FELTUN (mockingly): Wastefulness? Just a minute! You think I am that big of an idiot? If I were to calculate it, the money I earned these past three months might be equal to what I spent, if not more.
RKIM (gladly): Well then, if that’s the case, then there’s nothing for me to say. Life is good to the extent that it’s prosperous. You can only live within your means. I trust that your sister lives comfortably. Because this is an important consideration too, don’t you think?
FELTUN: Our philosopher Râkım prattling on about wisdom again. Go easy, brother. My earnings are in good order and the odds are in my favor.
RKIM: So tell me, what sorts of arrangements have you made? Commerce or something?
FELTUN: You know the kind of commerce men like us engage in.
RKIM: I don’t know what you mean.
FELTUN: You know, in the evening you put forty or fifty liras in your pocket and head to the gambling parlor.
RKIM (sullenly): My!
FELTUN: Wait, not so fast. You start playing, and if the dice roll to your advantage, you win forty or fifty liras more and pull out.
RKIM: It’s obvious you’ve only been playing for a month.
FELTUN: How did you know?
RKIM: Because leaving the game when one is losing or pulling out after winning just forty or fifty liras is a precaution taken only by novices. After a couple of months, as one gains more experience, this caution disappears.
FELTUN: Don’t worry about me.
RKIM: I’m not worried about you. You won’t be lost in gambling. I’m worried about a monthly income of fifteen or twenty thousand kuruş. You know very well that twenty or thirty thousand liras is a fortune that could easily be lost in gambling in the space of a few months.
FELTUN: So now you’re going to start lecturing me on wisdom?
RKIM: No, adieu for now!
FELTUN: Adieu, mon cher!
Shall we tell you something surprising? After these two friends parted, they each went their own way thinking badly of each other. Felâtun thought, “Râkım doesn’t have my fortune and he doesn’t lead the life I do with such a mistress in a hotel like Hotel J. He is talking like this out of jealousy. If he also had 15,000 liras, then he’d admit that the way I live is perfectly normal and respectable.” For his part, Râkım thought, “Since Felâtun was kicked out of the Ziklas household, now he wants to prevent me from going there by paying me four liras a month. How would I earn those four liras . . . can’t I earn that by myself? Only sycophants rely on the unstable fortunes of such spendthrifts. Let that gentleman live as he likes. We’ve known a lot of people like him and learned from their experiences.”
Whose opinion do you approve of? We approve of Râkım’s. We know from experience that the fortune of a spendthrift, especially of one like Felâtun, is unstable.
There, these were all the incidents that took place before the arrival of spring; we described them, we’re done.
Chapter 7
THE SPRING finally brought a sense of relief to the souls of the great and humble alike. The most important incident that deserves description is Râkım’s outing in Kağıthane. It happened as follows:
Again, one lesson day, Râkım paid a visit to Josephine, with whom he still maintained a relationship, but only a sincere and friendly one. Their conversation that day concerned a Kağıthane outing. Josephine told Râkım that she had recently gone to Kağıthane with some women from a gentleman’s household. Because they had gone on a Sunday, they found themselves stuck in their carriages, unable to actually see the fields that they had come to enjoy in the first place. Moreover, everyone else enjoyed the woman chasers who wandered around the carriages like thieves but Josephine couldn’t bring herself to take pleasure in them.
RKIM: Kağıthane is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world, but you can’t enjoy it on Fridays or Sundays. You have to do it the right way.
JOSEPHINE: What is the right way?
RKIM: Would you be willing to go?
JOSEPHINE: Would I be going by myself?
RKIM: Of course not! You’d be going with me.
JOSEPHINE (cheerfully): With you? Of course I would. I am sure we’d have a lot of fun.
RKIM: We could also take Janan. And my nanny, if you wanted.
JOSEPHINE: That sounds lovely.
RKIM: We could go either on a Tuesday or a Wednesday when those beautiful greens and meadows aren’t crowded. We would truly enjoy what they have to offer. On other days, the place turns into a horse-and-carriage fair.
JOSEPHINE: Oh, we would have such fun.
RKIM: Also, when people go to Kağıthane, they bring along refreshments.
