James Clarence mangan, born in the late 1800, is a famous poet from Ireland. He is born and raised in Dublin, and has developed a very eccentric fascination for turkish culture and poetry.

He was a translator for the Trinnity College Library where he was translator in the languages: Irish, German, Persian, Arabic and later on Turkish. They estimate he came in contact with turkish literarure through one of his german translation, after which he decided to start learn the turkish language on his own.
Later he also writes very interesting poems about turkey. The part that is interesting is, that in one of his poems called ‘Karamanian exhile’ he writes the poem through the eyes of a young turkish soldier, whom goes to the east of turkey from his small town Karaman.

It allmost feels like Clarance has a lot of contact with the turkish culture, but in those days dublin didn’t have a turkish population like the other european countries such as; Germany, France, Holland etc.
He has also never been to turkey himself, soo how was he able to understand a whole different culture on his own, with no contact in any form.

This fascinating poet has brought me personally one step closer to the irish people.
I think it’s an example of how people even though with no contact and very opposite cultures, can learn and understand about a different country. I believe that he is a big example of dialogue and understanding. And many people even in this age are still not able to be as open minded as him in the eighteen hundreds.

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