ANKARA UNIVERSITY ANNUAL MAGAZINE by the STUDENTS of the PHILOLOGY CLASS June/2020 Class-99

ANKARA UNIVERSITY ANNUAL MAGAZINE BY THE STUDENTS OF THE PHILOLOGY CLASS June/2020 Class-99

NEITHER near

NOR far

Editor and designer: Muhammet Ali Polat Co-editor: Teoman Küçükkiriş 1

CONTENT REVIEWS Kid A album review by Meltem Sağlam Genshin Impact review by Beyza Ayhan Tetris review by Eren Cem Çalış Attack on Titan review by Hasibe Murat Sons of Anarchy review by Kaan Yiğit Tümen Sense8 review by Gönül Kahya Once Upon A Time In Hollywood review by Beyza Belen Göçmüs Kediler Bahçesi review by Teoman Küçükkiriş Winter Light review by Şerife Geder Bloodborne review by Gökan Çakır

ESSAYS Essay about Ingmar Bergman by Şerife Geder A comparison article about The Craft and The Craft: Legacy by Busenur Gökkaya Essay about Nizar Qabbani’s life by Fatma Milaci

POEMS AND STORIES Henchman by Berkay Eskimez Mother by Nursena Özivgen Thoughts by Osman Ateş Time by Teoman Küçükkiriş

TRANSLATIONS Translations of Emily Dickenson’s works: “Because I could not stop for death” and “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Ghalla Mahfouz Translation of Dylan Thomas’ work “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Taha Elbruz Pelit Translation of Nizar Qabbani’s work “Can you sit a little bit” by Fatma Milacı Translation of Oscar Wilde’s work “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Öykü Yavuzer Translation of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 by Muhammet Ali Polat

EDITORIAL

At this very beginning, I salute you, our dearest readers. You cannot even imagine how happy you have made us by reading this magazine. With your support, I can assure you that we will be better in the future. I hope you will enjoy our magazine. We have tried our best. We have written so many essays and reviews about nearly every part of the media. You can find some writings about series, movies, books and games, here. By reading them, you can either learn something new or spend quality time. Some of our friends preferred writing their own stories and poems. I suggest you read them because they are the first steps of the future’s famous poets and writers. Also, there are some translations at the end of the magazine.

The name of the journal, which is Neither near Nor far, has very deep meanings in it. Actually, it is the definition of our situation in every aspect today. We are both near and far from everything at the same time. For instance, we are so close to our family, our loved ones, maybe we are in the same house but we are living miles away from them. We do not even speak to each other. We are just texting messages in order to communicate with the person sitting next to us. Our social bonds are about to break in this modern world and we cannot notice it. Another example is that we are also in the same position about the ideas we believed. As you can understand from the cover, I meant Atatürk and his thoughts. Unfortunately, he is not here to guide us; however, we can still practise his ideas and follow his footsteps. This is the only possible way that we can be “near” him. Lastly, everyone who contributed to this magazine with their works is far away from each other since we all live in different cities, and we were unable to meet at our university in Ankara due to the conditions of the time. Nevertheless, we managed to create a connection thanks to this magazine, Neither near Nor far.

All in all, we are happy to share our works despite all the difficulties we faced. We hope that you enjoy reading the reviews, essays, stories, poems and translations as much as we enjoyed writing them.

ENDING OF THE BEGINNING

In 2002, Radiohead released their most controversial 4th studio album Kid A. For some, it did not sound like Radio- head, and people argued whether it was as good as Ok Computer, which was a huge success. However, others believed that with Kid A, Radiohead proved that they could make good music by experimenting. I think that it was a brave action to release such an album after being successful worldwide, and it is one of the best decisions Radiohead made.

Some people argued that having created Ok Computer, making Kid A would cost them to lose their fans. They thought that what is great about Radiohead was their guitar sound, and making an album, which consists of 11 songs and only one of them, How to Disappear Completely, has a guitar, was a bad choice. For these people, their fans wanted to listen to the guitar music from them.

On the other hand, for others, it was regarded as the greatest left turn in music history. Moreover, although using new and different elements after and with Kid A was a risk Radiohead took, fans wanted to hear what they wanted to create. These people claimed that with the album, they opened their music to different and innovative things which made their music to be heard by more and new people. Furthermore, the album won many awards and became the top of the charts. In conclusion, while some argue that people lost their interest in Radiohead after Kid A was released, others accept that it was a new door opening for their music. In my opinion, Kid A is one of the cornerstones of Radiohead. Before it debuted, they were already known by the public, and being mainstream was not important to them. Besides, they were encouraged enough to share new, experimental music with their fans. The album opens with the track, “Everything” in its right place, which is something that fans might want to hear from them from the start. Also, they produced it by themselves without a deadline. So, they created what they wanted to create, and people responded to them. Therefore, Kid A can be considered as the ending of the beginning of Radiohead. Meltem Sağlam 4 Thom Yorke: We’ve got heads on sticks, and you’ve go ventriloquists.

Genshin Impact Review Genshin Impact is an open-world RPG with a distinct anime aesthetic made by Chinese developer miHoYo. You may have heard similarities to other games in the genre, most particularly “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” with its engaging exploration, stamina-based climbing, and gliding mechanic if you’ve heard about it at all. While the development team was inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when developing Genshin Impact, it is not an exact clone. Genshin Impact combines aspects from various action RPGs to create a unique experience. The world is diverse and magical, with many fascinating areas to explore, and the fighting is simple but entertaining for real-time RPG battles. To maximize your damage, you’ll need to balance an elemental system while playing, and you can shift between characters on the fly—all of them have vastly diverse skills. Even if the combat system is a little weak on closer study, the strong use of visual effects guarantees that you feel amazing while making every action. You may even influence the open-world using the elements system.

Genshin Impact begins with you selecting one of two twins. The other is swiftly kidnapped by a god, and you’re thrown into the “Teyvat” fantasy world. Your chosen twin has no idea what’s going on in this mystery world but you are greeted by a cheery, fairy-like being called Paimon who agrees to be your guide through “Teyvat”. He soon finds himself in the middle of an epic adventure filled with magic, chests, and powerful allies you’ll meet along the way. You begin the game by completing four dungeons, each of which focuses on the abilities of a different character the game provides you with. Your first character employs wind capabilities to dispatch enemies and solve challenges, but you’ll soon be able to summon fire, ice, and electric teammates, each with their own range of attacks. Using the correct element on the proper object is a common way to solve puzzles, but the element system goes even deeper in battle. Every character in Genshin Impact is unique, with your first set of four bringing swordplay, archery, and magic to the table. As you study the weaknesses of each fantastical enemy, you’ll quickly learn how to deploy the ideal character for each situation. Diluc: Visions are a light in the sea of darkness that surrounds those who have lost their way. But for those who have faith, they are little more than badges of conviction. 5

Setting fire to an enemy’s wooden barrier ensures that you can easily destroy them, whilst freezing a liquid-based enemy allows you to avoid it while you whip their comrades. You gain stat upgrades through leveling up your character and overall “Adventure Rank,” as well as picking up new weapons and items for even more stat enhancements. There isn’t much to set it apart, but the loop of constantly upgrading your character is pretty addictive, especially when it’s a reward for actively exploring the realm or killing enemies. As you unlock new characters, each with its own combat style, powers, and elemental affinities, the environment begins to take on new forms as you learn new ways to engage with it. With the help of a cryo-type character like Kaeya, who can simply freeze the water, what was once a lake too deep for you to swim across becomes simply crossable. If you unlock Venti and his skill to produce wind currents anywhere he pleases, mountain peaks that were once too difficult to reach become simple to achieve. Multiplayer is one feature that requires time to unlock. You can invite others into your game once you reach adventure rank 16. Each friend you bring in has control over one of the character slots and can support you in defeating the open world’s tougher enemies. Unfortunately, when playing with friends, many functions are inaccessible, and the invited players, in particular, receive virtually little advantage for accompanying you on your journey. Gens- hin Impact is a work in progress. Only two of the seven planned sections are now in the game, and the story is likewise lacking as a result. Genshin Impact is intended to be developed over the next several years with many upgrades, so the game’s look and feel could change radically.

To sum up, Genshin Impact is a wonderful option if you’re searching for a fun game to play while sitting back and relaxing. The game’s environment is enjoyable to explore, and the fighting strikes a good mix between being engaging but without getting incredibly complex. Beyza Ayhan

Zhongli: You should know that all power comes at a price. For every bit of power you gain, 6 so too do you gain more responsibility.

The Most Popular Puzzle Game of All Time:

Created in 1984 by the Soviet scientist Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris has been the most played puzzle game in the world. It achieved success and recognition when it was introduced to the west, being playable on Commodore 64, IBM-PC, and early Apple models which were the popular machines at that time. Even though Tetris became recognized worldwide, Alexey Pajitnov could not get the game’s revenue. It is because he gave the rights of the game to the Soviet government for 10 years as it was impossible for him to publish the game on his own.

The mechanics of the game are simple. The player has to place the pieces, or tetrominoes, in a way to connect them horizontally and break them in order not to top out. The classic Tetris titles only had a scoring system and levels. Since 2001, however, all the official and unofficial Tetris games follow a set of rules called The Tetris Guideline. According to the guideline, the players can now hold their pieces to use them later and see their upcoming pieces beforehand. The pieces now have certain colors: cyan for I-piece, dark blue and orange for J and L pieces, green and red for S and Z pieces, yellow for O-piece, and purple for T-piece. The board became 10 lines wide and 20 lines tall. For the game’s infinite playability and equality in multiplayer matches, the 7-Bag system was introduced. Every bag has one of each piece which is shuffled randomly. With this system, the player cannot have more than two of the same piece back to back if “hold” is not used. Super Rotation System, or SRS, made rotating the pieces trickier. SRS made it possible for the game to have so many tactics and setups, especially in competitive multiplayer titles. Most of these setups were discovered and invented by other players. Competitive Tetris games where the players hold matches with each other to gain ranks and climb leaderboards have garbage systems. Garbages are horizontal gray lines with one vertical line hole. The players send garbages to their opponents in order to make them top out. Every move has a garbage value: doing a “Tetris” or T-Spin Double send 4 lines of garbage, a T-Spin Triple is worth 6 lines, doing T-Spin Single or breaking three lines sends 2 lines and breaking two lines is worth only 1 line of garbage.

George Orwell: “The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.” 7

In order to pull T-Spins off, players should learn about SRS; however, complex it is. The player needs to pile up 4 lines to make a Tetris, but a T-Spin Double only needs 2 lines, so it is faster to execute it if the player knows how to set it up, thus, giving the player a huge advantage over the opponent.

