I Will Never See the World Again

by Ahmet Altan

  I am a writer.

  I am neither where I am nor where I am not.

  Wherever you lock me up I will travel the world with the wings of my infinite mind.

  Besides, I have friends all around the world who help me travel, most of whom I have never met.

  Each eye that reads what I have written, each voice that repeats my name holds my hand like a little cloud and flies me over the lowlands, the springs, the forests, the seas, the towns and their streets. They host me quietly in their houses, in their halls, in their rooms.

  I travel the whole world in a prison cell.

  As you may well have guessed, I possess a godly arrogance – one that is not often acknowledged, but that is unique to writers and has been handed down from one generation to the next for thousands of years. I possess a confidence that grows like a pearl within the hard shells of literature. I possess an immunity; I am protected by the steel armor of my books.

  I am writing this in a prison cell.

  But I am not in prison.

  I am a writer.

  I am neither where I am nor where I am not.

  You can imprison me but you cannot keep me here.

  Because, like all writers, I have magic. I can pass through your walls with ease.