continue apace. And his friends' flirtations with the local
Russian girls - and Fuad Bey's drafting of the letters to
them in French - continue, as well.//
7 September 1916 Thursday
I got up a bit late. The weather is nice.
We chatted a bit, saying
comforting words to each other to relieve the distress that sometimes
arises. In the afternoon Saffet and I went to the other side to see
Eskişehirli Hakkı. We wrote some
German. I stopped by to see Şerif.
Then we spoke with a German in that house named Smith in
French.
Upon my request, he said that he would be able to write the German
equivalents of French
sentences. Today I finished Halis’s pants but I
don’t think he was all that pleased. Again we
read German (we had a
lesson). Tonight once again I became sad for some unknown reason.
I
experienced some very affecting moments deep in sadness. I went
to bed early. Early in the
morning the Captain’s son brought a chicken
to the room. While everyone was sleeping the
chicken began to
squawk, which I found comical. I had a good laugh.
8 September 1916 Friday
I got up early this morning. The weather is
quite nice. The sky is
cloudless. In the afternoon I sent some French words and sentences
over
to the German prisoner to get the German equivalents. He’s a 20
year old Gimnazya
(Sultaniye School – Galatasaray) student evidently.
Today I took apart the government-issue
pants on my foot and reversed
them. In the afternoon Şerif came and we read the French book. At
mid-afternoon the weather got bad and it rained. Before dinner the
French notebook I had
sent over to the other side came back. He wrote
the German equivalents. I’ll work on them with
increased interest. We
had a new lesson in German today. At night I had some strange dreams.
But I didn’t recall whether I spoke with my father. Today I had some
minor depressions but I
was able to overcome them. Our conversations
are boring.
9 September 1916 Saturday
The weather is bad, it rained a few times.
I finished the pants I started
yesterday and put them on. In the afternoon Saffet and I went to
the run
-down house and wrote some German words we got from the German
fellow. This evening
we learned a few new German verbs. Distress
again today. I was affected by a feeling of
hate for my environment.
Someone is for you, someone against you, someone’s your friend and
someone unknown is your enemy. God save me and give me life in a
good place…the things, these
distresses, are all due to the problems of
our early upbringing.
10 September 1916 Sunday
Morning came. A dream woke me up. In the
dream I was having a
terrible fight with Salah. The reason was something bad he said about
me.
In the morning while Halis and I were working on our lessons
everywhere was under the effect
of some very cold morning air.
Just then Hikmet opened the window while the other fellows
were
sleeping to wave to a Russian girl who was passing by. The others
told Hikmet to close
the window and Halis said so, as well. Hikmet
got mad at Halis, seemingly considering him the
ringleader, and said
‘what’s it to you? Are you one to talk?’ Of course, Halis resisted and
they had a shouting match. Right away I closed
the window and the
problem was solved. At this
time I stuck my head up in the air all of
a sudden and smiled. Halis surmised that I had done
this on purpose
or that what he did looked bad so he became angry, thinking that even
his
closest friend was laughing at him. He felt badly and cried. This
affected me too and I explained to him
what had really happened,
trying to console him. Hikmet is a heartless man. He’s married,
too,
with children back at home. How shameless for him to court a Russian
girl…we had a German
lesson again. I went to bed late.
11 September 1916 Monday
I got up early. The weather is neither good
nor bad. Long before the
evening meal I wrote some words to the German prisoner (John). We
didn’t have a new lesson in German today because Süleyman was sick.
We did some jumping
around in the garden this morning and played.
After dinner I felt bloated in my stomach and lay
down on my bed. I
remained this way until bedtime. This evening Arap Hamid and Cemil
Bazergan,
who had gone to the provincial capital, came back.
Hamid settled in our house and the other
one went to the house next
door (Adalfinski).
Ferries are Coming to Vetluga
12 September 1916 Tuesday
The weather was nice in the morning. Toward
mid-afternoon it went
bad. Rather heavy rain and it got cold outside. In the afternoon Halis
and I went to the riverbank and walked a bit. We had a new German
lesson today. We’re making
progress. I went to bed late at night.
Zühdü and I had a talk. He explained clearly why he had
not come to
Süleyman’s German lesson. I found his position to be right. At night
Kazim
wrote me a long letter in which he asked me to explain my
feelings to him about drafting his
letters. Once again I agreed to do
it. I couldn’t refuse him. Ferries are again coming to Vetluga.
13 September 1916 Wednesday
I got up a bit late. After drinking tea I
tried to write German book type
settings in my notebook. I went downstairs and memorized words.
The
weather is bad. It drizzled a couple of times. Today we looked at
the German noun plurals. While
walking in the garden I got hungry
and cold. In the evening I felt a weariness in my body.
After the
evening meal I lay down for three hours. At this time the Commander
came so we all got up. I
felt a little better and didn’t lay down again
until bedtime. The Commander was pleasant. He
told us a few things
and said that another 25 officers would come to Vetluga. Everyone
will stay
in the house they’re in now.
News: fierce fighting in Galcia and Oğvid. The allies want to occupy
the Balkans and with the Bulgarians separate the Turks from the
Germans. This way they can
join up with the Russians. The Captain
to whom we gave the material for the heavy shirt sewed
it and brought it.
The same with the underwear. In the morning I drafted a French letter for
Kazim. Later I got the draft and ripped it up. Kör Mehmet came in mid-
afternoon. He rubbed iodine on
his face. He talked as though he and I
had been friends for 40 years. In a comical way we greeted
each other
and ?left in debt?. But he’s a jealous, crude man. Tonight Süleyman
tried to go to a
Russian girl’s house. According to rumor, he went and
came but was caught in the other
(prisoners’) house. He was ashamed.
I felt great regret about this.
14 September 1916 Thursday
The weather is bad. It rained a bit. We had
a new German lesson. Today
passed uneventfully. I thought about the past tonight and felt
sad.
//END of PART XLIII//
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