Breaking the Anchors: What Orhan Veli’s “Toward Freedom” Teaches Us About Modern Burnout
Toward Freedom
Orhan Veli Kanik
Before dawn,
While the sea is still snow-white, you will set sail;
The grip of the oars in your palms,
And in your heart the joy of toil and vigor,
You will go.
In the roll and sway of the nets, you will go.
For welcome, fish will appear on your course
Delighting you.
As you shake the nets,
Scale by scale, the sea will journey into your hands.
When silence pervades the souls of seagulls
In the cemetery of the rocks,
All of a sudden,
All hell will break loose on the horizon:
Mermaids will scuttle and birds scurry…
Saturnalia and festivals, orgies and carnivals,
Bridal processions, masquerades, revelries, carausals…
Heeeyy!
Whaddya waiting for, man, jump in the sea!
Forget who’s waitying for you back there.
Don’t you see: Freedom is all around you.
Be the sail, the oar, the rudder, the fish, the water,
And go, go whereever you can
Reflection
Orhan Veli Kanık’s “Toward Freedom” is a breathless, sensory invitation to abandon the predictable and plunge into the chaotic beauty of existence. Kanık uses the metaphor of a fisherman setting sail before dawn to capture a visceral sense of agency. The sea isn’t just a setting; it is a living entity that “journeys into your hands.”
However, the poem reaches its peak when the quiet rhythm of labor explodes into a cosmic celebration—a chaotic “Saturnalia” of mermaids, birds, and revelry. Kanık’s sudden, colloquial exclamation, “Whaddya waiting for, man, jump in the sea!” shatters the boundary between the text and the reader. It is a radical rejection of societal expectations and the invisible anchors that tie us down.
In contemporary life, we are constantly tethered to our screens, our schedules, and the relentless pressure to perform. We waiting for the “perfect time” to live, trapped in a state of passive anticipation. Kanık reminds us that freedom isn’t a distant destination or a future reward; it is an active, immersive choice. To be free, we must willing to lose sight of the shore, forget who is waiting for us in the safety of conformity, and completely merge with the flow of life itself.
As you read this poem, ask yourself:
What is the “shore” you are clinging to out of fear, and what would happen if you finally chose to jump into the sea?