Nowadays, most played official Tetris titles are the competitive multiplayer ones such as Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris 99, and Tetris Effect: Connected. Unoffici- al titles like Jstris and TETR.IO are also following the official guidelines and are highly popular as they are totally free. In order not to get any copyright strikes, every unofficial Tetris game pays attention not to include “Tetris” and “tetro- mino” words in their gameplays. Because official Tetris games have many vari- ants both digital and physical, it is nearly impossible to give an exact number of copies sold. According to Digitaltrends, Tetris has sold more than 495 million copies with most of them being mobile versions. If the downloads of unofficial titles are counted, it is not hard to say that Tetris is the most popular game, if not, the puzzle game of all time. Eren Cem Çalış

Charles Dickens: “Never close your lips to those whom you have 8 already opened your heart.”

Attack on Titan Attack on Titan is an anime series first written as a manga. It was written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. Manga version of it has been collected into 33 volumes. In the anime version, it has four seasons and the fourth season is the final season. The last season’s first part was released at the end of 2020 and the second part of the fourth season will be released in the winter of 2022.

It takes place in a world where humankind lives in cities surrounded by three massive walls that protect them from Titans, giant man-eating creatu- res transformed from humans. These three walls are called Maria, Rose, and Sina. The outermost wall is Maria, the second is Rose, which separates the poor from the upper class, and the innermost wall is Sina, which separates the upper class from the eli- te and the royal family. The story begins with the collapse of the wall Maria by the colossal titan and the armored titan. Eren Jeager, the protagonist of the story, sees his mother being eaten by a titan on that day. Then, he dedicates himself to kill all the titans with his best friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert. Their journey together brings them down numerous hazardous and risky ways. Sometimes they return from the dead and they lose their other friends. It is a never-ending fight between life and death.

It is such a detailed anime that sometimes if the audience does not pay attention to the anime for a minute or two, it can be difficult to understand some things. It is overcrowded with incredibly quick episodes and story twists that will leave you dizzy. Namely, it is important to watch it very carefully. Ot- herwise, you may think like “When did these events happen?” At first, it seems to be a survival between the human race and titans. However, as time goes by, it becomes clear that the only enemy of the people is the people. In the first three seasons, it is not that clear but in the fourth season, it is obvious that the only threat to humanity and even to the whole world is the people.

Mikasa Ackerman: “The world is crammed with cruelty.” 9

To sum up, Attack on Titan seems a kind of mysterious anime. You cannot know what will happen or you cannot know what to expect. A character might die in one episode and then it can revive again for a reasonable reason. After some time, to solve the puzzle in the story, you may start to suspect any character for no reason and it can make things more interesting. Also, you can find our world’s problems in this anime sometimes; massacre, war, hope to live, losing our beloved ones, deviate from our purpose, trying to change the world, the murder of innocent people, trying to look strong not to affect people around you in a bad way and a lot of things I cannot count. Lastly, in my opinion, Attack on Titan is worth watching. Hasibe Murat

10 Armin: “There is nothing further removed from freedom than ignorance.”

Gangsters with Motorcycles There are lots of TV series telling about crime, illegal groups, and vanda- lism. However, Sons of Anarchy, which is a motorcycle club, distinguishes itself from other TV shows with its features. Moreover, the director, Kurt Sutter, greatly integrated many techniques and subjects into the show. Therefore, Sons of Anar- chy improved from season to season thanks to Kurt Sutter.

Firstly, one of the subjects that was narrated by Kurt Sutter is interracial struggles. In the series, there are four gangs that represent four races, and these are white, Asian, Hispanic, and African-American. White people are represented by Sons of Anarchy, Asian people by Lin Triad, Hispanics by Mayans, and Afri- can-Americans by One-Niners. Even though there are other crime syndicates, street gangs, and motorcycle clubs, these that I mentioned are mostly shown in the series. Furthermore, all of them are in a struggle against each other in order to attain more territory than the others. The reason why they are in struggle is earning more profit by selling drugs or guns. Nonetheless, Kurt Sutter also sym- bolically points out that there are still interracial fights, racism, and conflict apart from the series’ story. That’s why the same races gather together and form a group whether it is an illegal group or not, and Kurt Sutter shows us these alignments via the series. For example, the Aryans is a gang that calls themselves white sup- remacist and supports Nazi ideas, and people within the gang hate black people the most. Hence, the Aryans and One-Niners always see each other as an enemy.

Secondly, amongst the techniques that the director used very well is character development. Character development means that one of the characters in the series is not the same person towards the final season as he was in the first season. It can be seen through many characters in Sons of Anarchy. In addition, it differs how much incidents affect someone to someone else because every character reacts differently to each other. Nevertheless, there are some characters that are great examples of character development. For instance, the main character, Jackson “Jax” Teller is one of the youngest members of the club, and his father was the founder of the club. He tries to follow his father’s way by reading his father’s lost memoir or, in other words, diary. The more he gets into his father’s diary, the more he gets more suspicious of what happened to his father. Digging into his father’s past, Jax’s personality starts to evolve from what he was in the first season to a different personality. The other example for character development is Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz’s. He seems to be strong-willed, loyal, and resourceful. Hale: “Anger clouds judgement and it makes us to do things that we end up regretting. 11 Things we can never take back.”

However, he keeps a secret from his crew members, and the secret that he keeps is most likely to end his life by the members if someone finds out. Also, sheriffs and ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) agents in the town discover Juice’s covered life, and they force him to turn against his gang if he does not want it to be revealed because they will kill him. Thus, Juice is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and he begins to lose his mind. This secret that was mentioned is a milestone for Juice; in other words, it will determine what will happen to Juice in the following episodes. There are other examples of character development, Jax and Juice’s are the most remarkable ones, nonetheless. Lastly, the thing that connects the audience to the screen is endless schemes in the series. There are a variety of intrigues that result in different ways, some of which are even linked to one another. Of course, it is the same with most of the other TV series. In contrast, what makes Sons of Anarchy better than others is how schemes are processed. If we analyze more, Kurt Sutter benefited from foreshadowing, symbolism as well as character development. Moreo- ver, the foreshadowing and symbolism that he utilized embellished Sons of Anarchy in terms of the quality of the show. As an example of foreshadowing, the diary which Jax finds earlier in the first season has a very important role in the future of the series. Another example is that the director symbolizes many religious themes, such as crows which are symbols of death, eating do- ves, wine poured bread, angel figures, and so on. Furthermore, it is not just that they are located in one area, California. Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club has many other clubs under its name throughout the USA and in the series. This creates a chain of events to the first club which is in California.

In conclusion, Sons of Anarchy is a great-quality TV show that consists of gangsters, thugs, crime syndicates, and cartels. Kurt Sutter made a worth watching TV series by blending different types of subjects and techniques. In addition, subjects, character development, messages, and scenarios are so well-prepared that they make you curious about what will happen next. If you had hesitation to watch, I strongly suggest that you should watch when you have time. Kaan Yiğit Tümen Tara: “We don’t know who we are until we’re connected to someone else. We’re just better 12 human beings when with the person we’re supposed to be with.”

A SERIES REVIEW

Sense8 is an American science fiction and drama television series consisting of two seasons and is streaming on Netflix. In Sense8, there are eight people from eight different parts of the world who were birthed by a woman called Angelica, but this is not a real birth. It is psychically and with this born, they become a “Sensate cluster” and all of them, who were given birth, were born on August 8. The eight, Will, Riley, Sun, Wolfgang, Nomi, Lito, Capheus, and Kala, are connected with each other emotionally and mentally. Also, they can share everything they experience, such as their skills, languages, and feelings.

In the first season, The Eight realize their connection and they try to understand why they are linked. So, to figure out the reason, they visit each other, spend time together and share special moments, like singing a song or helping one another. Yet, all these moments happen mentally. In addition, Jonas who is another sensate of Angelica’s cluster helps them comprehend everything and protect them from Biologic Preser- vation Organization (BPO) and Whispers who is another sensate of other cluster tries to hunt The Eight. At the end of the first season, they have go to somewhere BPO cannot find because Will’s mind is able to be manipulated by Whisper.

As we watch the episodes, we start to see the story of each sensate of The Ei- ght. Briefly, Will Gorski is a police officer in Chicago, Riley Blue is an Icelandic DJ in London, Sun Bak is a businesswoman in Seoul, Wolfgang Bogdanow is a safec- racker in Berlin, Nomi Marks is a hacktivist blogger in San Francisco, Lito Rodri- guez is a famous actor in Mexico City, Capheus Onyango is a driver in Nairobi and Kala Dandekar is a pharmacist in Mumbai. Sun Bak: “This is what life is. Fear, rage, desire, love. To stop feeling emotions, to stop wanting to feel them is to feel death.” 13

Additionally, we see the undermeaning of the series. Sense8 shows us that we are not completely right about what we are as it tries to define being human, and it also asks some questions as well as looking for answers. Furthermore, Sense8 shows the two sides of this world, such as poor-rich, good-bad, man-woman, strong-weak and apart from these, it refers to social and moral rules and roles.

In the second season, The Eight improve their connection and they learn how to use the bond effectively. On the contrary of the first season, they try to chase BPO with the connection between Will and Whisper rather than running from it. Because of this reason, The Eight and their close friends meet and make plans. Moreover, they meet other sensates, but some of them are enemies of the group. For example, Lila has a deal with BPO to bring them new sensates. Her main goal is to find a place for all sensates to live together in peace without Sa- piens. In the end, there is a happy ending despite their losses and conflicts.

To sum up, Sense8 is about us and everything because, to the series, being human is not just breathing, feeling, thinking, and apart from all the things that define you as you, like what you do or you have done, where you are from who you love, being human is just being human. Everything you see, hear, know makes you as you. All we do is try to find the meaning of our lives. In my opinion, someone who tries to find who he/she is should watch Sense8. Gönül Kahya

14 Lito Rodriguez: “In the end, we’ll all be judged by the courage of our hearts.”

Once Upon a Time in... HOLLYWOOD Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood is a controversial film made in 2019, directed and written by famous director Quentin Tarantino. The main characters are Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. There are also important side characters, such as Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie. The film is actually an adaptation of an unfortunate event that happened in 1969; the murder of the famous actress Sharon Tate. Although it is an adaptation, the movie has many differences and these are the reasons why most people do not understand the movie.

One of these differences is that the main characters are not real people like Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth are best friends working in the film industry. Cliff is Ri- ck’s stunt double and Rick is an actor who is trying to be a worldwide famous movie star. Although their relationship is based on a real actor and his stunt double’s relationship, they are just Tarantino’s fig- ment. Sharon Tate, on the other hand, is a real person but she was not a main character in the movie. This is the reason why the movie’s story is not clear for some people. In the movie, we can only see how Sharon was full of life and loved by people around her. We never see her toxic relationship with her husband, director Roman Polanski, or the pressure on her shoulders that suffocated her. Actually, Tarantino’s main goal is to show us Sharon’s pure heart and joy, and this makes the true story behind the movie even sadder than before.

