I am listening to İstanbul

While I was browsing the net I came across with a beautiful translation of a poem written by the famous Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanik. I can easily say that it is one of my favorite poems and tells the living spirit of İstanbul with wonderful words.

And I took this photo of the man right at the Bosphorus. His little basket was full of small snacks. He was probably trying to sell them to make the ends meet. His strong and fixated gaze affected me so much. He was most probably thinking the hard times he was facing, but I like to think that he was also listening İstanbul..

I AM LISTENING TO ISTANBUL

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;

At first there blows a gentle breeze

And the leaves on the trees

Softly flutter or sway;

Out there, far away,

The bells of water carriers incessantly ring;

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;

Then suddenly birds fly by,

Flocks of birds, high up, in a hue and cry

While nets are drawn in the fishing grounds

And a woman's feet begin to dabble in the water.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

The Grand Bazaar is serene and cool,

A hubbub at the hub of the market,

Mosque yards are brimful of pigeons,

At the docks while hammers bang and clang

Spring winds bear the smell of sweat;

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;

Still giddy since bygone bacchanals,

A seaside mansion with dingy boathouses is fast asleep,

Amid the din and drone of southern winds, reposed,

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

Now a dainty girl walks by on the sidewalk:

Cusswords, tunes and songs, malapert remarks;

Something falls on the ground out of her hand,

It's a rose I guess.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed;

A bird flutters round your skirt;

I know your brow is moist with sweat

And your lips are wet.

A silver moon rises beyond the pine trees:

I can sense it all in your heart's throbbing.

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed.

Orhan Veli Kanik (1914-1950)

Translated by Talat Sait Halman (1982)

Archaic Statues

When I look back at my university years, I now realize that learning new stuff was only a duty for me. I had to get good grades, graduate from the university and start working. OK, I admit that I had so much fun at that time but learning was not definitely on my fun list.

I think I started to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of learning new things after 30 and since then I am always seeking new seminars and classes. Thru the years my main interest areas developed in history of arts and history of religions. Since September, I started to take archaeolgy and history of arts classes at a nearbt private art academy. Nowadays I am learning so many new and astonishing things and I am enjoying it immensly.

To give you an example, I learned to appreciate the beauty of archaic sculptures. I have been to Istanbul Archaeology Museum several times, but these sculptures never really took my attention. After seeing so many photos of them at the class, I had to see the real deal myself. So on of the last days of 2009,hubby and I made the last excursion of the year. Our aim was to see the statues of the archaic period (7th-6th cc BC)

In this period monumental statues were made for the first time in place of the small figurines produced in the preceeding ages. These statues are called Kore ( dressed female) and Kouros (naked male) As they are very rare, they are among the most valuable assets of museums, and to find a complete one is a difficult issue. There are probably only a dozen in the world

Unfortunately there is not a complete Kuros or a Kore in Istanbul,but the kouros head displayed was a masterpiece of its time. Its really something fabulous. If you wonder what happened to the rest of his body, we are lucky to know that it did not disseapear in the dark corridors of history but found himself a home in the Samos Museum.

Here are some very simple tips for you to identify these statues.

- Frontal upright stance with the body weight balanced on the feet.

-Calm smile on the lips

-Almond shaped eyes

-Beaded style hairs.

I learned that there are two complete Kouros statues in Turkey, one in İzmir, one in Bergama. I am intending to go and see them this coming summer but in the meantime,to give you an idea here is one from Athens..

Happy 2010

Yes we made it...Finally we are at 2010.. I hope it will be a wonderful year and brings peace and happiness to everbody.

Last night we celebrated the coming of the new year with a special dinner at home then made a midnight tour at the park ( Hera's new year gift) and watched the beautiful full moon. It was a beautiful night, the weather was mild and park was quiet. Hubby and I talked about the passing year and remembered the wonderful times we experienced and promised to make this year the best year of our lives whatever it brings.

Now I am having a quiet morning at home. Green tea, and the new journal..I already wrote 45 items (equivalent of my age) that I am grateful in my life in the first pages of my journal. I love reading them. Always reminds me that I am OK...

Now I gave a break to write this post..Later I am planning to write my goals and probably make the first collage of 2010. My journals are full of favorite quotes and collages apart from the daily entries. I wonder how I fill the empty pages....

My 1st Christmas

As you may know, majority of the population do not celebrate Christmas here. Well, we like to celebrate the coming of the new year with big dinners or parties with family and friends but this is not the topic of this post.

I think I wrote before that once I was an exchange student and I had the chance to spent a wonderful year with the Walker family of Keyser - West Virginia. Being 17 and spending a year abroad. Oh, it was such a big growing experience, and since those days I always feel that they are my second family.

So I spent my very first Christmas with the Walkers. Decorating a tree, lots of gifts and being with the whole Walkers was such a big treat for me. So here is a photo of the young Aysegul on her first Christmas morning.( sitting second from the right)
Dad - Bill Walker who was holding the Snoopy on top of my head had passed away years ago, and Mom Emma Walker was not in this photo because she was taking it. Isnt it a great photo from December 24,1981 ???

Well, apart from Dad the Walker clan is still around and here is latest photo of them..

I miss you guys a lot and Merry Christmas to you all and all my friends from Keyser. ( Especially you Gary!!)

Also another big MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my Christmas celebrating blog friends...

