fellow inmates but routine camp life essentially goes on.//
Years later, the book on long-distance telephone
circuits that Fuad Bey would author.
8 November 1916
Wednesday
The weather is
clear. Nice. Our allies have taken Bucharest…this is very
good…this will result
in many prisoners being
taken and lots of
provisions and ammunition will be collected…many things will
happen…toward noon
Şerif passed by the door and visited us. He
wanted a loan and I gave him ten rubles. The
Commander came at
lunchtime and inspected. Then he left. Zühdü was released
from the hospital
today and came home. The place where the boil
was has not yet healed but he’s not in pain.
At night Franz and I worked
on German and French.
9 November
1916 Thursday
The weather is
nice. Not a cloud in the sky. News: our forces are
attacking. Again, another regrettable
incident: we had finished lunch
and were shaving. A number of fellows were
walking around below.
Others had gone to the hospital. We heard a noise in the big room. We
figured that two fellows
were roughhousing and didn’t think anything of
it. But it increased so we listened. It
didn’t sound like joking. I stopped
shaving, went in and saw that Mustafa and
Hurşid were having quite
a
fight. They were cursing at each other so fiercely it would make a person
blush because
there were the harshest curse words. I separated them
twice and wouldn’t let them at each
other. But then they clashed for a
third time and I stepped between them again. I nearly
got hit in the
mouth with one or two chairs. At this point an arm pulled me
away
from the two of
them. But they separated anyway. The one who had
pulled me away was Halis, who said to me
‘what are you doing? Your
duty? You’ll be crushed for nothing.’ And he held me back. I went
back
to shaving but a bit later they started fighting again. Then Çerkes
Mehmet came in and said to
them ‘aren’t you ashamed! And you’re to
be officers! Porters don’t even do what you’ve done. Mannerless
animals!’ The fighters were chastened
and calmed down…Çerkes
Mehmet acted as though he
would tell the Russian ustarşi (supervisor)
and inform on them. I was very sad about all this.
We’re always being
embarrassed in front of the Russians. Damn these things! We
had
a new German
lesson today. At night Franz corrected some German
I wrote.
10 November 1916
Friday
The weather is
rather nice. News: the Russians have supposedly scattered
our army in the Ogund area. But this had
been erased, censured in the
papers. Perhaps it’s not in their favor. They’ve advanced from
Dobruca
to fifty kilometers away from the Russian front. The Romanians are
retreating to
Russian territory. The newspapers concede that the Russian
left flank is in
danger and that the Russians
cannot bring troops from other
fronts. The French have lost a number of positions…today
money was
collected to make up the shortfall that resulted from some people
not participating
and from others’ miserliness in the project to get a
samovar so a lot of people could have tea to
drink. Each person’s share
was 43
kopeks. After this we each gave another 20 kopeks so we would
have tea to drink until the end of the month. We won’t use chits anymore.
Yesterday we got
two funts (24 oz./820 grams) of sugar at a cost of two
rubles per funt. In mid-afternoon I
started to think about this and that. I
realized how unlucky I am. Because I’m constantly being
crushed and
pained during these past four or five years of calamities. I want
to be saved but
there’s no one to protect me. Would that my beloved
father could rescue me but they want to hurt
and crush the poor fellow.
And my poor mother! She’s mixed day with night, she’s thinking,
crying.
And look at my situation. Prisoner, unknown, a life in darkness…
Dear
God save me! I saw my
cousin Mesrur in a dream tonight. He told
me that Ekrem had died, my father had disappeared
and my mother had
gone mad. I felt very bad…
11 November 1916
Saturday
The dream I had at
night really shook me up. I thought a bit. But I really
don’t believe in such dreams. I told
Halis and Zühdü about it. May God
grant peace soon so we’re reunited with our families. We had a
new
German lesson. After the evening meal we sang songs and Ethem was
singing too but he
was singing differently, making a mess of the song.
It seems that Ethem wanted to give the song a
different meaning and sow
mischief. I didn’t realize it, though. What a jerk!
Halis and I chatted at
length at night, in particular about the heaviness and coldness between us
these days and we
resolved to forget them forever. In any event, these
things don’t result from deliberate anger we have
toward one another but
rather from the aggravations of our environment. From
now on we won’t
leave
each other in the lurch, nor abandon each other. Whatever our
failings, we
agreed to keep this
promise. Then we went to bed. The
weather is completely overcast, dark.
12 November 1916
Sunday
I had a heavy cold
when I got up in the morning. Additionally, I had a
pretty significant cold
too. Right after lunch I lay
down and although I
went to bed early in the evening I couldn’t sleep. I tried
to sweat.
Poor dear Halis
found some ginger after dinner and boiled it. He had me
drink it and it had a
good effect. I
perspired quite a bit but because I went
outside to relieve myself while I was
sweating I felt badly. News: our
forces are still on the attack. The
French have taken over the Greeks’ ships
and plant their own flag on
them. Russian writers are angry as they admit
Russian defeats and are urging the pro-war government
to think about the
consequences as it acts, as they scold the government for its mistakes.
The
weather is cloudy. There’s a thin layer of snow on the ground.
13 November 1916
Monday
When I awoke in
the morning I noticed that the cough had eased
somewhat. But when I breathe
there’s still a grating
sound. As soon as
I got up I went to the hospital with Zühdü and Saffet. An
elderly doctor
examined me and
gave me a prescription. We came back but I can’t sleep
during the day. I got
the prescription from
the pharmacy – cough powder.
Today we had our 36th German lesson.
News: the Kingdom of Poland
has
been formed and a king will be chosen in a few days (accession to the
throne ceremony)…Halis
and I commiserated and argued. As the result of
a misunderstanding, I told
Halis to reject something
that had been
proposed to him. In fact, I insisted that he reject it. As it
turned out, there
was a misunderstanding.
It seems that I’ve got an obsession about some
people here that I hate. Since he is
my friend, I don’t like Halis talking
with these fellows I hate. It bothers me.
Halis said he would put my
mind
at ease…Halis bears no fault in this…my childhood…baseless things.
The
weather is cloudy, there’s
quite a bit of snow on the ground.
14 November 1916
Tuesday
The weather is
cloudy. Quite a bit of snow all around. News: three people
were slain in the
uprising in Moscow and it has
spread to other big cities
like Harkuf. I’m quite out of sorts today. The
reason is my closest friend
Halis. During our argument last evening, while expressing myself I was a
bit
rude in my statements and I
evidently used some very strong language
(I was unaware of it). He got quite
angry. In fact, his blood
was boiling.
When I got up in the morning Halis was in bed as if he were sick,
with a
sad face. I wasn’t
listening to what I said and didn’t respond. This attitude
and the effect it
has on others around us
really bothers me. I got mad, too,
and in the evening I said ‘let’s talk
frankly about everything after
dinner
and settle things.’ I said to him ‘my dear, do you love me? Do you hate
me? Do you want to talk
with me forever or be cross with me forever?’
In response he said that he still
had the same love and
affection for me
and still cares for me. So I said ‘then we love each other so
let’s avoid
doing things
the other doesn’t like. Let’s refrain from doing anything the
other doesn’t
want to do. Really, we’ll
live a lot more happily if we
always act the same way.’ He agreed with this
completely. We discussed
a few
more things related to this and reinvigorated our friendship.
//END of PART LIII//
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