Another difference is the end of the movie and events that affected the end. In the final, Tarantino took Sharon’s revenge by using Cliff and Rick. First, with Cliff, we get the chance of getting to know the Manson Family, the group of people who brutally stabbed 8.5 months pregnant Sharon and her friends to death. Trudi: “That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” 15

In the film, the Manson Family wanted to kill Cliff and Rick since Cliff caused trouble in their land, but when we look at the real event, Charles Manson (the leader of the Manson Family) ordered his people to kill everyone in Polanski’s house since he was holding grunge against the old owners of the house. By turning the target on Sharon’s back to Cliff ’s, Tarantino made the Manson Family to pick on someone their own size rather than an innocent pregnant woman. Also killing them with the same brutality and keeping Sharon safe, Tarantino managed to relieve our hearts with the feeling of revenge.

This movie not just reflects one of the most horrifying murders and a troubled group of the era, but it also reflects how challenging it was to be a successful actor back then. In the 60’s, it was not easy to promote your work. The only way to do it was to get close to people who could spread the news easily and who were famous as well. In the movie, we can see Rick’s excitement when he finds out that Polanski is his neighbor because he thought that being friends with him would help him to climb the stairs of the success. Throughout the film, Rick tried to get his neighbors’ attention but he failed. Although he was good at acting, no one praised him and this damaged his ability to act and his mental health as well. When a little girl complimented his acting skills during filming, he started to cry and this silver-lined how sad the situation was and how hard it was to get what you deserve in the past. When we look at today’s films and actors, we can see the ugly truth. If you are popular and pretty, you will get what you want eventually. Sadly, it was not that easy for past times’ actors. At the end of the movie, when Rick and Cliff managed to take the Manson Fa- mily’s members down, Rick’s neighbor Sharon invited him to have a drink with them and this led to the beginning of another chapter in his career. Rick became succesful and well-known movie star. By writing an ending like this, Tarantino pointed out that it nearly cost to Rick’s life to be a star but today’s actors can do that by paid partnership.

With the costumes, hairstyles, music, and specialized old advertisements, Tarantino also perfectly handled the 60’s daily life and social situation. When you are watching the movie, you can feel the pure joy of Sharon while she is dancing to 60’ popular songs and you can also analyse the society just by liste- ning to small chats among supportive characters at a party.

16 Rick Dalton: “It’s official old buddy, I’m a has-been.”

To sum up, Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood is a really deep movie that was written wisely. It was named like that because its good ending is all about a fairytale-like scenario that makes Sharon and her baby live. Yet, the film does not only shows the pretty lies, it also shows the brutal sides of humanity and how painful it is to walk in the hall of fame in a really smart way. By holding a perfect mirror of the ‘60s, Tarantino both entertained us and gave us really meaningful messages. If you want to understand these hidden messages, you need to earn them first. Most people do not like the film just because they do not understand it but they are not aware of the fact that they need to know the film’s background story first. You may think that Tarantino took a risk by creating such a complicated movie since when the movie first released a lot of people criticized it in a bad way. Actually, he just wanted to be completely bold with this movie and being selective about his audience by creating a deep meaning and complex film. No matter how bad these criticisms are, I can tell that Tarantino did a great job in every aspect by using the social, emotional, and brutal sides of the ‘60s. Beyza Belen

Woman at the Party: “Sharon absolutely has a type: cute, short, talented guys who look like 12 years old boys.” 17

Existentialism and Absurdity in Göçmüş Kediler Bahçesi by Bilge Karasu Bilge Karasu is one of the most influential writers in Turkish Literature, or even, in the world literature. With his essential, and also an interesting use of Turkish, he managed to create a new language world for himself where he questioned beliefs, death, passions, fears, and basically the inner problems of human beings. While doing so, he constructed the stories so smoothly, without overwhelming the readers with philosophical topics, instead giving them an enjoyable literary journey. It is the allegoric language that helped him achieve this type of works as he used powerful metaphors and symbolism. Speaking of which, these symbols are open to speculation, so everyone might find something different between the lines while reading. Therefore, I believe that it is possible to detect signs and elements of existentialism in Bilge Karasu’s works, especially in Göçmüs Kediler Bahçesi.

In Göçmüs Kediler Bahçesi, there are two short stories that might be in- terpreted with existentialism. The first story is “Geceden Geceye Arabayı Kaçıran Adam”, which is about a man who literally misses the bus every night. In the beginning, Karasu describes this man’s love for the sea, for example, how he enjoys swimming or how he waits for summer to go to a seaside town. He has a number of towns that he goes to regularly; however, this summer, the man decides to go to “Sazandere”, which also has a sea, but he has not been there before. So, in this story, the man’s purpose is to go to Sazandere, and he made that choice willingly as we can understand from the context. I think looking from an existentialist point of view, we can assume that Sazandere is the man’s purpose of life- the meaning he gave to his life- since he made this decision of going there with authenticity.

Continuing with the story, he arrives at the bus station. Karasu narrates the bus station as a very crowded and noisy place where there are lots of people looking for their bus. When the man looks for his bus, he feels annoyed and irritated in this confusing station. He thinks that the only way to escape from the station is to find the bus to Sazandere. Again, if we look from an existentialist point of view, we can think of the bus station as the world, a confusing place, or as our life, a confusing journey. Everyone is trying to find a meaning as they are searching for buses. Also, the man has this feeling of annoyance, which is, in my opinion, the feeling of nausea. Maybe, he might be having an existential crisis for every night that he could not find the bus. Albert Camus: “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s 18 heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Additionally, he thinks finding the bus which goes to Sazandere is the only way of escaping; therefore, we can understand it as finding your reason to live is the only way of “escaping” from the nausea or the meaninglessness of the world. After some point, the man has a dream in which there is another man (from now on, I am going to address him as the second man) who is walking through an empty marketplace. The second man does not like the sea. He does not even think about it. Moreover, there is a third man in the dream who watches the second man walking. Firstly, I believe that the dream is showing us the subconscious of the man who wants to reach Sazandere. In his subconscious, he has the complete opposite of himself –the second man. While he is in a crowded bus station, the second man is in a deserted marketplace. While he loves swimming, the second man does not even think about the sea. What I understand from this is that our protagonist is actually aware of the absurdity of his situation: He is trying to find the bus to Sazandere, yet it seems like there is not one. Or we might say he is searching for a meaning in such a meaningless world. Besides, the second man does not have the nausea since there is not an overwhelming crowd, which reminds me of what Albert Camus said: “... Crus- hing truths perish from being acknowledged” (Camus, 77) The second man –or the subconscious of the first man– knows the absurdity of the world, and this consciousness lessens the effect of nausea. In this situation, the role of the third man that I mentioned becomes unclear, so I want to think the second and the third man as one person together. Thus, the third man is basically an emphasis the consciousness of the second man as he is looking at himself from outside.

Finally, back to the present time with the first man, he finds the bus to Sa- zandere eventually. However, Sazandere is not like he expected. He is not even exactly sure that he is in Sazandere. . Despite all of this, he does not care that much. Then, he drops his personal belongings on the ground and finds a house.

Albert Camus: “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happines consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” 19

Inside, there are old people with white hair waiting for him. He sits with them, and the story ends there. I think, if we see the story as the man’s life, he dies at the end because he left everything before entering the house, and also, the people in the house said that they were waiting for him as if it was expected just like death. In summary, throughout his life, he lived for what he believed to be his purpose and reason in the world: Sazandere. When he finally achieved it, the purpose itself actually did not provide him with anything, but in the bigger picture, it gave his life a meaning until he died.

Furthermore, there is another story in Göçmüs Kediler Bahçesi that might be sharing some aspects with existentialism. This story, Yagmurlu Kentin Günesçisi, is much shorter than the first one; therefore, the topics it can cover is also lesser, and I believe the main topic is about hope. In existentialism, we can encounter the theme of hope in Albert Camus’ essays; mostly in The Myth of Sisyphus. Moving on with the story, there is a city where it always rains and never stops. People living in the rainy city accepted their fate as they had no ex- pectations other than the rainy weather. Karasu explains it by saying that people are never disappointed, but also, they are not optimistic and cheerful, too. In my opinion, all of these people are just like Sisyphus since they share the same hopelessness. In other words, Sisyphus knows that the rock will fall back, and he does not expect this to change; similarly, people living in the rainy city know that it is going to rain forever. If we think about it more metaphorically, we can say that these people are aware of the absurdity of life, but they continue living. They do not feel disappointed because they are conscious of their fate, and this makes them overcome their fate. Just like Camus said about Sisyphus, “Sisyp- hus... knows the whole extent of his wretched condition... The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” (Camus, 77)

However, there is a man living in the rainy city who waits for the Sun to show up every day. We might consider the Sun as a meaning to this world, so the man hopes that there is a meaning, and one day, it is going to show itself just like the Sun. Actually, he does not have a solid reason to believe that the Sun will rise someday since he only knows it from books or what others have said. In my opinion, these books, sayings, and such things to make one hope for the Sun are metaphysical beliefs that we have, such as every kind of religion, myths about creation or our cultural, and traditional explanation towards the human life.

Friedrich Nietzsche: “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find 20 some meaning in the suffering.”

After all, this story does not have a tragic or very climactic ending. It functions more as a comparison between two types of human beings. One is the Sisyphus type who is conscious of the meaninglessness of the universe, and who sees the world as a journey that is consists of randomly generated moments whereas the other is the hope- ful type who finds something beyond reason as they believe or hope irratio- nally. Lastly, Camus claims at the end of his essay that we should imagine Sisyphus happy; however, Bilge Kara- su is not giving us the answer, instead, he is making us think about it subtly when we are reading this short and beauti- fully written story.

In conclusion, Bilge Karasu’s Göçmüs Kediler Bahçesi is very rich in terms of themes and messages. That is to say, everyone can speculate on the stories differently, and one of the reasons for that is that Karasu managed to use the language professionally. In the Geceden Geceye Arabayı Kaçıran Adam, we could point out the existentialist themes by looking at the man’s life and his purpose. Similarly, in the Yagmurlu Kentin Günesçisi, we could make connec- tions between the rainy city citizens and Sisyphus while there was also a man who was not completely opposite of, but different from others as he hoped to find a real meaning to life someday. Thus, existentialism can be found in Göç- müş Kediler Bahçesi. Teoman Küçükkiriş

Jean-Paul Sartre: “Man is condemned to be free.” 21

Winter Light Winter Light is the second movie of Bergman’s “Trilogy of Faith” and it is concerned with the questioning of God’s existence just like the other movies in the trilogy. It is a bridge between Through Glass Darkly and The Silence. Bergman came up with the story after speaking to a priest whose parishioner committed suicide. While preparing the Winter Light, Bergman visited several churches and sat there for hours to find the inspiration that he needed for star- ting the movie.

