Reyhan ÇELİK

Renata АКТAŞ

In the 10th century the Byzantine Empire and it’s capital Constantinopole for the just adopted Christianity Russians became religious and cultural center. But with the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and change the name of Constantinopole for Istanbul this city has lost it’s image and importance. In future the image and discription of Istanbul in the works of Russian poets and writers gets a new reflection.Russian ‘Knight’, the founder of Acmeism in Russian literature and one ofthe famous poets of ‘Silver Century’ in Russian literature N. Gumilev (1886-1921) is well-known as the author, using in his verses mistique and exotic motives. Interest for the East one can feel in the works of many poets and writers of ‘Silver Century’, including N. Gumilev, who many times travelled to Africa. Thanks to these visits, poet has formed his own lifeview and philosophical attitude to the world. Istanbul takes a spesific place in these travels and poet expresses his emotions towards this city in his notes on travels as well as in his poems. Just therefore his dedicated to Istanbul verses ‘Constantinopole’ is full ofsadness and has a very spesific importance. In our article (paper) we tried our best to analyze N. Gumilev’s verses ‘Constantinopole’ and to show Istanbul as it was seen with N Gumilev’s eyes.

Key Words: N.Gumilyov, silver century, Constantinopole, knight