Nazim Hikmet (1902–1963) was born in Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and is regarded as the first modern Turkish poet. His use of free verse and his Marxist politics made him a contested figure in Turkey, where he was imprisoned for more than a decade before leaving the country for the last time in 1951 and living his remaining years in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He composed Human Landscapes from My Country, an epic verse novel, during his imprisonment. His other works include the collection Things I Didn't Know I Loved. His poetry has been translated into dozens of languages. He died in Moscow in 1963.