The movie starts with a fifteen minutes long ritual in the church. Pastor Tomas and several attendees include Jonas, his wife Karin and Marta. After the ceremony, Jonas and Karin walk up to Tomas for a consultation about Jonas’s state of depression caused by a report saying China is willing to start a nuclear war. Tomas tells Jonas to put his beliefs in God and he should come back later. Then Marta, who has feelings for Tomas and is intimidated by him, comes to give him some coffee and asks him to read the letter that she opens him about her feelings, her insecurities, and tells him how she knows that he does not like her. Before Tomas reads the letter he pulls photographs of his dead wife, whose death devastated Tomas, and looks at them for a while. When he started to read Marta’s letter, Marta becomes the narrator. She breaks the fourth wall and the camera focuses on her face until the end. However, Tomas does not show any sympathy. In fact, he seems irritated by her confession.

When Jonas returns to talk with the pastor, Tomas mentions his own conflict beliefs about God’s existence instead of reassuring Jonas who is suicidal and has doubts about life and God which results in Jonas killing himself after their conversation. Later, Marta tries to console him and help him but Tomas rejects him by saying he is sick of her. He even tells Marta that she is trying to be like his dead wife but she will never be her and while crying, Marta answers in a sorrowful whisper “I do not even know her”. Tomas does not care about what she says and scolds her even more before leaving the house to inform Karin, Jonas’s wife who is a pregnant woman with three childern, about her husband’s death.

Before the last scene, the church’s sexton opens up to Tomas about his self-study of the Bible and Jesus’s pain. He says that he does not understand why Jesus’s physical pain is highlighted and Tomas just listens without uttering a word. Finally, the movie ends with the beginning of a big ceremony that Tomas starts but there is only one worshiper, Marta, praying. 22 Winter Light (1963): “Suffering is incomprehensible, so it needs no explanation.”

To sum up, Winter Light is a movie that only consists of negative elements and incidents such as depression, suicide, rejection, and mourning. Tomas is a self-centered pastor who does not believe the God and he has no sympathy for the people around him. He once looks up the sculptured crucifix when he is alone after the ceremony and says “what a ridiculous image”. Marta, who is an atheist that constantly says God does not exist although she starts praying at the end of the movie for Tomas. Moreover, the Swedish title of Winter Light is Nattvards- gästerna which means “the communicants” yet there is almost no communication between characters and Tomas, not just with characters, he also lost his communication with God which leads him to lose his faith in God.

Şerife Geder

Winter Light (1963): “God has never spoken because God doesn’t exist”. 23

Bloodborne, a New Direction That Led To A Revolution

That math problem which is so hard to solve that you tear your paper while erasing the functions written but when finding the correct answer it feels amazing or achieving to get permission from your parents for a sleepover… That is Bloodborne. Unlike usual games where you can just fight a boss enemy lying in bed, in Bloodborne, learning how to beat a common enemy makes you sweat. The audience fell in love with this hardness. But was it loved only for its diffi- culty? Let’s check it. Bloodborne’s atmosphere re- volves around Lovecraftian gothic places and its archite- cture is based on Romanian buildings during the Victo- rian era. It is so gloomy and spooky that it terrifies the player more than a horror movie full of jump scares. People found it so unique and loved it. About the story though… As a tradition of From software, the company that made Bloodborne, its lore is hidden via weapons and notes left in houses. What I mean is that the story is not the main prospect of Bloodborne. Although it is hidden, the lore of the game is fascinating and mind-blowing. Moreover, the gameplay is so smooth, and compared to Dark Souls, the previous game of Fromsoftware, it has more dynamic pacing of battles. For example, the equip- ment used in combat and their roles differ from Dark Souls. Whereas shields have a crucial place for blocking enemy attacks being the meta, in Bloodborne shields are useless and the combat is based on counter-attacking. This changed the 15-year-old game direction of a company. Before Bloodborne games like Dark Souls and Demon’s souls were called “souls games” because there was no genre to define these games. With Bloodborne though, a new genre was born; “soulsborne”. The company aimed to make games with more adrenaline but less strategy. Then Fromsoftware made Sekiro, a game even faster than Bloodborne. 24 J. R. R. Tolkien: “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

Aside from the historical part of the game, let’s talk about some mechanics of Bloodborne. Upon taking damage, attacking an enemy regenerates the HP lost. This encourages players to be fiercer. Furthermore, every weapon has 2 ways of usage and it means more variety. The enemy design is so well made especially the boss designs. Its map consists of many little regions but they are connected in a way that it doesn’t feel off even for once.

In conclusion, with its terrifying atmosphere and brilliant level design, Bloodborne achieved to create a unique world where there are dreadful enemies that will give you a hard time. Additionally, the game’s lore is hidden behind the item descriptions which you can find throughout the game. Lastly, Bloodborne is an innovative game and mainly for its challenging nature players gave high points in “Metacritic” which is 8.8/10. I rate the games I played based on 100 so my score is 89/100. Gökan Çakır

J. R. R. Tolkien: “Not all those who wander are lost.” 25

INGMAR BERGMAN Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, playwright, and producer who produced around 60 films for cinema and TV, 172 theatre productions and nearly 300 writings. He was born on 14 July 1918 and raised by a nurse mother and a Lutheran minister father who was conservative and had strict ideas about parenting that he locked up Ingmar in dark closets for infractions like wetting himself. Although raised in a devout family, Bergman said that he lost his faith when he was eight. He was not happy with his school life. He was desc- ribed as a “problem child” and apparently, Bergman disliked homework and testing in his school as he stated later in one of his letters. When he was 16, in 1934, he was sent to Germany to spend his holiday with his family friends, and then, he affiliated with a Nazi rally in Weimar where he saw Hitler. He talked about how the family he stayed with worshipped Hitler and said Nazism seemed fun. After he returned to Sweden and completed his mandatory military service, Bergman registered to Stockholm University in 1937 to study literature and art. At the same time, a romantic relationship had caused a physical con- frontation with his father; therefore, his relationship with his father ended. Although he did not graduate from university, he became an assistant director in a local theatre which helped him to start his career.

In 1942, he got the chance to direct one of his scripts, and years after that he achieved so many things including winning Cannes and receiving an Aca- demy Award nomination. Nonetheless, not everything went great for him after worldwide success. While rehearsing August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, Bergman was arrested for income tax evasion but later the case was dropped, and then it was revealed that the allegations were not true. However, these events hurt Bergman to the extent that made him hospitalized from depression, so he vowed to never return to Sweden and closed his studio since he did not feel to begin making films again. Fortunately, Bergman returned making movies. He decided to make a movie in America and it was followed by his British co-productions. Also, later, when he returned to Sweden to celebrate his sixtieth birthday, he overcame his grudge against the government and partly resumed his directing at Royal Dramatic Theatre. Ingmar Bergman Prize was launched by Swedish Film Institute to honor his return. He temporarily returned to his homeland to direct Fanny and Alexander and he stated that the film would be his last, afterwards, he would focus on directing theatre. When he was 84 years old, he directed the last his such work, Saraband. 26 Ingmar Bergman: “My basic view of things is not to have any basic view of things”.

In conclusion, Berg- man developed his own personal “repertory company” of Swedish actors whom he repeatedly wor- ked with besides one of them was Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who ap- peared in Bergman’s nine movies. She married him and they had a daughter named, Linn Ullmann. As his career progressed Bergman allowed actors to improvise their dialogue even though he wrote his films’ scripts and thought about them for months or years before started to write. In his later works, he just wrote the ideas and let his actors determine the exact dialogues. Come to mention his writing; he usually picked mortality, lone- liness, and religious faith as topics. In the meantime, sexual desire is also fea- tured in the foreground of most of his works. Before he died in his sleep at age 89, Bergman produced many movies that were loved by people such as Persona, Winter Light, The Seventh Seal, and got a lot of awards to include BAFTA and four Academy Awards. He is now considered as one of the greatest directors of all time by many and the fact that he has been inspiring people for decades is undeniable. In my opinion, his impact on cinema is enormous since famous directors like Woody Allen revealed that Bergman is their inspiration and we will see part of him in cinema even after ten years. Şerife Geder

Woody Allen: Me sitting down for dinner with Ingmar Bergman felt like a house painter sitting down with Picasso.” 27

THE CRAFT VERSUS THE CRAFT: LEGACY The Craft directed by Andrew Fleming in 1996 is a movie about four young witches and their various struggles with their craft and society. The Craft is one of the most popular and iconic movies about witchcraft; as a consequence, a sequel version of The Craft named The Craft: Legacy directed by Zoe Lister-Jo- nes is released in 2020. Even if both of the movies are about a witch coven, there are a couple of significant differences that make one, The Craft, better than the other, The Craft: Legacy. Firstly, The Craft (1996) and The Craft: Legacy (2020) have different approaches to their characters. In The Craft, even though the main character of the movie can be seen as Sarah Bai- ley, all the Coven witches are properly introduced and known by the audience. For example, Nancy Downs has an abusive stepfather; as a result, she wants to have enough power to stand up against him. Bonnie has several burn marks from her childhood, which make her insecure about her body. Rochelle is the only person of color in their catholic school; therefore, she fa- ces a huge amount of racism from her peers. Furthermore, Sarah has some psychological problems which make her believe that the only escape from her hallucinations is not being alive anymore. They have pretty complex characteristics that both distinguish one from another and give the audience the main reason why they chose witchcraft. On the other hand, in The Craft: Legacy, the viewers cannot even know or feel empathy with the characters since they are not written well even if they can easily be. For instance, Tabby is the only person of color in the coven but she is not the only one in the school; however, one of her desires is to have more black friends, which she can easily have due to the diversity of the school but so- mehow, she does not have. Moreover, the reason for her having no black friends is never explained in the movie, which creates blanks about Tabby.

Nancy Downs: “You know, in the old days, if a witch betrayed her coven, 28 they would kill her.”

When focusing on Lourdes, who is a transgender woman, although she is a part of a minority group, people cannot see her struggles in and apart from her being a minority. Also, the only specific feature of another member, Frankie, is her being the comedic relief of the movie, which is not enough to know her, too. Finally, the main character of The Craft: Legacy, Lilith, also known as Lily, is one of the most awful characters in the fiction industry, to me, since there is nothing special or interesting about her except her being in a coven. Therefore, despite having a connection with The Craft (1996) by her and seeing the movie from her perspective, she is not enough to carry the whole movie due to lack of personality. In short, The Craft shows its characters’ differences from their problems and priorities as opposed to The Craft: Legacy, which does not even develop the characters.

