29 Mart 2019 Cuma

TNT Matchbox Diary: A Turkish POW in Russian Prison Camp (1915-1918)/Part XLII

//Ed. Note:  The routine continues in early September 1916
for Fuad Bey and his fellow inmates in Vetluga - language 
lessons and money matters.//


kibrit kutusundaki sarıkamış-sibirya günlükleri ile ilgili görsel sonucu


1 September 1916 Friday
I got up neither early nor late. The weather is nice. After morning tea 
Halis and I worked on German. Then Şerif came and we chatted. I read 
a story in a French book and he wrote the important parts. In the 
afternoon we had a French lesson. Later Halis and I went outside for
a walk. We looked around and watched the ferries that have come 
over the past couple of days and a motor boat cruising on the river. 
Although a lot of goods and sugar are coming to Vetluga these days 
the people, and especially the grocers, are selling sugar to us because
the city has put a price of 28 kopeks on sugar and the people don’t 
want to give it to us for less. They say ‘rather than the prisoners eating 
for less, we Russians will eat.’ Before dinner we had a German lesson. 
Kör Mehmet came just at this time and left because it was dinner time. 
At night Selahaddin nearly feinted while going to the toilet because he 
became ill. His unconsciousness lasted for quite a while. We put him 
in his bed right away and sprinkled water on him. We comforted him. 
Again tonight I awoke shaking in the face of news of a calamity I saw 
in a dream.

2 September 1916 Saturday
I got up a bit early. The weather is rather nice. In the afternoon we 
went to the Command to get our salary. I didn’t go because I couldn’t 
put my boot on as the result of the sore on my foot. Again, we got 
50 rubles each. I’ve gotten 240.5 rubles in total from the Russian 
Government. We don’t have any debts but since we need money for 
our daily lives, Halis and I wrote a note to Osman asking him to loan 
us some money. He lent us 25 rubles. Today I was mad at myself for 
giving that fool, scatterbrained Kazim, two rubles. Because although 
he’s up to his neck in debt he doesn’t think about giving money to 
table d’hote for food. He won’t give up extravagance and always 
wants to act like a big shot. May God set him straight. Today we 
didn’t study French but we had German at the regular time. Şerif 
came again and we chatted. This month we gave 15 rubles for table 
d’hote and one ruble each to the servants. I lent Salah a ruble. Salah 
went to the hospital but the illness he had last night has gone away. 
At night I sat for quite a while and went to bed late. Today Hikmet 
was very distraught over not having any money. I wanted to
console him myself, not because others would tell me to do so. But
 this time I wasn’t able to do it.

3 September 1916 Sunday
I got up rather early. It was dark outside. The weather is bad, fog 
everywhere, rain, storm, everything at once. There’s a coldness 
just like the coldness we feel in the dead of winter in our country. 
Today I wrote a new German notebook for myself. It’s a good was 
to keep myself busy. We had our French and German lessons at the 
appointed times. I’m making good progress in German. In late 
afternoon Şerif came and he paid me back the ten rubles he borrowed
from me two months ago. Without me knowing, Halis and Salah had 
an argument toward evening. I happened to look and see that Halis 
was down and out. I asked him why and with difficulty I was able to 
find out. I comforted him right away. Again in the evening Halis was 
lost in thought. I struggled but was able to console him and I advised
him not to feel bad with regard to silly thoughts generated because of 
the people he’s surrounded by in this environment. Ah, evil destiny! 
I wish you hadn’t bound me with iron chains.

4 September 1916 Monday
I woke up a bit late. After tea I went to the market by myself. Halis 
went to the bath. I bought a razor and cologne, along with some other 
things. When I got back I went to the bath right away and washed 
myself thoroughly. Again we weren’t able to have a French lesson. 
In mid-afternoon Şerif came. We studied the French book. We had 
our German lesson on time. We’re now getting down to basics, 
delving into the fine points. In the afternoon Halis went to the market 
and got material for a heavy shirt and some other cloth, along with a 
few other things. We gave Salah another five rubles today so he owes 
us a total of six rubles. We gave Captain Hakkı one ruble, too. We 
asked Tahir for 130 kopeks for today’s sugar. At night I wrote in the 
notebook and worked a bit. We chatted as well. This morning at the 
market Captain Hakkı stole something. I hadn’t noticed. He 
apparently took two packages of tobacco from the Tatar’s store but 
only paid for one of them. The Tatar’s son told this to Ethem and he
 to the Captain. He was found out and first denied it but then paid the 
money. What shameful things!

5 September 1916 Tuesday
The weather is bad, raining now and then. I worked until lunch time 
trying to turn Halis’s pants inside out. We decided not to have French 
lessons anymore. Hikmet objected but he was in the minority so he 
gave up. At mid-afternoon Halis went to the market and I went to the 
other side to write German. Today we got the tenses of the German 
verbs for to be. The cold is quite fierce. Even if the sun is shining 
during the day we can’t dress lightly and certainly not at night. Halis
bought some socks from the market. We gave the heavy cloth we 
bought to Captain Hakkı for him to sew it and he brought it to his 
house. Today Salah and Istanbul Hakkı fought about, probably, 
the table d’hote problem. They weren’t able to hit each other. Salah 
made some crude remarks and started to cry from nervousness. But 
he was in the wrong. Tonight for some reason I felt uncomfortable 
but it didn’t last long.

6 September 1916 Wednesday
The weather is bad but there’s no rain. I made Halis mad because 
of something I said without thinking. He wasn’t  right to get mad but 
neither was I. In any event, I was able to mollify him. The Captain 
sewed a heavy shirt from one of the printed cloths we gave him 
yesterday and the heavy cloth came, as well. The heavy shirt was 
nice but the sleeves were a little short. Today I tried to finish Halis’s 
pants. We had a German lesson today, too. Right now we’re working 
on the case endings, which are considered the soul of German. We 
haven’t got the hang of them yet. Today the old table d’hote 
committee resigned officially (probably over yesterday’s fight). Yes, 
that was it. Anyway, a new committee was elected – Burhan and 
Hikmet.

//END of PART XLII//

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