A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk
(Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık)
Translated By Ekin Oklap
This is the story of the life and daydreams of Mevlut Karatas, a seller of boza and yogurt. Born in 1957 on the western edge of Asia. page 3
Being the adventures and dreams of Mevlut Karatas, a seller of Boza, and of his friends, and also a portrait of life in Istanbul between 1969 and 2012 from many different points of view.
Part One ( Thursday, 17 June 1982)
"It is not customary for a younger daughter to be given away while her older sister remains unmarried."
-Ibrahim Şinasi, The Wedding of a Poet
“If there is a lie to be uttered, it will not remain unsaid; if there is blood to be spilled, it will not remain unshed; if you keep your daughter close, she will run away instead.
-Beyşehir proverb (From the Precinct of Imrenler)
He had no clear understanding of how he had been tricked, no memory of how he'd arrived at this moment, and so the strangeness in his mind became a part of the trap he had fallen into. page 10
part two (Wednesday, 30 March 1994)
Asians... let them feast and drink their fill of boza at a wedding or a funeral, and out will come their knives.
-Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time
Street vendors are the songbird of the streets, they are the life and soul of Istanbul. page 28
" You know what they say, never ask a woman her age, nor a man his salary." Page 31
Part Three ( September 1968-1982)
(The right-wing students being invariably religious, and the left-wing students invariably nationalist.) page 71
In a City, you can be alone in a crowd, and in fact what makes the city a city is that it lets you hide the strangeness in your mind inside its teeming multitudes. page 107
"You are not a real man until you have done your military service." Page 180
Part Four ( June 1982- March 1994)
"It shocked him to find in the outer world a trace of what he had dreamed till then a brutish and individual malady of his own mind."
-James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
... In a marriage, trust is more important than love, as we all know. Page 253
When I said, " Abdurrahman Efendi you've lived much longer than I have, and I'm sure you will know the answer to my question. What does a man live for?" Abdurrahman Efendi had sensed a while ago that our conversation tonight could potentially head into dangerous territory. so he spent a long time trying to find the most harmless answer he could think of. " For love, my son!" he said. "What else?" he taught again and said. " For friendship." And?" "For happiness. "For God and country ..."
"A man lives for his honor, Father!" I interrupted. Page 255
Mevlut saw that his cousin's eyes were telling him: "We're even now!" He pitied Suleiman, and in that moment he grasped the truth he'd been trying to ignore for two years: Süleyman had laid the trap that had tricked Mevlut into thinking that the girl with glimmering eyes was called Rayiha, not Samiha, If Süleyman had managed to marry Samiha as planned, they would have gone on pretending that no such trap had been set, and everyone would have been happy. page 262
" But let me remind you that the reason boza was so popular in Ottoman times was that they used to drink it instead of alcohol. page 269
it took a month before I realized that the more I swept the floor, the higher the ceiling got. page 279
Mevlut had been in Istanbul for twenty years. it was sad to see the old face of the city as he had come to know it disappears before his eyes, erased by new roads, demolition, buildings, billboards, shops, tunnels, and flyovers, but it was also gratifying to feel that someone out there was working to improve the city for his benefit. page 318
Women have no more control over their thoughts than over their dreams; and so these thoughts ramble through my head like nervous burglars in a pitch-black house. page 332
He was also reaching into the world inside his mind. because every time he shouted "Boo-zaa" he could feel the paintings in his mind emerging from his mouth like speech bubbles in a comic book before dissolving into the weary Streets like clouds. Every word was an object, and every object was a picture. he sensed, now, that the streets on which he sold Boza in the night and the universe in his mind were one and the same. Sometimes Mevlut thought he might be the only one to have ever discovered this remarkable truth, or perhaps it was a divine light that God had elected to bestow on him alone. When he came out of the café and went home in the evening feeling uneasy, and afterward walking into the night carrying his shoulder pole, he would discover the world within his soul reflected in the shadow of the city. page 363
the next day, the newspapers wrote that the Islamic party had won the elections in Istanbul, and Mevlut thought, if they're religions, they'll get rid of the table of the trunks eating on the pavement of Beyoglu, and then we'll have an easier time getting through, and people will buy more boza. page 375
Part Five ( March 1994 - September 2002)
"Every Word in Heaven is a reflection Of the heart's Intent."
