Below is an excerpt from the epistolary novel Scenes of Life (1898) by Fatma Aliye (1862–1936), translated by the Translation Attached Translators Collective and edited by Karolina Dejnicka, Nefise Kahraman, and Yasemin Gamze Mangal. Order your copy here to read more.
Fatma Aliye. From Atatürk Library Collection. Courtesy of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Directorate of Cultural Heritage, the Directorate of Libraries and Museums.
V
From Mehabe to Fehame
How delightful your letter is this time! It touches upon so many topics. Yes, darling, we can also exchange ideas through writing, just as we’re doing now. Since neither of us is fond of words spoken merely for the sake of speaking, we do not hesitate to tell each other when we disagree. This is indeed how our conversations once flowed. Only Rezin would be stubborn because he thought it unmanly to lose an argument. Yet, his dedication to the truth would eventually prevail and make him realize that true manliness lay in submitting to the truth. Our poor brother! Do you know what sort of complaint his wife made about him when she visited the other day? She wanted to go out for a kayık[1] ride under the moonlight and asked her husband to row. Nursing a cold, Rezin excused himself and suggested that she have the boatmen handle the kayık. This wounded her pride. She regarded the refusal as a sign of disrespect toward her and felt it unbecoming of someone who lived alafranga[2]. How can one consider going for a kayık ride when their husband is unwell? When she complained, I almost said, “Madam, how can you protest when you ought to have stayed at home with your husband that day out of duty and compassion?” But I chose to remain silent in front of this wicked woman. Pathetic! Yes! These kinds of people should be called pathetic, so very pathetic! She is one of those who misunderstand what alafranga entails.
Let us return to what we were discussing. My first objection concerns what you wrote at the end of your letter. Why would you hide and lock away the letter you wrote to me before your husband came to prevent him from seeing it? On the contrary, you should have left it out. He should have seen the reflection of the heart that he has mistreated! He should have understood the wounds he inflicted, and heard the cries and groans. He should have seen how his small actions led to great troubles. Fehame, there are some individuals who, even at the age of sixty, remain like children and still need guidance. Such people deserve pity rather than offense. One should remind them of the things that will heal and awaken them and should not hesitate to offer detailed explanations. But you might say, “I am a woman; am I to advise him when he is meant to guide and protect me? What do we make of a man who has been given the reins to guide me, but is still in need of my guidance?” Yes, but you have no right to say, “I am this way despite being a woman, so why aren’t men as they ought to be, even though they are men?” You should be grateful to the Almighty for having created you so flawlessly.
When it comes to love and passion, my dear, you think about them strictly in material terms. It is clear that you perceive love only as an affliction. Yes, there is sickness in love. But is love only sickness? This requires further contemplation, my dear sister. There, the painting in front of me! Remember “Amor,” the fairy of love, whose wings we once tried to touch by climbing on the sofa? See how everything we could not express in countless lines is gathered into a single scene, and how methodically and meaningfully it has been depicted? Yes, there is sickness. After all, the poor child is depicted as a sickly child. But there is also childlikeness! A blind child shoots the arrows! Thus, there is an element of chance as well. “Childlikeness, blindness, chance!” One must look at the painting closely. The blind child shoots madly, even though he can’t see. So there is madness, too! You could say, isn’t madness an illness? Doesn’t it come down to materiality? Not entirely. I find it impossible to reduce love to mere materiality, stripping it of its spiritual essence. I cannot compare it, as you did, to diseases that can be traced back to microbes. True, science achieves great things, yet it trembles in the face of spirituality.
(…)
[1] A name for a small, light boat with a long, sharp bow that was historically used for fishing and for pleasure. While the fishing vessels were larger and could also have sails in addition to oars, those used for recreation were small skiffs and were typically rowed by one person. In the late Ottoman period, taking one of these small skiffs out on the Bosphorus was a popular activity.
[2] Derived from the Italian alla franca, literally meaning “in the French way” and denoting an adoption of European customs and style. Against the backdrop of broader modernization and Westernization efforts across the late Ottoman Empire, embracing a more European way of life that included everything from dressing in accordance with European fashions to speaking in French was in vogue among the upper classes.
translation attached 