 

Those lines are like bread, like water. That letter is the one that is ‘crumpled, still not arrived, and in the palm’…

When feelings, thoughts, and hopes that bloom again are poured onto pure white pages… Changing moods… Sometimes letters even included magazines, essays, poems, stories, and even money…

But that writing, that writing; the writing that would even “drive Sait Faik crazy”…

It is difficult to bring what has just been penned into the light of day. It is like a person's child. It is presented to a friend's eyes. It is sent with the hope of being written, and oh, if it hasn't been published, the rain of reproach begins. Not just rain, a storm, a downpour even!..

WHAT REMAINS... 

Letters to Oktay Akbal leaves a warm touch on people's hearts. I think it will leave a smile on the faces of people who have never written a letter, never received a letter, and have never tasted the feeling of looking into a mailbox with great hope. As the book's editor Ruken Kızıler says, it is, in a way, the key to meeting representatives of “a generation with pockets full of letters.”

Time passes; everything changes and transforms… The spoken word flies away, the written word remains...

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The last day of 2024. A whole year has been left behind with its joys, sorrows, pains, and hopes. I wish the new year brings health, happiness, peace, and tranquility to our country and the whole world…