5-Meter-Long Poem Rejected by Printers for Publication Reaches Istanbul

To read this book, simply turning its pages is not enough; you must unfold it like an accordion so that a strip of poetry extends to a length of five meters. Nearly a century after its publication, the poetry collection by Peruvian poet Carlos Oquendo de Amat has been featured as a guest at an exhibition in Istanbul.

The exhibition opened last Wednesday as part of the fourth edition of the Ibero-American Book Forum, presenting enlarged copies of the book’s pages to demonstrate how words and white spaces move within its unconventional design. The work, titled “Five Meters of Poems,” was published in 1927, intertwining text with the visual composition of the page, making the act of opening and unfolding the book an integral part of the reading experience itself.

However, translating this experience into Turkish encountered practical obstacles. According to a report by the newspaper “Daily Sabah,” the editor-in-chief of the publishing house explained that several printing presses refused to undertake the project due to its long and unusual structure, necessitating considerable effort to produce it while preserving its original form.

During the opening ceremony, Peru’s ambassador to Turkey, Luz Caballero, honored the editor-in-chief of the publishing house in recognition of his efforts in translation and in promoting Peruvian literature.

The presentation of the poetry collection was part of a forum organized by the Cervantes Institute in Istanbul and the Spanish Embassy from November 3 to 5, bringing together writers, translators, and publishers from Turkey, Spain, and Latin America.