Secondly, in terms of the witchcraft process, the two movies are opposed. In The Craft, the coven members improve themselves with time and by adding more to their experience; moreover, the movie shows this process in detail. All the members’ aims are diverse; Rochella wants the ability not to hate those who hate her, which results in the girl being racist losing her whole blonde hair. Sa- rah wants to love herself more and to be loved by others, especially the person who tells lies about her, Chris feeling an uncontrollable urge to be with Sarah throughout the movie after the spell. Bonnie takes the power to be beautiful outside as well as in and later on, she loses all her scars with just two sessions of treatment. Nancy takes the whole power of Manon, who is their deity, and uses it for her good, at first. Lastly, in The Craft, the whole coven, Sarah, Bonnie, Ro- chella, and Nancy, kill somebody by their intentions without touching him, and thanks to the filming choices, it is clear that it was something all of them being a part of. Diversely, in The Craft: Legacy, due to not knowing characters and their problems, they are only shown to be obsessed with stopping time and telepat- hic communication. However, later on, they cast a spell for changing someone’s characteristic features and a love spell. Additionally, there is a situation, which is said to happen with the whole coven’s power; Lily, Lourdes, Frankie, and Tabby’s; nevertheless, it is not even clear since neither the members are close to each other nor there is a filming trick to make the audience believe. Shortly, The Craft: Legacy (2020) cannot give the atmosphere of spells and practices as well as The Craft (1996).

Nancy Downs: “If God and the Devil were playing football, Manon would be the stadium that they played in, he would be the sun that shined down on 29 them.”

Finally, there is a major difference between the movies, which is their character development/change and their antagonists. In The Craft, one of the main characters, Nancy, is also the antagonist of the movie. During the film, the characters are always in the dilemma between having power and being good, which can be seen by the change of their style and attitude towards their other friend, Sarah, after gaining the power they have always wanted. In a situation like this, it is likely to see disagreements in the coven. Besides, these disagreements make them enemies to each other and fetch up in making spells to one another and losing their powers, except Sarah. Variously, in The Craft: Legacy, the antagonist is Lily’s step-father whose aim is to take the coven’s power for himself. In the solution part of the movie, it is explained that all the bad things that happen to the coven, such as learning the person, who has been cast a love spell, has died, is because of the antagonist’s deep desire for power. This death might result in characters’ having a character development and ac- cepting their mistakes if they face what they have done. In short, despite the fantasy both of the movies include, The Craft has much more realistic characters with black, white, and grey sides; nevertheless, lines between good and bad are too sharp to be realistic in The Craft: Lega- cy.

To sum up, The Craft has become a classic movie about witchcraft with its mixed representation of accuracy and fantasy of the cultures, aesthetics and main power’s being used by women. Unfortunately, The Craft: Legacy is a disappointment as a sequel movie since the movie has problems from the roof; however, if the opportunity was given, this production would be better in a long-running version with a more complex storyline and characters. Busenur Gökkaya

Tabby: “ That’s why covens have always been so important. Because half the 30 battle of having powers is believing you do.”

NIZAR QABBANI Nizar Tewfik Qabbani was a Syrian diplomat, poet, writer, and publisher. He was one of the most revered contemporary poets in the Arab World and he is considered to be Syrian’s National poet. Also, he was known as one of the most feminist and progressive intellectuals of his time.

Nizar was born on 21 March 1923 in Damascus, the capital of Syria, to a middle-class family. His father, Tewfik Qabbani, was Syrian while his mother, Faiza Akbik, was Turkish. Nizar studied at the National Scientific College school in Damascus between 1930 and 1941. French was the second language at this school and the teac- hers were French. Because of his studies in this school, he had a great impact in terms of literature. Therefore, he got his knowledge at an early age from the sources of French literature, thus he must have known about European culture and its literary thought. Later, he studied law at Damascus University, which was called Syrian University. He gradua- ted with a bachelor’s degree in law in 1945. After graduating, he started working for the Syrian Foreign Ministry serving as an ambassador to several capital cities such as Beirut, Cairo, Ankara, Madrid, and London. In 1959, Qabbani was appointed Vice-secretary of the UAR, United Arab Republic, for its embassies in China. He continued to work in diplomacy until he tende- red his resignation in 1966. Yet he settled in Lebanon announcing his devotion to poetry. By that time, he had established a publishing house in Beirut, which carried his name.

His poetic life started in 1939 when he went on a cruise trip with school to Roma and wrote his first verse at the age of 16. The 15th of August 1939 is considered to be the birth of poet Nizar. He wrote poems and prose. Moreover, he had one play named Republic of Madness Previously Lebanon in 1977.

Nizam Qabbani:” Kill him, then hug him. Men are more faithful when dead.” 31

Over the course of a half-century, Qabbani wrote 35 collections of poems, which are called Arabic Diwan. He contributed to the development of modern Arabic poetry to a great extent.

Even though he created his language, he tried to choose a simple style for his writings, as his vocabulary was derived from everyday life. As a consequence, its words were distinguished by being far from the complexity and the weirdness as no one needs an explanation to understand the meanings of his works. He called his new poetic language “The Third Language”, which, despite its simplicity, was difficult to be imitated. While he was studying law, he pub- lished his first collection of poems, at his own expense, entitled “The Brunette Told Me”. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, and Arab nationalism. Women have taken a great part in his poems. The image of women in his literature lies in many aspects: the mother, the child, the beloved, and the wife. This style of his was what made him unique among all other poets of his time. Many of his poems addressed the issue of women’s freedom. His first four collections dealt with romantic poems, then he turned to political poetry. Furthermore, he made poetry a means of expressing people’s everyday concerns and issues. Damascus remained a powerful inspiration in his poetry, especially the Jasmine Scent of Damas- cus. Therefore, Damascus and also Beirut had a special value in his poems. The most well-known poems about them are “The Damascene Poem” and “Lady of Universe Beirut”. Many of his poems have been translated into many languages. In addition, his verses remained popular after his death and some of the Arab pop-music stars made songs out of his poems.

He had two sisters and three brothers. One of his sisters committed suicide when he was 15 years because her family wanted her to marry a man she did not love. Her death had a huge impact on his poems and his fight for love and women’s freedom. He said in one of his poems “Love in the Arab World is like a prisoner, and I want to set it free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense, and body with my poetry. The relationship between man and woman in our society is unsound”. He got married twice in his life. His first wife was his cousin, Zahra Akbik. They had a daughter, Hadba, and a son, Tewfik, who died due to a heart attack when he was 22 years old. Qabbani inherited his son in the famous poem “To the Damascene prince Tewfik Qabbani”. His second marriage was to an Iraqi woman named Balqis Al-Rawi. They also had a daughter, Zainab, and a son, Omar. Balqis was killed in the 1981 bombing in Beirut. Her death had a severe psychological effect on Qabbani. 32 Nizar Qabbani: “Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.”

He expressed his sadness in his famous poem “Balqis” blaming the entire Arab World for her death. Qabbani did not marry again after her.

Qabbani experienced many tragedies in his life, including the death of his wife, Balqis, and his son, Tewfik. After losing his wife, he moved to London where he spent the last 15 years of his life. He continued to write poems and raise controversial poems from this period in his life include “When Will They Announce the Death of Arabs?” and “Runners”. At the age of 75, Nizar Qabbani died in London on 30 April 1998 of a heart attack. He wrote in his will- when he was in hospital in London- that he wished to be buried in Damascus. He descri- bed Damascus in his will as “the womb that taught me poetry, taught me creati- vity and taught me the alphabet of Jasmine”. Fatma Milacı

Nizar Qabbani: “The most dangerous heart disease: strong memory” 33

Henchman Had an ordinary life Thus, I needed to shed my white skin Created with a bolt from the light to purple Climbing ladders with headless To not punish souls for being the sour- Without a value that includes praises ce of the ignorance Since there was no one A life aimed at the inferior king To tell the difference between a god To execute heretics with an and a leader in a cycle unsuspicious faith A mind that fluctuates between In the end, they accepted the immor- possibilities tality of the wise To decide between shabby or mindless Whose aim was to combine a sane To decide whether the executor of the human tide souls or the executor of the tyrants Washing the mistakes of the humankind’s Being worn out by the eternal tortures To proceed in a pure-shaped rise With our blood flowing into rivers Thou shalt stand against torturers Berkay Eskimez Withering all the times in silence

Re-identified myself as a chief I started to make kings afraid A savior resists being morbid Let us crack the tyrannies

Golden walls were undamageable Neither it were so hard nor so thick But because the ignorant peasant co- vers it With a verbal heaven promise in the real nether classes But since I was filled with innocence,

Bill Clinton: “The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with 34 the destruction of the truth”

The Mother Like a fish out of water Smothered Earth, the mother With every road driven With every tree broken As if she had a daughter

Godlike manner, Made the man claimer A right to destroy A right to annoy As if he was the life bearer

Like a shark underwater Struck the children of the mother A world to protect A wrong to correct As if they were to be a lifesaver

Dreamlike mother Made everything a breather A breath of air A breath of water As if she did not have to breathe either...

Nursena Özivgen

Vincent Van Gogh: “... and then, i have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” 35

Thought When she woke up blearily, She saw the streetlight- which was the only thing enlightening her room. She moved towards the door, When she heard a noise, she turned to that place. She was not able to gulp. Her body lying on the bed turned aside, And her left arm was dangling from the bed. There was a fragmented pocket watch on the ground, Which was flung by her dangling arm just now, And the clock’s vane was not processing. She didn’t know what she was thinking, She did not want to know, either.

Osman Ateş

36 Ernest Hemingway: “Courage is grace under pressure.”

Time The newspaper was on the empty table until it was taken by a worn and tired hand that belonged to a middle-aged man, Colter Young. There was no sound in the house other than the pages Colter was turning while drinking his coffee slowly. First, he saw headlines about children living in poor countries. His eyes quickly began to look for other topics: “Worst Economic Downturn Since the Great Depression.” He was still scanning the paper. Then, he fixed his eyes on some news related to a famous person’s death, and how thousan- ds of people had attended the funeral. All of a sudden, there was an electricity cut that prevented him from reading more. He thought that it was an overload that caused this power outage. There wasn’t any trace of sunlight in the sky, so he was sitting without any light. Such blackouts had been happening frequent- ly; however, for some reason, this one seemed worse than the others. He could still see the furniture vaguely whereas the books on the bookshelf and the vi- vid colors of the paintings hanging on the wall were concealed by the darkness completely. While examining the room, he thought that silence was much more noticeable when it is accompanied by the dark.

After sitting for some time, he realized how time had passed when he saw the watch on his wrist. Shortly after, he arose from his seat only to go out as he thought getting some fresh air might help him. Walking in the narrow corridors of the house, seeking out the exit in the dark, and generating thoughts about the last thing he read in the newspaper which he was still holding –all of this made him anxious.

