Farewell: A Mansion in Occupied Istanbul (Turkish Literature)
Page 36
As I near the second year of my exile my heart is filled with sorrow and anguish. So this is my compensation for thirty-five years of service to my country. It is only as joyful news in a letter that I learn of the birth of my only grandchild. I was not at all upset to learn of Mahir’s resignation. If it is agreed that he is to be pensioned off, his return to Istanbul will be favorable, God willing. Official duties and matters of state are no longer the source of any pleasure.
It is the necessities of life that are important and may God provide for him and my family in Istanbul. Behice, I too would very much like to see you, but you wouldn’t be comfortable here, and in view of the severe winters I couldn’t agree to your coming. I won’t let you suffer for my sake. Perhaps in November we could go to Rome and winter there together. Or I could go to Pest and wait for you. If I can find suitable housing there, and we decide we’d be able to live cheaply enough, we could consider moving. I beg you again not to let anything trouble you. Some good comes out of everything—even in all of this misery there is good, have no doubt. It is enough that God grants our family health, wellbeing. Up to now, we’ve enjoyed a comfortable life. I have faith that God will not deprive us in the future, either. Let us stay alive. We have so much left. If my return to Istanbul proves possible, we’ll figure things out by letter—and then, by ship or by train, I shall return.
At present, all we can do is continue to be patient.
To my venerable aunt, to Mehpare and to you, my dear, I wish God’s blessings and patience. Convey my affectionate greetings to my dear lamb, Suat, and especially to that great source of pride, my daughter Leman, and to my son-in-law, Mahir Bey. I kiss the eyes of Sabahat and Halim. May God grant my tiny granddaughter Sitare a long and auspicious life.
Your affectionate husband,
Reşat
Notes
handed his coat to Hüsnü, and entered the selamlık: The part of a large Muslim house reserved for the men.
The disastrous misadventure of Sarıkamış: Located near Kars, Sarıkamış was the scene of a battle between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, in which İsmail Enver’s army (90,000 men) was defeated by the Russian force (100,000 men; the engagement lasted from December through January, 1914–1915. In the subsequent retreat, tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers died. This was the single worst defeat of an Ottoman army during World War I. On January 1, 1919, the new Ottoman government expelled Enver Pasha from the army after he led the Army of Islam in an ill-fated campaign in the Caucasus region. He was tried in absentia in the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 for the crimes of “plunging the country into war without a legitimate reason, forced deportation of Armenians, and leaving the country without permission,” and condemned to death.
the partisans of the Committee of Union and Progress: (Turkish: İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) A political party in power from after the revolution of 1908 until 1918, when many of its members were court-martialed and imprisoned.
she was poked in the shoulder by a madam: a title generally reserved for non-Muslim women.
secretly reached an agreement to give the Twelve Islands to Italy: After several centuries of special semi-autonomous status within the Ottoman Empire, the Dodecanese archipelago—which includes Rhodes, Kos and Patmos—declared independence in 1912, only to be occupied almost immediately by Italy.
In moments of tenderness, she occasionally managed valide: A formal term for “mother,” in the sense of “Queen Mother.”
in Crete during the massacre of the Muslims there: Ottoman forces were expelled in 1898 and an independent Cretan state founded only after several years during which Cretan Muslims faced massacres, particularly in the four coastal cities.
When the cabinet of Ali Rıza Pasha ratified the National Pact: Misak-ı Millî (English: National Oath or National Pact) was the set of six important decisions made by the last term of the Ottoman Parliament. The Parliament met on 28 January 1920, and published their decisions on 12 February 1920. These decisions resulted in the occupation of Istanbul by the British on 16 February 1920 and the establishment of a new parliament, the Grand National Assembly, in Ankara.
positions of responsibility at Karakol: Karakol (police station): code word used for the underground resistance.
Get into your çarşaf: An outer garment covering a woman from head to foot.
I miss your gözleme terribly: a flat savory cake cooked on a griddle, typically with a cheese, spinach or potato filling.
Ziya Pasha’s harem: Here, harem simply refers to a man’s wife or wives, and female relatives.
The name Suat had been chosen when Behice thought she was expecting a boy: Suat, derived from the Arabic for happiness, Sa’d, is normally a boy’s name.
The Minister arrived in the Sublime Porte: Known in Turkish as Babıâli, Sublime Porte referred to the Central Office of the Imperial Goverment of the Ottoman empire in Istanbul, comprising of the offices of the Grand Vizier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Council of State.
Naime Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdülhamit: The wives, daughters, sisters and mothers of the Sultan also hold the title of “sultan”; used after their names rather than before.