JOSEPHINE (delightedly): See, this is the true alaturka way of having fun. It makes even going out into the countryside a worthwhile experience.
RKIM: If you’ve agreed to come, let me know so that I can begin preparations.
JOSEPHINE: Just send me word the night before our outing, so I don’t make other plans for the next day.
RKIM: Certainly.
After settling on this with Josephine and tutoring the English girls, he returned home in the evening.
Guess who welcomed him? Janan, of course. Râkım didn’t mind her meeting him at the door anymore. It also pleased his nanny to see that Râkım didn’t mind this. We already know full well that the way Janan expressed her position to Râkım when he mentioned a possible buyer had only heightened her joy and gaiety in his presence. If anyone were to witness how pure and sincere their heart-to-hearts were, one would take them for siblings.
As his nanny hadn’t gone to sleep yet, the three of them sat together in the living room. Janan made some coffee and brought it to her master, to the master that she loved so dearly. As Râkım was sipping his coffee, he said:
RKIM: My dear Nanny! Why don’t you go on an outing from time to time?
FEDAYI: We do, Sir!
RKIM: Oh come on, when was the last time you went anywhere?
FEDAYI: We go wherever Janan wants.
JANAN (with an attitude indicating her special sympathy for Fedayi): Dear Nanny takes me everywhere, Sir.
RKIM: Tell me where she takes you.
JANAN: To Salıpazarı.
RKIM: Salıpazarı is right outside our door.
FEDAYI: We even go to Tophane, Sir.
RKIM: No, no, my dear Nanny. I am talking about excursion spots like Ihlamur, for example.
FEDAYI: I took her there last summer. But Janan doesn’t like those kinds of places.
RKIM: Maybe she’d like them now.
JANAN: Those are bad places, Sir. Men and women together! It’s very bad! It makes me feel uncomfortable. I’d rather stay at home.
FEDAYI: I took her to Küçükçiftlik once. It wasn’t a holiday, so it wasn’t crowded and we enjoyed it.
JANAN: You’re right, my dear Nanny! How we enjoyed that day! How wonderful the greenery was. Those trees, that pool. Oh, it was so beautiful!
RKIM (feeling pleased at seeing the girl so happy): See, that’s good, so we should go again, right?
FEDAYI: We shall go once summer arrives. I wouldn’t want my dear Janan to be uncomfortable.
RKIM: Of course not, my dear Nanny!
JANAN: Nanny loves me like her own daughter. And I love her like my own mother.
Having said that, she began hugging and kissing the loyal, compassionate, and gentle Fedayi.
RKIM (feeling indescribably content at this scene): No, you can’t kiss Nanny like that in my presence. It is making me jealous.
With this, Râkım stood up and threw his arms around his nanny and kissed her. Poor Fedayi’s eyes filled with tears as both Janan and Râkım hugged her:
FEDAYI (referring to Râkım’s mother): Oh, my dear lady, the light of my eyes! Can you see this scene from up above?
RKIM (with eyes filled with tears): Here, my dear Nanny, you’ve taken the place of our mother. My mother’s cheeks might have faded but yours are, thank God, hale and hearty.
RKIM: My dear Nanny! Would you take us to Kağıthane next Wednesday?
FEDAYI: You’re coming too?
RKIM: Yes, I want to come.
JANAN (leaping for joy): Are you going to come with us, Sir?
RKIM: Indeed!
JANAN: All right, but there will be lots of people there, you won’t be able to sit with us!
RKIM: There won’t be anyone there on Wednesday. It will just be us.
JANAN (feeling even happier): Oh! Is that so? Please dear Nanny, will you take us?
FEDAYI: I will, I will, why wouldn’t I?
RKIM: Even your teacher Josephine will join us.
JANAN (with infinite happiness): Is that so? Oh my God! Dear Nanny, Josephine is coming as well.
FEDAYI: Even better, we’ll all be together.
RKIM: We will go early in the morning on Wednesday. I mean, very early!
FEDAYI: Will Josephine be able to come that early?
RKIM: Josephine will come here the night before and stay with us.
FEDAYI: Did you decide this together?
RKIM: No! I decided this on my own. We talked only about going to Kağıthane one day.