The newspaper fell onto the ground from his hand when he arrived. Soot- hing cold air touched his skin gently as he opened the thick, iron door to see the city which he admired. Despite the night, the sky was spectacularly bright with the blue gleams of the Moon between the twinkling stars. Also, it was snowing calmly at that moment, but apparently, it had been snowing for a while since the corners of the pavement were purely white as the other parts were covered with ice. This gorgeous view of the blue-toned city and the dreamy atmosphere made Colter relaxed and peaceful. He even forgot the darkness in the house which was the main reason for his going out.

Friedrich Nietzsche:” If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” 37

He took a couple of steps from the open door. With his continuous glance, the city was getting more detailed every moment, though some parts were still blurry. While the details were shaping in front of his eyes, he noticed the coffee house on the opposite side of the street where he and his friends had spent time together a few years ago. He almost tasted the warmth of the coffee he’d drunk there. Besides, on the left side of the city, the blurry side, he remembered the alleyways in which he had played hide and seek with his classmates many years ago. Colter imagined all of them hiding from him now, and it was his turn to seek, yet he knew it would be a vain search.

His body was getting colder, but it didn’t stop him from gazing at the coffee house and the streets that once he ran as a child. The wind was getting stron- ger as the snowfall became more intense and rapid. Snowflakes were covering his shoulders and hair. Later, he looked back at the house when he heard the door creaking and being played by the wind. Then, he saw the darkness within the house: It was capturing everything he had, spreading to every corner, and waiting unwelcomingly for Colter. In the middle of that mess, he saw the newspaper on the ground. He turned away from the door immediately, without even closing it.

Afterward, he began to run desperately towards the coffee house where he thought he could be safe and at ease. Though, it was quite difficult to proceed with all the snow, ice, and wind which was as cold as a northern mountain bre- eze. He was shivering, his knees were weak. He slowed down until he was not running anymore. Two steps more he took, then collapsed as he couldn’t felt his legs. The door of the house was shut by the wind, causing a loud sound. The shattered glass of his wristwatch seemed like snow crystals on the ground. Not long after, his breathing faded away, and his consciousness blended with the beautiful sky. Colter was lying motionless, completely frozen. He was a part of the city now. Teoman Küçükkiriş

38 Jean-Paul Sartre: “If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company.”

Because I Cannot Stop Çünkü Ölüm İçin For Death Duramadım Because I could not stop for Death – Ölüm için duramadığımdan – He kindly stopped for me – O benim için durdu kibarca – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – Faytonda ikimiz vardık – And Immortality. Ve ölümsüzlük yalnızca

We slowly drove – He knew no haste Yavaşça ilerledik – acelesi yoktu And I had put away Bırakmıştım bir kenara ben de My labor and my leisure too, İşlerimi ve boş vaktimi, For His Civility – Nezaketini görünce –

We passed the School, where Children Okul bahçesinde teneffüste güreş tutan strove Çocukların – yanından geçtik – At Recess – in the Ring – Bakıp duran tahıl tarlalarından – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – Batan güneşin önünden geçtik – We passed the Setting Sun – Veya aslında – oydu geçip giden – Or rather – He passed Us – Düşen çiy damlaları soğuk ve titrekti – The Dews drew quivering and Chill – Elbisem incecikti – For only Gossamer, my Gown – Atkım – sadece tüldendi – My Tippet – only Tulle – Bir evin önünde durakladık We paused before a House that seemed Tümsek gibiydi toprakta – A Swelling of the Ground – Çatı zor seçiliyordu – The Roof was scarcely visible – Saçak silmeleri – yer altında – The Cornice – in the Ground – Aradan – geçen – yüzyıllar Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet Atların başlarının sonsuzluğa Feels shorter than the Day Dönük olduğundan ilk şüphelendiğim I first surmised the Horses’ Heads Günden sanki daha kısa – Were toward Eternity – Ghalia Mahfouz Emily Dickenson

Emily Dickinson: “Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.” 39

Do not go gentle into that Gitme o güzel geceye usulca good night Do not go gentle into that good night, Gitme o güzel geceye usulca, Old age should burn and rave at close of Yaşlılık tutuşup coşsun günün sonunda; day; Kükre, kükre ışığın ölümü karşısında. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Sonlarına gelmiş bilgeler karanlığın Though wise men at their end know dark is doğruluğunu bilseler de right, Sözleri şimşek çaktırmadığı içindir ki Because their words had forked no light- Gitmezler o güzel geceye usulca. ning they Do not go gentle into that good night. İyi adamlar, nafile çabaları yeşil bir koyda dans ediyorsa da, Good men, the last wave by, crying how Sonuncu dalga vurduğunda, bağırırlar bright aydınlığa Their frail deeds might have danced in a Kükrerler, kükrerler ışığın ölümü karşı- green bay, sında. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Güneşi uçarken yakalamış olan, Wild men who caught and sang the sun in Ve bu yolda yas tuttuklarını geç farke- flight, den vahşi adamlar, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its Gitmezler o güzel geceye usulca. way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Ölümün kıyısındaki körleştiren bakışlı adamlar, Grave men, near death, who see with blin- Göktaşı gibi parıldayan ve şenlenen kör ding sight gözler, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be Kükrerler, kükrerler ışığın ölümü karşı- gay, sında. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Ve sen, benim babam, o hüzün veren And you, my father, there on the sad hei- tepede, ght, Yalvarırım, lanetle, kutsa beni o kızgın Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, gözyaşlarınla I pray. Gitme o güzel geceye usulca. Do not go gentle into that good night. Kükre, kükre ışığın ölümü karşısında. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Taha Elbruz Pelit Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas: “Though lovers be lost, love shall not; 40 And death shall have no dominion”

Could you sit a little bit by Nizar Qabbani translation (Arabic, English, Turkish) .. ًنيمسايالو ، فيصالو ينابق رازن… ًاليلق ًنيسلجت األ ؟نيتيناثب ً ًصقن فيكو ؟نيسلجت األ ..نينسال تارشع يف هانلزغ ًاطيرش ..ينم ًربكأو .. ًكنم ًربكأ ةيضقال نإف ..يسفنل ًاسأك بكسأس- ..نيملعت امك ؟ تنأو- .. ًكنيبو ينيب ناك امو ءام ..نيبرشت ال ًكنأ ًتركذت ..نكل هجو ىلع ًاشقن ًكي مل .. ًكليحر دض تسل انأ .. ًاريبك ًاريبك ائيش ناك هنكلو ..مويغالب ًةدبلم ءامسال نأ ركفأ ءامسال رطمال ًطوقس ًكيلع ىشخأو يذهك ٍفعض ًةظحلب فيكف ؟نيسلجت ول ًكريضي اذامف ..؟ءامسال ًاليتغا ديرن .. ًرطمال عاطقنا نيحل ؟ىرخأ ًقئاقد سمخل نيسلجت األ ؟ كريضي امو ..ريثك ًءيش بلقال يفف قوف لحكال ًنم ًاليلق ًنيعضت ول .. ًريثك ًنزحو .. ًكنوفج تاظحل يف فطاوعال ًلتق لهسال نم سيلو .. ًاريثك ًتيكب ًتنأ ..تالمهمال ًةلس يف كبح ءاقإلو لحكالب كعومد طالتخا مغر ًكهجو الزامو ..نزحالو .. ًرعشالو .. ًبحال نم ًاثارت نإف .. ًرمقال ًلثم تايركذالو ..غبتالو .. ًحلمالو ..زبخالو .. ًكليحر ً دض تسل انأ تاهجال عيمج نم انرصاحي .. ًنكل نيلعفت امب ًاليلق ًنيركتفت ًكتيلف ًائيش نآال أرقن نأب حارتقا يدل .. ًةيضقال نإف . ًرعشال نم ..ينم ً ربكأو .. ًكنم ربكأ .. ًرجضال اذه ًرسكي ًرعشال نم ًاليلق ً ًلع ..نيملعت !!يرعشب نيبجعت ال ًكنإ ًنيلوقت … امك ًاجالع سيل جنشتال نأ نآال رعشأ يننكلو .. ًديدجال يدحتال اذه لبقأس ءافص .. ًهيف نحن امل لكو .. ًٍدورب لكب نيقيال ًقيرط تسيل ًةمامحال نأو .. ًركذ..أ ًكنيبو ينيب ةريغصال نوؤشال نأو ةلوهسال و ..يرعشب ًنيلفتحت ًتنك مك كلتب ًتومت تسيل .. ًءاسم ًحابص يفورح نينضتحتو بايثال لثم لدبتت ال رعاشمال نأو .. ًكحضأو ..ةليمجال ..ءاسنال ًتاوزن نم .. ًكيأر ًريغت ًلواحأ ال انأ نيسلجت يتديس ًكتيلف .. ًاعبط ً كرارق ًرارقال نإ ..ينم ًربكأو .. ًكنم ربكأ ةيضقال نإف يف دتمت كروذج نأ نآال رعشأ يننكلو ..نيملعت امك ً،بلقال ؟ىبضغ ًتلز امأ ..نيميال تاذو ، ًالمشال ًتاذ ..ينيحماس نذإ ، رحبالو ،ريفاصعال راصح كفن فيكف

Nizar Qabbani: “Life doesn’t stop after losing someone, but it goes on without them, differently.” 41

Could you sit a little bit ..الح يأ ىلع يبلق ًةبيبح ًتنأف عيمج لثم تفرصت ?Could you sit ينأ ضرفأس The case is bigger than you ..and bigger الجرال .. than me ..ةنوشخال ضعبب ... As you know .. ًرورغال ضعبو ... And what was between you and me ؟ روسجال عيمج عطقل يفكي كاذ لهف Was not an inscription on the water ..رجشال لك ًقارحإو surface ..ردقال ً ًدرو ءاضقال ً ًدر لواحأ ال انأ ... But it was very big, big thing .. ًنآال رعشأ يننكلو Like this sky .. ًبعص بلقال ب صع نم كعالتقا نأ How about a moment of weakness .. ًبعص ًكبح We want to assassinate the sky مادعإو ًبعص كق ?Could you sit for five minutes more شعو … There is something more in the heart .. ًبعص ًكهركو … And .. much sadnessًالنمال ديعب ًملح كلتقو And it is not easy to kill the emotions in .. ًبرحال ينلعت الف ...moments ًالتقال نفرتحت ال ًتاليمجال نإ ،نيميال … And throw your love in the trash تاذ ًرانال يقلطت الو … Our heritage is from love …poems ..المشال ًتاذو ... sadness .. ًرمأال رخآ يفف -Bread … salt … tobacco … and memo .. ًالجرال عيمج ًاليتغا يعيطتست ال .. ًالجرال ries عيمج ًاليتغا يعيطتست ال It besieges us from all sides. I wish you think a bit of what you are doing The case is … Bigger than you … and bigger than me … As you know … But I now feel that the spas is not a cure For what we are in And the bird is not the way of certainty And the small affairs between me and you … Do not die in that easy And the feelings do not change like beautiful clothes …

Nizar Qabbani: “Don’t worry, my sweetest. You are in my poetry and my words. 42 You might grow old in years, but you will never grow up on my pages.”