In fact, girls were now able to receive university degrees even from Dar’ül-Funûnu: The Women’s University was founded in 1914, but when female students boycotted classes in 1920 the school was merged with Darülfünun and co-education introduced. When, in 1922, the Medical School began accepting women, all of its schools, with the exception of Theology, adopted mixed male and female classes.
most of the women had removed their maşlah: An open-fronted cloak.
posted to Thessalonica during the Balkan War: Thessalonica and the surrounding area were part of the Ottoman Empire until 26 October 1912, when the Ottoman garrison surrendered to the Greek Army during the First Balkan War, which pitted the combined forces of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire.
when we formed the Kuva-I İnzibatiye: Literally “Forces of Order”; also known as the Hilafet Ordusu, or “Caliphate Army”; an army established on April 18th, 1920, by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire in order to fight against the Turkish National Movement in the aftermath of World War I.
the final death blow to the Ottoman Empire: Grand Vizier Damat Ferit was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Sèvres (August 10th, 1920): a peace treaty prepared by the Allies following WWI that imposed disastrous conditions upon the Ottoman Empire, it included partition and capitulations. The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
She’s making ayran: a cool drink made of yogurt and water.
The Freedom and Unity Party: The Freedom and Unity Party (Turkish: Hürriyet ve İtilaf Partisi) re-emerged in 1919 after being banned in 1912. The party embraced close ties with England , expressing its preference with the maxim: “If you fall into the sea, embrace a serpent and you’ll survive; but if you embrace Germany, you’ll drown.”
the Association of Anglophiles: (Turkish: İngiliz Muhipleri Cemiyeti; literally, “Society of the Affectionate Friends of the English”) As the name implies, an organization whose members, many of them from prominent Istanbul families, supported an English mandate. The association was accused of having a hidden agenda aimed at denigrating Islam, spreading Christianity, belittling Turkishness and attempting to turn public opinion against the rebellion building in Anatolia. Atatürk himelf referred to the society as “nefarious” and “treacherous.”
a tekke on the Asian Shore: A dervish lodge.
let me and my nephew make our farewells: To make one’s farewells in this sense is much more than simply saying good-bye. It’s a ritualistic leave-taking (usually performed on death beds, before battles, or before long separations) in which both parties mutually forgive all that has been unjustly taken or done.
they poured out the contents of the bucket: Water and fire both figure p
rominently in Turkish folklore and custom. Water is poured onto the road as a guest departs, both to make the journey “as smooth and fluid as water” and to ensure their safe return.
every time I hear his name I picture a pack of dogs: Here, Börek Vendor Hasan is indulging in a bit of onomatopoeic word-play: the Turkish pronunciation of Bennett is similar to Bin-İt (Bin: 1000; İt: dog); hence, “A Thousand Dogs” Bennett.
after the ’93 war: The Ottoman-Russian War was fought in 1877-1878, but is known as the ’93 War because it took place in 1293, according to the Rumî Calendar.
Gazi Pasha: Before Mustafa Kemal took the surname Atatürk, he was often referred to as Gazi Pasha (Gazi means war veteran).
a friendship treaty with Soviet Russia: The Moscow Treaty established the eastern borders north of Iran. It was also concrete evidence of continued Bolshevik support for the anti-imperialist movement in Anatolia and the rival government established in Ankara.
those reserved for his ancestor Genç Osman: Osman II, or “Young Osman,” so called because he ascended the throne at age fourteen, was reportedly either strangled with a bowstring or killed by “compression of the testicles.”
as though an invisible hand was doing ebru: Ebru, or water marbling, is formed by drawing designs with dye on the surface of water and then transferring the whirled image onto paper placed on the water.
an enormous box of lokum: A soft, bite-sized, flavored sweet: so-called “Turkish delight.”
since the reign of Abdülhamit: Sultan Abdülhamit II was deposed on April 27, 1909, two weeks after the conservative-backed military overthrew the cabinet.
About the Author
AYŞE KULIN was born in Istanbul in 1941. A fiction writer and essayist, Kulin has been awarded the Haldun Taner Short Story Award, the Sait Faik Story Prize, and has twice been named writer of the year by the University of Istanbul Communication Faculty. In 2011, Farewell: A Mansion in Occupied Istanbul was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
KENNETH J. DAKAN has translated work by Buket Uzuner.
TURKISH LITERATURE SERIES
Turkish literature, from the time of independence to the present, has characterized itself by focusing on the struggles of everyday Turks and also by integrating modernist styles from the West, a trait most notable in translation in the work of Nobel prizewinner Orhan Pamuk.
This volume is the first in Dalkey Archive Press’s Turkish Literature Series, established in cooperation with Barbaros Altug and Everest Yayinlari, which will make available Turkish writers and their works who have previously had little exposure in the Anglo-phone world.
Acknowledgement is also due to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, for its support through the TEDA subvention project.
Forthcoming in the Turkish Literature Series:
Music by My Bedside by Kürşat Başar
Copyright
Originally published in Turkish as Veda by Everest Yayınları, Cağaloğlu, 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Ayşe Kulin
Translation copyright © 2012 by Kenneth J. Dakan
First edition, 2012
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kulin, Ayse.
[Veda. English]
Farewell : a mansion in occupied Istanbul / Ayse Kulin ; translated by Kenneth J. Dakan.
— 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-56478-758-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-56478-724-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
I. Dakan, Kenneth. II. Title.
PL248.K7755V4413 2012
894’.3534—dc23
2012004228
This book has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey in the framework of the TEDA project
In cooperation with Barbaros Altug and Everest Yayinlari
Partially funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency
www.dalkeyarchive.com
Cover: design and composition by Sarah French
Printed on permanent/durable acid-free paper and bound in the United States of America