FEDAYI: Okay, Sir, but where is Josephine going to sleep?
RKIM: I’ve thought of that as well and made a decision. You will take me as a guest in your room for one night. Josephine will sleep in my room and Janan in hers.
FEDAYI: You know best, my son.
RKIM: No, my dear Nanny, you know best. Now, about the beds . . .
FEDAYI: What about them? We already resolved the sleeping arrangements.
How could we possibly describe Janan’s happiness that night? She was happy that she was being treated like a daughter or a sister in the family. She was delighted about their upcoming trip to Kağıthane. And she was overjoyed about Josephine’s accompanying them and spending a night at their house. Clearly, Janan loved Josephine as much as Josephine loved Janan.
After finishing his coffee and finalizing these decisions, Râkım retired to his room to do some writing. His nanny felt sleepy and went to bed. What about Janan? She didn’t feel sleepy. She was out of her senses with happiness and didn’t feel like reading. So she went and sat across from her master. While Râkım wrote, she prepared his cigarettes with the tobacco tin in front of her.
RKIM: Why aren’t you going to sleep, Janan?
JANAN: I don’t feel sleepy, Sir. If I am disturbing you, I shall go to my room and prepare your cigarettes there.
RKIM: You are not disturbing me. I never get enough of looking at you. I just wondered if you were comfortable.
JANAN (fixing her looks up in the sky with gratitude): What happiness!
Her attitude encouraged him to be forthcoming with his emotions, and he said:
RKIM: Janan!
JANAN: Yes, Sir?
RKIM: Never mind!
JANAN: You were about to say something, Sir, but, as you wish.
RKIM (letting go of his pen): I was just about to say . . . Janan!
JANAN: Yes, Sir?
RKIM: Do you know that I love you, my sweet Janan?
JANAN: How can I not know, Sir, of course I do! Didn’t you tell me so yourself? Didn’t you say, “I love you like a sister?”
RKIM (standing up): Ah, Janan, ah! But I don’t love you like a sister. I love you like Janan.
JANAN (a nice pink color spreading over her face and chest): Am I not your property, Sir?
RKIM (angrily): Stop saying that! You are nobody’s property! You own yourself. Ah, my dear Janan, for God’s sake, don’t you love me too? Tell me the truth!
Janan approached her master and they embraced each other.
JANAN: How shall I put this, Sir? You are talking as if you don’t know how I feel.
RKIM: Ah, ah, Janan! You are talking as if you don’t know how I feel. Say, “I love you,” if you love me. Let me hear you say these words. These words would resurrect me. These would be the most delightful words in the whole world.
JANAN: I love you Sir, I honestly do. Ah, what else can I do but love you? How can I not love you? It’s beyond my power not to love you.
More than Janan’s uttering these words, her amorous delivery augmented Râkım’s emotions. It was as if the insanity of the final stage of love appeared at the very beginning in his case. He said,
RKIM: Oh, my dear Janan, my dear Janan! In my heart, I honestly believe that you love me. I could listen to you repeat these words to me until morning.
Râkım’s words moved Janan so much that she was about to melt. With her master already in her arms, she placed a passionate kiss on his eyes. Râkım nearly kissed her in return but timidly refrained:
RKIM: Janan, oh, Janan! I honestly feel jealous of myself. Oh God! Am I going insane or what?
It really came to the point where it wasn’t possible to discern whether Râkım was going insane. So much so that Janan felt scared. She helped Râkım sit on the sofa and sat herself down beside him. For a while they sat in silence and kept looking into each other’s faces. As their hearts were full to bursting, they almost couldn’t breathe.
Felâtun’s remarks about slaves crossed Râkım’s mind; however, his mind wasn’t strong enough to judge them, so he banished them from his mind, “Spare me, you fool! How could you know what is delightful in this world and how to enjoy it? You live like a slave with that flirtatious actress of yours!”
Râkım had been staring at Janan’s face for a couple of hours when he drifted off to sleep on the sofa. Janan wanted to rise and go to her bed. However, as Râkım had just fallen asleep, she didn’t have the heart to wake him up, and because the sofa was comfortable anyway, she remained there for a while, hungrily feasting her eyes on the face of her master, brother, lover, beloved, or whatever he was. Later, she rose and went to her bed with a heart filled with a thousand emotions.