Ibn Zerhani, The Hidden Meaning Of The Lost Mystery
"If these people ( Islamists ) take power, the first thing they'll do is ban the street vendors, just the way they did in Iran. They might even hang one or two like you." Page 390
"What I told you earlier were my public views. What I'm telling you now are my private views." page 411
"It is not about prayers or verses, but about your heart's intent," said the holy guide. "Boza seller, have you been doing anything recently that may have disturbed people's lives?" Page 458
Said the holy guide: "dogs can sense when a person doesn't belong among Us." page 458
In fact, as the Holy Guide always said, they were fundamental to our whole understanding of Islam. ( If our heart's intent is what matters most did, that mean that the most important thing about Mevlut's letters was that he'd meant them for Samiha?) But our faith taught that the intentions behind our words also had to be true. page 485
A man who has no intention of praying will never hear the call to prayer we only hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. page 486
Sometimes his fear of dogs would return, reignited l by his own imagination or by the barking of an actual dog standing beside the wall of a mosque, and suddenly it would hit him that he was completely alone in the world. page 509
"I wrote the letters to you, and I wrote them with love." said Mevlut. Even as he pronounced these words, he thought of how difficult it was to tell the truth and be sincere at the same time. page 533
Part Six ( Wednesday, 15 April 2009)
"No good will ever come of negotiation with family on a rainy day."
-Byron Pasha, Apologies and Ironies
Part Seven ( Thursday, 25 October 2012)
The form of a city
changes faster, alas! then the human heart.
-Baudelaire, "The Swan"
I can only meditate when I'm walking. when I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.
-Jean- Jacques, Rousseau, Confessions
"Boo-Zaa," he cried toward the empty streets. Page 580
As a child and a teenager, Mevlut had already understood that the cryptic things he noticed while walking on the street were fragments of his own mind. Back then, he had knowingly dreamed all these things up himself. in later years he began to feel that there was another power placing this throughout and dreams inside his mind. in the past few years, Mevlut had stopped seeing any difference at all between his fantasies and the things he saw on the street at night: It seemed as if they were all cut from the same cloth. page 581
"I will sell boza until the day the world ends, " Said Mevlut. page 584
Now he know what it was that he wanted to tell Istanbul and write on its walls. It was both his public and his private view; It was what his heart intended as much as what his words had always meant to say. He said it to himself: "I love Rayiha more than anything in this world." page 584
2008- 2014
معرفی کتاب شوری در سر, وب سایت طاقچه
A Strangeness in My Mind, Wikipedia
A public conversation with Erdağ Göknar and Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk is in conversation with Elliot Ackerman
Orhan Pamuk | A Strangeness in My Mind, Author Events
Introducing Orhan Pamuk's book "A Strangeness In My Mind" in persian
یادداشت هایی برای دخترم، ای سودا، چیز غریبی در سرم
چیز غریبی در سرم , اورهان پاموک , A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk
"A Strangeness in My Mind"
کتاب دیگری از اورهان پاموک بود که دیروز تمام کردم . بعد از خواندن چند کتاب از پاموک چرا من این کتاب را دوباره انتخاب کردم ؟
در یکی از مصاحبه های که از اورهان پاموک دیدم گفته بود بیشترین وقت و انرژی اش را برای نوشتن این کتاب گذاشته است. حدود شش از نویسندگی اش را از سال ۲۰۰۸- ۲۰۱۴. پاموک که که ۲۰۰۶ برنده جایزه ادبی نوبل شد بیشتر توجه ها را چه در ایران و چه در سایر کشورها به خودش جلب کرد.
قبلا چند کتاب از اورهان پاموک را خواندم و شنیده ام از جمله
جودت بیک و پسران
برای من کتاب نام من سرخ همچنان بهترین کتاب است که پاموک خواندم. این کتاب مثل اغلب کتابهای اورهان پاموک در ایران هم چاپ شده عنوان اصلی کتاب
Kafamda Bir Tuhaflk
است و در ایران با عناوین چون" شوری در سر" که آقای عین اله غریب ترجمه کرده و "چیز غریبی در سر" که آقای صابر حسینی ترجمه اش کرده.
یکی از دلایلی که اغلب ما در خواندن رمان بالاخص رمان های خارجی باهاش به مشکل بر می خوریم تعداد زیاد شخصیت های داستان است که غالباً این اسامی برای ما نا آشناست و گاها عجیب و طولانی و خواندن داستان را حداقل تا یک سوم کتاب برای ما سخت میکند . اورهان پاموک یک کار مناسبی کرده و در اول کتاب ششصد صفحه ایی آمده و یک
family tree
را گذاشته که به حل موضوع کمک می کند.
