‘NİLÜFER’DE MYTHOPOETİK DİNAMİKLER

In this article, the poem ‘Nilüfer’ (Lotus) by one of the contemporary Turkish poets, Behçet Necatigil, is analyzed with regards to contribution of mythological elements. The poem ‘Nilüfer’ is the product of versifying more intensive and in-depth in terms of sense period of the poet. This period, in Necatigil’s poetry line, is the stage that contributed to the flourishing of intertextual relations with myths, legends and ancient poetic tradition and the sememic stratum and strengthening of the deep structure of the poem. ‘Nilüfer’, with polysemous structure of poetic language and intertextual reference which leads to varied ways of singing, is one of his competent poems of mentioned period. Because of the features mentioned, mythological elements and their effects in the formation of the poem ‘Nilüfer’ are discussed in this article. The semantic structure of the poem ‘Nilüfer’ is active and the elements enabling this activity are mythopoetic dynamics. Although there is no mythological name existing in the surface structure of the poem, the deep structure examination reveals Necatigil referring from both the Eastern and Western myths. Regarding intertextuality, while the relation ‘Hero and Leander’ legend of Greek mythology attracts attention in the forefront; deep structure readings shown further references. More behind the stated legend, it is possible to sense the traces of ‘rebirth’ myths based upon the ‘life and death’ cycle in ‘Nilüfer’. This feature of this poem begins with its title. In this regard, in the framework the key words in the poem along with its title are investigated. As conclusion, all of these features are effectively coalesced into some personal characteristics, life and attitude towards daily practices of Necatigil; and presented a competent example of poem by means of poet’s own personal adventure integrating with humanity’s common cultural heritage.