the Austrian private Franz, reports more war news and
enters into a long self-discourse about his plight and the
hope that it might prepare him for a brighter future
(it did).//
11 December 1916
Monday
Cloudy again. Very
cold. News: Greece’s situation is very tight. Turkish
troops have taken a few important hills in
Iran. Tahir, Nuri, Osman,
Şerif, Sadık and Hüseyin Ağa from the other house
came for a visit. We
bought a portable mirror, a notebook and three yards of towel cloth from
the
market. Halis had quite a
time working with the edges of the cloth.
I had a shave. Tonight only I studied
German. I worked on the
German
words that Uzun Hakkı sent. We chatted amongst ourselves. Halis and I
talked about our
environment (Turkey’s envioronment) and what’s wrong
with it.
12 December 1916
Tuesday
The weather is
overcast. Snow is falling now and then. News: Apparently
the French Parliament
has decided to continue
the war. Bucharest has
fallen for sure. On the Manastir front there’s a German offensive and
around Siroz the Turks and the English are going head to head. A French
battleship went out for an
inspection and didn’t return…today Halis
brought the cloth he bought the other
day but he didn’t have
the shirt
cloth sewn. The shirt is for me, the cloth for him. The shirt was
sewn
well but the cloth
was too long and big so we decided to shorten it.
The laundry came without having been
washed. At night we changed
our laundry.
13 December 1916
Wednesday
The sky is cloudy.
Light snow is falling…we worked on lessons a bit
during the day. Later, I tried
to sew the cuffs of
the cloth that came
yesterday. Halis worked seriously on his lessons today,
which made me
very
happy. Because Franz didn’t come at night we worked on a few
sentences. Halis
and I talked again at
night. I asked him why he’s
avoiding Zühdü with whom he used to kid around each day. I asked
Zühdü
too but he didn’t say anything. Halis said that he hasn’t liked
Zühdü for a long
time and the feeling is
mutual. But he had said this
to me once before. His words and actions don’t
match. Who knows,
maybe
they had a fight.
14 December 1916
Thursday
The weather is
overcast. Quite cold too. In the afternoon eight of us
went visiting – two to
Malaşova, two to Lebedof and four to
Adlizewsky. We talked with Hakkı
and Şerif and then with Osman. I
gave Hakkı a few German
words. When we returned we heard this news:
there will be new soldiers at Yaroslav. The mujiks
have risen up and
murdered the commander and all the officers there. Tonight we had
Franz
correct the many letters we’ve written and we practiced some more.
Halis and I
chatted again at night. I
told him that I had complete trust and
faith in him and that our friendship is
forever. I advised him to
live
happily from now on. Really, I felt badly that up to now I have made him
worry about some things.
15 December 1916
Friday
The weather is
overcast. Cold. During the day I wrote in my notebook a
bit and finished the
leg of the longjohn. In
the afternoon four of the
fellows who arrived most recently came to our house.
News: a military
writer
says the following: right now there are a few million soldiers ?under
the
machine?. This has reduced the
front from 800 verst (853.5
kilometers)
to 200 verst. A new situation will be created here and when a
sufficiently large force leaves for there it will march to the Balkans where
it
will expel English General Herail.
Right now there are two million
equipped soldiers in German military drilling
grounds. If the war
continues,
there will be quite a storm in Russia’s west in the Spring. A
solution for
this must be found now. Our
allies must henceforth help us…the
Romanian King’s brother has been appointed governor of Bucharest.
Lots of refugees have gone from Romania to Russia. The Russian
Government can only give them
one million boots…again, the writer
says ‘Russian cannot feed itself, how can
it look after refugees?’
We
had a German lesson from Franz tonight.
16 December 1916 Saturday
The weather is
like every other day. News: there will be a meeting in
Berlin, at which all of
the German government’s
princes and kings, the
ambassadors of neutral countries and a representative
from each of the
allies will
attend. At this gathering the German Prime Minister will say
‘we have put
forward quite a few
conditions for peace. In fact, we’ve
adjusted some of them somewhat. Up to now
they haven’t been
accepted.
If the modified conditions are not accepted this time and the war
goes on
then the
responsibility that arises from this belongs to the Allied Powers.’
Some other
things…Şerif came in the
morning. We sat for quite a while
and we talked. I wasn’t able to do a lot of
work. Anyway, we had no
lesson
tonight. After doing a couple of things I went to bed earlier than
usual,
before midnight. These
days the daylight is quite a bit shorter and
the nights are longer. In the
evening the sun sets a bit
after three thirty
and rises at eight in the morning. This means tha daylight lasts
six or
seven hours.
The weather is
different than other days: pleasant, cloudless, sunny but
there’s bitter cold.
As small piece of spit
freezes before it hits the ground.
News: the German Prime Minister said in the Reichstag that
‘again we
are making a peace proposal to our enemies. We’re close to victory.
We’ve adjusted our conditions compared to what they were. If
they
accept we’ll make peace. If they want war we’re prepared.
We want to
do a service to humanity. Because the entire world is in grief.’ All
the German dukes
and the ambassadors of our allies were present at the
Reichstag. Afterwards, the four allied
governments sent separate notes in
this regard to the Pope for him to pass
along to the enemies. Each
one of
the enemies responded separately and decided to continue the war…
in the afternoon
we went to visit the Adelfinski house. Then we went for
a stroll outside. We
went as far as the
riverbank and walked around in the
park there, watching the ice skating Russians.
We read German a bit
with
Franz at night. I showed him some French. I had a mixed-up dream at
night in which I
was able to recognize my father, mother and brother.
Then Çerkes Mehmet, acting like he was
a commander, struck Halis and
Salah. He was about to do the same thing to me but I escaped.
What’s the
use, I can’t escape. I woke up at this point.
18 December 1916
Monday
The weather is
overcast. Anymore we’re aggravated. I don’t know, when
will this imprisonment end? When will there be peace and when will we
be
able to meet with our families, about whom we know nothing?
Or will
we meet them in eternity? Please God, save me. Bring happiness to all
of crying and
grieving mankind. Ah…my minutes as a youth are passing.
Still among a thousand torments and
thousands of different thought I’m
being crushed. Sometimes I’m all alone among the clouds of
tragedy
collapsing over me and I’m disappearing. Wherever I look (or go)
there’s
an emptiness in
front of me. Whatever I think, I see nothing but vexation
in my path. It seems probable that my
life will remain under a thousand
torments. My hope, my every desire, is dependent on what
my arms can
bear and the attitude of determination to sustain my existence and for
life
not yet ravaged. The thought of being alone is tossing me about! My
desire, in
particular, is for happiness for myself and to do something
worthwhile for my
beloved nation in the
future. I’ll strive for this all by
myself. But if there’s not the slightest
help, will fortune show me a
helper? Otherwise, instead of help
will it open doors to sadness and
tragedy? It seems that all
me desires will be eclipsed. I don’t know, I
don’t know. There’s not a minute that passes that I
don’t feel like life is
being crushed out of me. Because anymore the minutes of youth are
fading away and I’m continually affected by the as yet unknown
calamities that
await me. But I’m
maintaining my resistance and
consoling myself with the hope that these painful days are preparing
me for a bright future.
//END of PART LVII//
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