The next morning, Râkım opened his eyes to find himself on the sofa and Janan sitting across from him. There was no change whatsoever in the girl’s gravity and dignity! She was still the same Janan! Such gravity and dignity!
What were you thinking? We kindly request that you not assume Janan to be an importunate hussy. She is an honorable, polite, well-mannered, kind, and understanding girl through and through. When Râkım saw his nanny’s smiling face, he realized that she knew about last night’s romance. Yes, Nanny knew about it. However, don’t think that Nanny was secretly watching or listening to them. No, esteemed readers, no! His nanny wasn’t one to stoop to such ignominy. Janan shared it with her, for Nanny was her mother, confidante, and everything in this world. Janan always told her about everything that took place between her and Râkım, and received advice on how to behave in front of her master, which she followed to the letter. Who do you think the source of such fine manners and behavior, behavior that drove Râkım insane with love, was in the first place? His nanny raised this boy; she knew his morals and manners thoroughly. She instructed Janan in exactly the comportment that would make Râkım love her, even if he hadn’t had feelings for her.
Râkım understood that his nanny knew about last night’s incident but she didn’t say a word to Râkım on that subject, so he didn’t talk about it either. She only reminded him that it was Monday and if they were planning to go to Kağıthane on Wednesday, they had to start preparing; Râkım agreed and his nanny got to work.
Râkım was busy at work all day and kept himself occupied with some translating at home in the evening, so he managed to get through the night without finding himself completely caught up in the intense ardor of the night before.
Josephine was due to come the next evening, so after taking care of some business and making some preparations of his own, Râkım went to Beyoğlu later in the day to fetch Josephine. He found her at home since she only left her house on the days she gave piano lessons and stayed in when she di
dn’t.
RKIM: Bonjour, my friend!
JOSEPHINE: Bonjour, Râkım!
RKIM: So, are you ready to go?
JOSEPHINE: Go where?
RKIM: To my place! Aren’t we going to Kağıthane tomorrow?
JOSEPHINE: Oh, are we going to Kağıthane from your place?
RKIM: We’ll spend the night at my place. You’ll stay with us. We’ll be on the sea very early tomorrow morning, even before sunrise. If we’re going to do something, let’s do it properly. Otherwise we’d miss out on the sunrise and the sunset. It’s the right time of the year to see both of them.
JOSEPHINE: It sounds really good! But you don’t have any place at your house for me to sleep, you crazy man!
RKIM: Don’t worry about that, my dear. I arranged everything.
JOSEPHINE: All right, all right! You sit for a bit. I’ll go get dressed.
Josephine stood up and went into another room to get dressed. Râkım sat and played around on the piano, and when Josephine finished dressing, they got going. They went down Posta Street to Postanebaşı, and by way of Tophane Avenue they gradually arrived in Salıpazarı. Janan saw Josephine as they entered the house and she ran to her with open arms. They kissed in greeting. Josephine also exchanged greetings with Nanny. Later Râkım, Josephine, and Janan settled in the living room. Nanny was busy getting things ready.
This evening was the first time Janan placed the rakı set on the sideboard in the living room. When Râkım offered Josephine the first glass, she again went on about how Istanbul’s rakı was one of the most delightful drinks in the world and how she preferred it to wine. Then she picked up her glass and drank. Râkım joined Josephine as well. As they started drinking together, Janan settled herself in front of the piano and began playing the melodies that she knew best, masterfully. Râkım didn’t get to see Janan playing the piano that often and was pleased with her talent. Moreover, he hadn’t been able to discern how good her French had become while tutoring her; but tonight after listening to her conversation with Josephine he was impressed at her proficiency.
Listening to Janan play the piano made Josephine even happier and she went and joined her. Oh my God! Josephine’s mastery of the piano was astonishing. You couldn’t possibly imagine someone pressing eighty or a hundred piano keys with ten fingers all at once! But this is exactly what Josephine managed to do; it seemed as though she had four hands with ten fingers each.
Felâtun Bey and Râkim Efendi Page 10