OVERTONES OF CENKNAME IN SEZAİ KARAKOÇ’S POEM ÇOCUKLUĞUMUZ

The massive interaction between mankind and the environment has paved the roads of various processes, how to live, how to believe, how to spend, how to plan a future. As a nation who gave great importance to the aforementioned concepts, Turks carried on their ancient traditions and culture in a way which would not contradict Islam and found a harmony after meeting their new religion. While the heroic stories were passed from one generation to another with this new cultural transformation, it created a new form called “Cenkname”, especially after the conditions took place with the conquest of Anatolia. İmam Ali, known for his tremendous heroism in Islam history has been the main figure of the narratives mentioned due to his valor in the mentioned form. Hazrat Ali’s close relation with the Prophet has gained him respect in the heroic stories with his epic features. These attributes given to Hazrat Ali developed as “Cenkname” and continues since centuries. Even after the Ottoman Empire, where “Cenkname” emerged and spread, Hazrat Ali’s Cenknames continued. Also, one of the great poets of the modern Turkish Poem, Sezai Karakoç had a poem, which’s main theme was a Cenkname of Hazrat Ali. Sezai Karakoç tried to express how the Hazrat Ali Cenknames made his friends and himself feel as a child while they were listening to them in his poem “Çocukluğumuz”. This research is based on the aforementioned information, the importance of the concept of heroism, the tradition of “Cenkname”, the importance of Hazrat Ali Cenknames in Turkish culture and their traces in Sezai Karakoç’s poem. Keywords: Hazrat Ali, Cenknames, Heroism, Sezai Karakoç.