^#smrgSAHAF Memed, My Hawk -

Yashar Kemal, was born in 1922 in a small village in Southern Anatolia, the descendant of landowners on his father's side and bandits on his mother's. He had a very hard upbringing and when he was only five years old, saw his father shot dead in a mosque. After this incident he developed a stutter which he overcame a few years later by the singing of olk ballads, and in time became a master of this rich tradition whose influence can be felt in the haunting quality of his writing.