Van

I see and envy all the snowy pictures on the blogs of this side of the world. As of today we still do not have any snow, not a bit. As I also want to post some snow photos, here is an old post for you. I wrote this piece for another blog after my 2 weeks long travel on the Southeastern part of Turkey.Year was 2007.

''In the second half of April I went to southeastern Turkey that is also part of ancient Mesopotamia. When we left the house very early on April 20 to catch the Van airplane, there was a warm and bright air in Istanbul. After two hours, when we landed at Van, I was shivering. The weather was really cold.

Van museum that is displaying the important Urartian artifacts was closed due to renovation and no body knew when it would be opened again. So we went to the Van castle that was built by the Urartian King of Sardur the 1. It was almost noon and the weather was just freezing. I put on my hat and gloves that I did not have the chance to use in Istanbul during winter and tried to remember the Van of 20 years ago, when I visited right after my graduation from the university. There was no park arrangement around the castle at that time and I think there were more children around. The children I photographed at that time might have their own child right now.

After visiting Kaya Çelebi mosque and Hüsrev Pasha Külliyesi, which look like two identical buildings from the castle, we returned to the city. Restoration works were done at both mosques. After lunch we hit the internationally named bazaars of the city and finally it was started to snow. Ironically Iran, Russia, Japan and Europe bazaars were crowded with Chinese and Indian goods, you could find some interesting stuff if you could dig the stalls long enough.

In the afternoon we went to the food markets in order to taste Van. Although they are only mentioning cheese in the name of the Grand Cheese Makers Market, shops selling viscera occupied almost half the market. After viewing the heads, legs, brains and tongues that were displayed on the stalls in neat ways, we purchased the famous cheese of Van prepared with different herbs. After buying warm flat bread from the Küçük Yıldız Pide Fırını, we ate them at the coffee house of İzzet with hot tea. They were just delicious. When we heard that the honey of the honey producer Behçet is worth tasting, we also found his store and bought a jar of honey.

When we took a minibus to go to our hotel located near the Lake Van, the ladies I chatted at the bus told that this weather was also a surprise for them as they also had a very mild winter. After the snow and the hard wind during night, I was almost sure that we would not be able to make our trip to the island of Akdamar on the lake. But the morning of April 21 welcomed us with a bright and sunny day on a blue lake, although everywhere was covered with snow. The snow we did not have the chance to see whole winter in Istanbul was just in front of us with all its beauty.

As there was no other group visiting the island and the 10th century Armenian church of Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross that was restored and reopened at the beginning of April, we had all the chance to enjoy the island, castle and the beautiful weather. The church was built between the years 915-921 by architect monk Manuel during the reign of the Vaspurakan King Gagik the 1. When I look at the photographs of the church that I took 20 years ago the difference between today and the time with its partly ruined roof covered with weed was quite striking. But this time I spent more time taking the pictures of snow covered almond tree flowers.

While we were traveling near the lake towards Ahlat where we were going to spend the night, the triplets of sun, snow and lake were with us showing their most beautiful faces all the way. When we reached Ahlat where the largest Seljuk cemetery from 11-12th century located, snow only remained on the tops of the far away mountains.

A night at home

Hubby is out of town and the puppy is in a deep sleep after her dinner. It was chicken purina and water for her and a glass of wine and avocado for me. It was a quiet and peaceful night. I am listening music ( incredible Fazil Say on the piona) and playing with the camera..

I love my house. I feel safe ,secure and happy here..I think its extremly important to create a surrounding like that.

Well, actually I was planning to introduce a Turkish painter on this post but somehow I couldnt find a photo of him. On my birthday my mother took me to his studio and asked me choose one of his paintings. Mr. Feridun Ugur is quite well known here and his second country Holland with his water colors.He is painting big and vibrant flowers. However I decided to go with a rather daring one. A nude.
I dont know what you think about it but we really enjoy having her in our living room. On the other side of the room we have another painting from him. A donkey painted in oil. Do you think that we have a rather strange taste???

Well, the leaf on the nude and the leaves and berries around the candle are the todays find of our excursion at the park with Hera. She will probably eat the berries tonight while I am sleeping but for now they are still OK. I am in the habit of putting autumn leaves every where in the house in this season. I think they are too good to throw into the garbage once they fell out of the tree. I wish you a peaceful night,too. Or day, if you are on the other side of the world..:))

Fish Could Skip

When you are traveling on the raod from Datça to Marmaris that is full of steep curves, after a while you will reach to a very special point, a narrow istmus, where Mediterranean and Aegean seas are so close to each other as if they are trying to touch. This narrow istmus where the Datça peninsula starts is called Balıkaşıran (where the fish could skip) At this point, you will see Mediterranean stands on your right and Aegean on your left. I don’t know if the Mediterranean fishes jump to Aegean, and Aegean fishes jump to Mediterranean in the dark hours when we humans don’t see them, but they surely give a nice name to this spot.

According to Herodotus,during the Persian invasion in 540 BC, the Knidians wanted to dig a canal at this spot in order to separate their land from the main land, and transform their teritory to an island for defensive measures. But an oracle was consulted who reportedly said "If the gods had so willed, they would have made your land an island. Do not pierce the isthmus." Where upon they surrendered to the Persians.

This place is about 30 km away from my house and I am trying to take a decent photo of it for as long as I have been in Datca. Unfortunately I have never able catch a clear day. This is the most recent one, on our way to İstanbul last week.