این کتاب در هفت فصل نوشته شده و فصل اول با این جمله از ابراهیم شیناسی شروع میشه و خواننده را شوک میده که چرا نویسنده همان اول کتاب خودش داستان را لو میده یا بقول آمریکایی ها سپویلد میکنه. اما با گذشت زمان متوجه می شویم که این موضوع نه این که اهمیت نداشته باشد اما اولویت اصلی در نگارش این کتاب نیست.
داستان از زبان شخصیت های مختلف کتاب بیان میشه ، بطور مثال فرار کردن رایحا با مولود از زبان رایحا ، مولود ، سلیمان که برای فرار آنها کمک میکند ، از زبان عبدالرحیم پدر رایحا از زبان خواهرانش وحیده و سمیحا و... بیان میشه. نمونه این کتاب که یک موضوع توسط شخصیت های مختلف کتاب بیان میشه سمفونی مردگان مرحوم عباس معروفی است.
داستان ویژگی پیچیده ایی ندارد و تقریبا یک داستان خطی است اما پاموک سعی کرده در انتهای هر بخش یک شوکی به داستان میدهد و خواننده کتابش را بدنبال خودش می کشد. در حالی که سیر داستان پیش میره . پاموک با زرنگی و شناختی که از خوانندگان داستانش دارد به اتفاقات جهان نیز اشاره می کند. به آمد خمینی یه ایران و نگرانی بخشی از مردم ترکیه به تبدیل شدن حکومت شان شبیه جکومت ابران ، رو بوس و ملاقات گورباچوف با ریگان، اتفاقات میدان تیانانمن و ...
موضوع داستان حول محور زندگی مولود فروشند بوزا , ماست و آیران ( دوغ) هست. بوزا که یک نوع نوشیدنی که ترک ها و مناطقی از شمال آفریقا و شرق اروپا نوشیدنی رایج است و از تخمیر گندم و ارزن دست میشه و بعنوان بعنوان یک نوشیدنی غیر الکلی شناخته میشه هر چند به جهت تخمیر مقدار بسیار کمی حدود یک درصد الکل دارد، پاموک با دست مایه قرار دادن زندگی مولود بعنوان دستفروش خیابانی به زندگی مردم فقیر و مهاجر استانبول می پردازد. مهاجرانی که از مناطق روستایی اناتولی و سواحل دریای سیاه به استانبول مهاجرت کرده اند و محله های فقیر نشینی را با عنوان
gecekondu
تشکیل داده اند . پاموک در دل این داستان به ویژگیهای انسانی و ساختارهای سیاسی و اجتماعی شهر استانبول را توصیف میکند.
در طول داستان اورهان روند تغییر شهر از جمله ساخت و ساز های شهری چون احداث پل جدید ، ساخته اتوبان ها و بلوارهای بزرگ و تخریب ساختمان های چوبی بی رنگ و نمایی که زمانی مولوت در آن خیابان های بوزا میفروخت اشاره می کند.
این کتاب در مورد استانبول است سرنوشت یک شهر در گذر زمان و در قالب داستانی از آدمها و شغل های که داشته اند. هر چند اورهان در کتاب استانبول به تفصیل به شرح این شهر و سرنوشت آن پرداخته است.
اینکه چگونه ارامنه و یونانیان آنجا میزیستند و همواره آثار معماری آنها یکی از شاخص های اصلی شهر استانبول هستش.
دعواهای پیدا و پنهان اما همیشگی سنی ها و علوی ها که گاه منجر به جنگ ها و اختلافات داخلی شده. و اخزاب سیاسی مختلفی که در ان کشور سر در آورده اند.
رقابت های دایمی ملی گرا و اسلام گرا که در ملاحظات پوش زنان غالباً نمود پیدا می کنند.
.بافت شهری و شهرسازی که بعد از چهل سال مناطق فقیرنشین غالبا یک طبقه ای تبدیل به آسمان خراش ها و مراکز تجاری و مال شده اند
رواج رشوه در ادارات دولتی ، رشد گروه های گانگستری و مافیایی که ناشی از فقر و پا در هوایی قشر جوان است
و نهابتا شرایط فروشندگان خیابانی و دوره گرد که با تغییر چهره شهرها از بین رفتند و یا به نوعی تفییر شکل داده اند تا ادامه پیدا کنند و حتی فراموشی شده اند و اورهان با این کتاب میخواهد به نوعی دین خودش را نسبت به این قشر از جامعه ادا کند و بدنبال حفظ میراث یک شغل .است که با آمدن امکانات مدرن و امروزی رو بفراموشی است
A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk , Notes for My Daughter, Isuda