And I do not try to change your decisi- And I recall … on … How much were you celebrating my The decision is yours, of course … poems … But I now feel that your roots stretch And you embrace my letters morning in the heart, and evening … To the left, and to the right … And I laugh … So how can we decipher the siege of From the whims of women birds, sea, I wish you my lady to sit Summer, and jasmine … The case is bigger than you … and big- And how can we cut in two seconds? ger than me … A tape that we have spun over decades As you know … … Are you still angry? -I will pour a cup for myself … Then forgive me … -And you? In all cases you are my sweetheart I remembered that you do not drink ... I will suppose that I have behaved like I am not against your leaving … but … all men I think the sky is overcast … With some roughness … I fear for you the rain fall And some vanity … What would harm you if you sit? Is it enough to cut all the brigades? Till the rain cut out. And burning all trees … What would harm you? I do not try to return the judiciary and If you put a little eyeliner on your eye- return fate … lids But I now feel that … You cried a lot … It is hard to uproot you from the nerve And still your face despite the mixing of the heart … of your tears with eyeliner And executing your love is hard Is like the moon … Loving you is hard … I am not against your leaving … Hating you is hard … But … And killing you is a far-fetched dream I have a suggestion now to read somet- Thus do not declare the war … hing from poetry The pretty women are not professional Maybe a little bit of poetry kills this at fighting boredom … Therefore, do not shoot to the right, You say that you do not like my po- And to the left … ems!! Because at the end I will accept this new challenge … You cannot assassinate all men … With all coldness … and all serenity You cannot assassinate all men …

Edgar Allan Poe: “The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.” 43

Biraz daha oturmaz mısın Karar senin kararın tabi ... Oturmaz mısın? Ama şimdi köklerin kalpte gerildiğini Sorun senden büyük ... benden de bü- hissediyorum, yük ... Sola ve sağa ... Bildiğin gibi ... Kuşların ve denizin kuşatmasını nasıl Aramızdaki şey ... deşifre edebiliriz Su üstünde bir çizgi değildi Yazın ve yaseminin ... Ama çok büyük, büyük bir şeydi ... Ve iki saniyede nasıl keseriz? Şu gökyüzü gibi Onlarca yıllar çevirdiğimiz bir kaseti ... Peki ya bir anlık zayıflık -Kendime bir bardak dolduracağım ... Gökyüzünü katletmek istiyoruz?... -Ve sen? Beş dakika daha oturmaz mısın? İçmediğini hatırladım ... Kalpte daha çok şey var ... Ben gitmene karşı değilim ... ama ... Ve çok fazla üzüntü ... Gökyüzünün kapalı olduğunu düşünü- Ve anılardaki duyguları öldürmek hiç yorum ... kolay değil Üzerine yağmur yağar diye korkuyo- Ve sevgini çöpe atmak ... rum Bizim mirasımız aşktan ... şiirden ... Sana ne olur ki otursan? üzüntüden ... Yağmur kesilene kadar ... Ekmekten ... tuzdan ... tütünden ... ve Sana ne zarar gelir? anılardan Göz kapaklarına biraz göz kalemi sür- Bizi her yönden kuşatıyorlar sen ... Keşke yaptıklarında biraz düşünürsen Sen çok ağladın ... Sorun ... Ve göz yaşlarıyla göz kaleminin karışı- Senden büyük ... ve benden de büyük mına rağmen yüzün hala ...... Ay gibi ... Bildiğin gibi ... Ben gitmene karşı değilim Ama şimdi nöbetin bir tedavi olmadı- Ama ... ğını hissediyorum Bir önerim var şiirden bir şey okuya- İçinde bulunduğumuz duruma ... lım Ve kuş kesinliğin bir yolu değil Belki biraz şiir bu can sıkıntısını öldü- Ve bu küçük meseleler seninle benim rür ... aramda ...... Şiirlerimi beğenmediğini söylüyor- O kadar kolay ölmez sun! Ve duygular güzel elbiseler gibi değiş- Bu yeni meydan okumayı kabul edece- mez ... ğim ... Ve ben kararını değiştirmeye çalışmı- Tüm soğuklukla ... ve tüm huzurla yorum .. Hatırlarım ki ...

44 Edgar Allan Poe: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity”.

Şiirlerimi ne kadar kutluyordun ... Harflerimi sabah akşam kucaklıyordun Ve gülerim ... Kadınların kaprislerinden ... Keşke hanımım otursan Sorun senden büyük ... ve benden de büyük ... Bildiğin gibi ... Hala kızgın mısın? O zaman beni affet ... Her şekilde sen benim birtanemsin ... Bütün erkekler gibi davrandığımı var- sayacağım Biraz sertlikle ... Biraz gururla ... Bu tüm köprüleri kesmeye yeter mi? Ve bütün ağaçları yakmak ... Yargıyı ve kaderi geri çevirmeye çalış- mıyorum ... Ama şimdi hissediyorum ki ... Seni kalbin damarlarından çıkarmak zor ... Aşkını öldürmek zor ... Seni sevmek zor ... Senden nefret etmek de zor ... Ve seni öldürmek imkânsız uzak bir rüya ... Bu yüzden savaşı ilan etme ... Güzel kadınlar dövüşte profesyonel değiller ... Bu yüzden sağa ateşi etme ... Sola da ... Çünkü sonunda ... Bütün erkeklerin öldüremezsin ... Bütün erkeklerin öldüremezsin ...

Fatma Milacı

Edgar Allan Poe:” We loved with a love that was more than love.” 45

The Nightingale and the Rose “She promised she’d dance with me if I brought her a red rose,” cried a young heart-broken student. “But there’s not one in this whole garden.”From her nest in the oak tree, the Nightingale heard him, and she looked out through the leaves, and wondered.“Not a single red rose anywhere!” he cried, and his eyes filled with tears. “It’s amazing how happiness depends on such little things. I’ve read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy, but my life is wretched because of a red rose.”“Here at last is a true romantic,” said the Nightingale. “Night after night I have sung of him, though I didn’t realize it. Ni- ght after night I have told his story to the stars, and now I see him.”“The Prince gives a ball tomorrow night,” murmured the young student, “and my love will be there. If I bring her a red rose, she’ll dance with me till dawn. If I bring her a red rose, I’ll get to hold her in my arms, and she’ll lean her head on my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine. But there’s no red rose in the garden, and so instead, I’ll sit by myself while she passes me by. She’ll pay no attention to me, and my heart will break.”“Here indeed is a true romantic,” said the Nightin- gale. “Surely love is a wonderful thing. It’s more precious than emeralds and di- amonds and gold.”“The musicians will play their instruments,” said the student. “And my love will dance to the sound of the violin. But she won’t dance with me, because I have no red rose to give her.” And he flung himself down on the grass, buried his face in his hands, and wept.“Why is he weeping?” asked a butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam. “He’s weeping for a red rose,” said the Nightingale.“For a red rose?” cried the butterfly. “How ridiculous!” But the Nightingale understood the secret of the student’s sorrow, and she sat silently in the oak tree, and thought about the mystery of love. Suddenly, she spread her brown wings and soared into the air. She passed through the grove like a shadow, and sailed across the garden. In the center of the grass stood a beautiful rose tree, and when she saw it, she flew over and landed on a branch. “Give me a red rose,” she cried, “and I’ll sing you my sweetest song.”But the tree shook its head. “My roses are white,” it said. “But go to my brother who grows near the fountain, and perhaps he’ll give you what you want.”So the Nightingale flew over to the rose tree by the fountain.“Give me a red rose,” she cried, “and I will sing you my sweetest song.”But the tree shook its head. “My roses are yellow,” it answered. “But go to my brother who grows beneath the student’s window, and perhaps he’ll give you what you want.” So the Nightingale flew over to the rose tree that was growing beneath the student’s window and repeated her request for the rose.

46 Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

But this tree also shook its head. “My roses are red,” it answered. “But the winter has chilled my veins and the frost has nipped my buds, and the storm has broken my branches, and I’ll have no roses at all this year.”“One red rose is all I want,” cried the Nightingale. “Is there no way I can get it?”“There is a way,” answered the tree. “But it’s so terrible, I can’t tell you.”“Tell me,” said the Nigh- tingale, “I’m not afraid.”“If you want a red rose,” said the tree, “you must build it out of music by moonlight, and make it red with your own heart’s blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn, and your blood must flow into my veins, and become mine.”“Death is a great price to pay for a red rose,” cried the Nightingale. “Yet love is better than life, and what is the heart of the bird compared to the heart of a man?”So she spread her brown wings and soared into the air. She swept over the garden like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed through the grove. The young student was lying on the grass where she had left him, and the tears were not yet dry in his eyes.“Be happy,” cried the Ni- ghtingale. “You shall have your red rose. I’ll build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with my own heart’s blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true romantic, for love is wiser than philosophy.” The student looked up from the grass and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightin- gale was saying, for he only knew the things that are written in books. But the oak tree understood, and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale who had built her nest in his branches.“Sing me one last song,” he whispered. “I’ll be lonely when you’re gone.”So the Nightingale sang to the oak tree, and her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar. When she had finished her song the student got up, and went to his room and began to think of his love. After a time, he fell asleep. And when the moon shone in the heavens, the Nightingale flew to the rose tree and set her breast against a thorn. All night long, she sang against the thorn, and the cold moon leaned down and listened.She sang of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl. And on the top branch of the rose tree, there blossomed a marvelous rose, petal after petal, as song followed song. It was pale at first, but grew darker as the bird sang louder, and a delicate flush of pink came over the leaves. But the thorn had not yet reached her heart, and so the rose’s heart remained white, for only a Nightingale’s blood can make the heart of a rose red. Her song grew wilder as she sang of love, and the marvelous rose became crimson, like an eastern sky. But the Nightingale’s voice grew fain- ter, and her little wings began to beat fast. Then she gave one last burst of music. The white moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky. The red rose heard it, and it trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals to the cold morning air. Oscar Wilde: “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” 47

“Look!” cried the tree. “The rose is finished now.” But the Nightingale made no answer, for she was lying dead in the long grass, with the thorn in her heart. And at noon, the student opened his window and looked out. “Why, what a wonderful piece of luck,” he cried. “Here is a red rose! I’ve never seen a rose like this in all my life. It’s so beautiful!” And he leaned down and plucked it. Then he put on his hat, and ran up to his professor’s house with the rose in his hand. The daughter of the professor was sitting in the doorway, and her little dog was lying at her feet. “You said that you would dance with me if I brought you a red rose,” cried the student. “Here’s the reddest rose in all the world. You’ll wear it tonight next to your heart, and as we dance together, it will tell you how much I love you.”But the girl frowned. “I’m afraid it won’t go with my dress,” she answered. “And the prince’s nephew has sent me some jewels, which cost far more than flowers.”“How ungrateful,” said the student angrily, and he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter.“What a silly thing love is,” he thought, as he walked away. “It’s not half as useful as logic, and in fact, is quite unpractical. I shall go back to philosophy.” And so he returned to his room and pulled out a dusty book, and began to read. Oscar Wilde

