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He married Piraye Altınoğlu on 31 January 1935. Although he had met her in 1930 and decided to get married in 1931, he could not manage because of indictments, interrogations and arrests.
Nâzım Hikmet had married twice before in the Soviet Union. The first one had been to Nüzhet Hanım, the daughter of a family who worked there. It did not last long. Then he was married Dr. Lena, a Russian. This union ended because of his homesickness.
Piraye Altınoğlu had two children from her first husband. With this marriage, Nâzım Hikmet was going to be shouldering the responsibility of a family of four. He started to write anecdotes in the Akşam newspaper under the pseudonym Orhan Selim, and under a number of other pseudonyms he wrote serial novels to be run in various newspapers.
On the other hand, he held numerous capacities worked in at the Ipek Film Studios where he wrote scenarioes, directed the dubbing, and directed films.
He published his new book named, "Taranta Babu'ya Mektuplar" (Epistles to Taranta Babu) in 1935. His play "Unutulan Adam" (The Forgotten Man) was staged in Darülbedayi.
In 1936, Simavne Kadısı Oğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı"(The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin, Son of the Kadhi of Simavne), a book-length poem, and a selected translation entitled German Fascism and Racism were published. Before the Second World War, the tension among the leftist and rightist authors reached the peak. Mutual accusations continued in the press. At the end of 1936, Nâzım Hikmet was arrested again with twelve other people due to their alleged distribution of bills without permission. In April 1937 the court decided to hear him without arrest and he became free once again. Shortly after he was acquitted of this case, a military college student in official uniform came to İpek Cinema and tried to speak with him. He believed that it was certain provocation. So he called the First Division of the Police Department and said that he had been working for his children and to sustain his family and thus demanded they leave him in peace.
The same student, after a while, came to his house. The poet answered his questions on foot basing on CHP policies to get rid of him.

While visiting his relative, Celaleddin Ezine's home, on the night of 17 January 1938, he was arrested by the police. He stayed in the Istanbul Tevkifhanesi for a short time and then was sent to the Military Court of the Military College Headquarters in Ankara. While he believed that he would be certainly acquitted of this case, the hearings concluded with a sentence of 15 years of prison on grounds of "provoking military personnel to rebel against their superiors" on 29 March 1938. On 28 May 1938, the supreme court approved the sentence and he was brought from Ankara Prison to the Istanbul Sultanahmet Prison. After a short time, through the end of June, some officers from the Marine Headquarters took him from prison and put him on a small boat from Kadıköy port and brought him to the ship named Erkin waiting by the Prince's Islands. Firstly they imprisoned him in a toilet and then in a bilge store.
This time he would be judged at the Military Court of the Naval Headquarters. The trial started on 10 August 1938 and concluded with a sentence of twenty years' imprisonment on the basis of "provoking naval soldiers to rebellion" on 29 August 1938. The sum of these two sentences was 35 years. The court came to a decision of 28 years and 4 months in prison due to several reasons. And the approval of the Military Supreme Court on 29 December 1938 caused even the last hope to collapse.
On 1 September 1938, he was sent to the Istanbul Prison, then in February 1940 to the Çankırı Prison, and finally to the Bursa Prison in December of the same year.
During the twelve years he stayed in these city prisons, Nâzım Hikmet continuously wrote poetry even though he did not have the opportunity to publish them.
He made friends with the poor and mournful people he met in those prisons, who lived under the most difficult conditions. He was reading his poems to these people and obtaining their critique. Among the poems, there were Dört Hapishaneden (From Four Prisons), Kuvayy-ı Milliye (The Liberation Forces), Piraye Için Yazılmış Saat 21-22 Şiirleri (Poems of 21-22 Hours Written for Piraye), Piraye'ye Rubailer (Rubaiad for Piraye), Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları (Human Landscapes from My Country), Ferhad ile Şirin (Ferhad and Şirin), Yusuf ile Menofis (Yusuf and Menofis).
When the Second World War ended in the beginning of 1946, he applied to the parliament again for the correction of the legal error, which would establish his innocence. He thought the political atmosphere was softening but his effort remained futile.
Through the middle of 1949, as a result of a number of serial writings by Ahmet Emin Yalman in "Vatan" newspaper and a ten-page investigation report prepared by Mehmet Ali Sebük the attorney of the paper, it came to public attention that Nâzım Hikmet was in prison simply because of legal error. The lawyers in Ankara and the intellectuals in Istanbul petitioned the President of the Republic. A number of international person of the law, artists and intellectuals abroad also ventured in his behalf. The International Committee of Jurists, which is the Consultation Committee of the United Nations Organisation, applied by sending letters requesting that Nâzım Hikmet be freed. The letters were directed at the President of the Parliament, the Minister of National Defence, and the Minister of Justice and were sent in February 1950.


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