48 Oscar Wilde: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

Bülbül ile Gül

Kalbi kırılan genç bir öğrenci, “Ona kırmızı bir gül getirirsem benimle dans edeceğine söz vermişti,” diye haykırdı. “Ama koca bahçede tek bir tane bile yok.” Bülbül meşe ağacındaki yuvasından onu duydu, yaprakların arasından merakla baktı.“Hiçbir yerde tek bir kırmızı gül bile yok!” diye haykırdı ve gözleri yaşlarla doldu. “Mutluluğun bu kadar küçük şeylere bağlı olması şaşırtıcı. Bilge adam- ların yazdığı her şeyi ve felsefenin tüm sırlarını okudum, ama hayatım kırmızı bir gül yüzünden perişan durumda.”Bülbül, “İşte sonunda gerçek bir aşık” dedi. “Geceler boyu onun hakkında şarkı söyledim, ama onun farkında değildim. Ge- celerce yıldızlara hikayesini anlattım ve şimdi o karşımda.”Genç öğrenci, “Prens yarın gece bir balo veriyor,” diye mırıldandı ve sevdiğim orada olacak. Ona kır- mızı bir gül getirirsem, sabaha kadar benimle dans edecek. Ona kırmızı bir gül getirirsem, onu kollarıma alacağım, başına omzuma dayayacak ve elleri ellerim- de olacak. Ama bahçede kırmızı gül yok ve onun yerine o yanımdan geçerken tek başıma oturacağım. Bana aldırış etmeyecek ve kalbim kırılacak. “Bülbül, “İşte tam bir gerçek aşık” dedi. “Elbette aşk harika bir şeydir. Zümrütlerden, elmaslardan ve altından daha değerlidir. Öğrenci, “Müzisyenler enstrümanlarını çalacak” dedi. Sevdiğim keman sesiyle dans edecek. Ama benimle dans etmeyecek çünkü ona verecek kırmızı gülüm yok.” deyip kendini çimlere attı, yüzünü ellerinin arasına aldı ve ağladı. “Neden ağlıyor?” bir güneş ışınının ardından çırpınan bir kelebeğe sordu. Bülbül, “Kırmızı bir gül için ağlıyor” dedi. “Kırmızı bir gül için mi?” diye haykırdı kelebek. “Ne kadar saçma!” Ama Bülbül öğrencinin üzüntüsünü anladı, meşe ağacında sessizce oturdu ve aşkın gizemi- ni düşündü. Aniden kahverengi kanatlarını açtı ve havaya yükseldi. Korudan bir gölge gibi geçti ve bahçede süzüldü. Çimlerin ortasında güzel bir gül ağacı duruyordu ve onu görünce uçup bir dalın üzerine kondu. “Bana kırmızı bir gül ver,” diye haykırdı “ve sana en tatlı şarkımı söyleyeceğim.” Ama ağaç başını sal- ladı. “Güllerim beyaz” dedi. “Ama çeşmenin yanında büyüyen kardeşime git ve belki sana istediğini verir.” Bülbül çeşmenin yanındaki gül ağacına uçtu. “Bana kırmızı bir gül ver,” diye ağladı, “ve sana en tatlı şarkımı söyleyeceğim.” Ama ağaç başını salladı. “Güllerim sarı” diye cevapladı. “Ama öğrencinin penceresinin altında büyüyen kardeşime git ve belki sana istediğini verir. Bülbül, öğrenci- nin penceresinin altında büyüyen gül ağacına uçtu ve gül talebini yineledi. Ama bu ağaç da başını salladı. “Güllerim kırmızı” diye cevapladı. “Ama kış da- marlarımı dondurdu, soğuktan tomurcuklarım kırağı tuttu, fırtına da dallarımı kırdı ve bu yıl hiç gülüm yok.”

Oscar Wilde: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” 49

Bülbül, “Tek istediğim bir kırmızı gül” diye haykırdı. “Onu almamın bir yolu yok mu?” Ağaç, “Bir yolu var” diye yanıtladı. “Ama bu çok korkunç, sana söy- leyemem.” “Söyle bana,” dedi Bülbül, “Korkmuyorum.” Ağaç, “Kırmızı bir gül istiyorsan, onu ay ışığında müzikten yapmalı ve kalbinin kanıyla kırmızıya bo- yamalısın. Bana, göğsün dikene karşı şarkı söylemelisin ve kanın damarlarıma akıp benim olmalı. Bülbül, “Ölüm, kırmızı bir gül için ödenecek büyük bir be- del,” diye haykırdı. “Yine de aşk hayattan daha üstündür ve bir insanın kalbine kıyasla kuşun kalbi nedir ki?” Böylece kahverengi kanatlarını açtı ve havaya yükseldi. Bahçede bir gölge gibi süzüldü ve bir gölge gibi korudan geçiverdi. Genç öğrenci onu bıraktığı yerde çimenlerde yatıyordu ve gözle- rindeki yaşlar henüz kurumamıştı. Bülbül “Mutlu ol” diye haykırdı. “Kır- mızı gülünü alacaksın. Onu ay ışığında müzikten yapacağım ve kalbimin ka- nıyla renklendireceğim. Karşılığında senden tek istediğim gerçek bir aşık olman, çünkü aşk felsefeden daha bilgedir. “Öğrenci çimenlerden başını kaldırdı ve onu dinledi, ancak Bül- bül’ün ne dediğini anlayamadı, çün- kü sadece kitaplarda yazılan şeyleri biliyordu. Ama meşe ağacı anladı ve üzüldü, çünkü dallarında yuvasını kuran küçük bülbüle çok düşkündü. “Bana son bir şarkı söyle,” diye fısıldadı. “Sen gittiğinde yalnız kalacağım.” Bülbül meşe ağacına şarkı söyledi ve sesi gümüş bir kaseden akan su gibiydi. Şarkısını bitirdiğinde öğrenci kalktı, odasına gitti ve sevdiğini düşünmeye başladı. Bir süre sonra uyuyakaldı. Ay göklerde par- ladığında, Bülbül gül ağacına uçtu ve göğsünü bir dikene dayadı. Bütün gece dikene karşı şarkı söyledi, ay da soğuk çehresiyle eğildi ve onu dinledi.Bir erkek ve bir kızın kalbinde aşkın doğuşunun şarkısını söyledi ve gül ağacının tepesinde, şarkı şarkıyı takip ederken, yaprak yaprak oluşan muhteşem bir gül açtı. İlk başta soluktu, ama kuş daha yüksek sesle şarkı söylerken yaprakların üzerine narin bir pembe tonu geldi. Ama diken henüz onun kalbine ulaşmamıştı ve bu yüzden gülün kalbi beyaz kaldı, çünkü sadece bir Bülbül kanı bir gülün kalbini kırmızı yapabilirdi.Aşkı şakırken coştu ve muhteşem gül, doğudaki gökler gibi kıpkırmızı oldu. Ama Bülbül’ün sesi gittikçe kısıldı ve küçük kanatlarını hızla çırpmaya başladı. Oscar Wilde: “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by 50 moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

Şarkısını bitirdiğinde öğrenci kalktı, odasına gitti ve sevdiğini düşünmeye baş- ladı. Bir süre sonra uyuyakaldı. Ay göklerde parladığında, Bülbül gül ağacına uçtu ve göğsünü bir dikene dayadı. Bütün gece dikene karşı şarkı söyledi, ay da soğuk çehresiyle eğildi ve onu dinledi.Bir erkek ve bir kızın kalbinde aşkın do- ğuşunun şarkısını söyledi ve gül ağacının tepesinde, şarkı şarkıyı takip ederken, yaprak yaprak oluşan muhteşem bir gül açtı. İlk başta soluktu, ama kuş daha yüksek sesle şarkı söylerken yaprakların üzerine narin bir pembe tonu geldi. Ama diken henüz onun kalbine ulaşmamıştı ve bu yüzden gülün kalbi beyaz aldı, çünkü sadece bir Bülbül kanı bir gülün kalbini kırmızı yapabilirdi. Aşkı şakırken coştu ve muhteşem gül, doğudaki gökler gibi kıpkırmızı oldu. Ama Bülbül’ün sesi gittikçe kısıldı ve küçük kanatlarını hızla çırpmaya başladı.

Öykü Yavuzer

Oscar Wilde: “Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.” 51

Sonnet 138 When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutored youth, Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told.

Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

William Shakespeare

138. Sone Aşkım, “bende yalan yok” diye yeminler edince, İnanırım ona, oysa dedikleri safi yalan, Ki varsın beni bu dünyadaki hiçbir ince hileyi Öğrenmemiş cahil bir genç bellesin. Kendimi avuturum genç diye bildi beni, Oysa o da iyi bilir ki, o günler geçmişteydi. Sadece yalan atan diline güvenirim, Böylece ezilir gerçek her iki tarafta da. Peki neden haksız olmadığını söylemiyor? Ve neden ben yaşlıyım demiyorum? Ah, aşkın en iyi tarafı gözükmektir güven gibi, Ve aşk, aşkta sevmez yılların söylenmesini.

Yalan söyler dururuz, ben ona, o da bana: Tatlı dille sararız aybımızı yalana.

Muhammet Ali Polat William Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. 52 They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”

Some English Slang Idiot Box: TV. Twit: Idiot, or a foolish person. Doffer: Thing, it could be anything depends on the conversation. Dog’s Bollocks/ Mutts Nuts/ Cat’s Pajamas/ Hounds Rounds: The best. Hard Cheese: Tough luck. Knees Up: Having a party. Muppet: Fool. All Mouth and No Trousers: Someone who is verbally aggressive but never actually fights, he cannot back it up. Damb squib: Underwhelming, or maybe disappointment. Tosh: Rubbish.

Some Victorian Era Slang Bags o’ Mystery: Sausages. Bricky: Brave or fearless. Bang up to the elephant: Done properly, the right way. Butter upon bacon: Excessive extravaganze. Chuckaboo: A nickname given to a close friend. Meater: A street term meaning coward. Nanty narking: Having a hoot, great fun. Skilamalink: Secret, shady, doubtful. Sauce box: Your mouth. Take the egg: To win.

William Shakespeare:”If music be the food of love play on.” 53

The end

“Knowledge is such a thing that if you get too close you will be dazzled and blind, and if you get too far, ignorance will blind you.”

Muhammet Ali Polat