[Kitap] Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

"Sözcüklerin, kutsal metinlerin 'büyüsü', Tanrı'ya yakarırken, şefaat dilerken anlamını bilmediği sözcükleri mırıldanmaya alışmış ülkemiz insanına yabancı değildir. Kadim çağlardan gelen, çoğunluk dinsel içerikli, bazıları nasihat ve dünya tasavvurlarından oluşan yazılı metinlerin evin baş köşesinde özenle saklanması, hatta muska niyetine kullanılması Anadolu'da süre giden yaygın geleneklerinden biridir. Bu kitabın farklı bir özelliği var: her ne kadar geç dönem Taoizmindeki ritüellerin etkisiyle iyiden iyiye gizemli bir kılığa bürünse, kuşaklar boyunca çeşitli anlam değişikliklerine uğrasa da, bu kitaptaki aforizmalar, her çağın inanç sistemleriyle ve değer yargılarıyla örtüşecek bir esnekliğe sahip." diyor Tao Te Ching: Yol ve Erdemin Kitabı'nın arka kapak tanıtım yazısında. Osman Yener'in çevirisini yapıp yorum ve notlarıyla da zenginleştirdiği aşağıdaki baskısından alıntılıyorum bu yazıda geçen her şeyi.

Her ne kadar Lao Tzu öğütleri, günümüzde (veya eski günlerde) anamız babamız, nenemiz dedemizden alacağımız öğütlerden ve benim için nispeten yeni bir 'yol' olan yoga ve meditasyondan öğrendiklerimden çok farklı olmasa da, binlerce yıllık bir öngörüyle yazılmış bu kitabı okumuş olmak istedim. İncil'den sonra batı dillerine en çok çevrilmiş kitap olarak biliniyormuş "Tao Te Ching", tek solukluk bir kitap, tavsiye ederim. 

Kimin çocuğu olduğunu bilmiyorum

Hayalin yaratılışından önce de vardı

--

Su...

Direnmediği için, yolunu şaşırmaz

--

Bugünkü dünyayı yönlendirmek için

eski Yol'dan ayrılma;

eskiyi bilme yeteneği,

Yol'un esasıdır

--

Yol'da olmayan erken ölür

[Film] Şehrin Üzerindeki Eller - Francesco Rosi

2 gün önce SALT Online​ ve SALT Beyoğlu​'nda perşembe sineması programı kapsamında ücretsiz gösterimi yapılan "Şehrin Üzerindeki Eller (Le mani sulla città)" filmindeydim.

Muhteşem bir platform bu Açık Sinema. Orijinal dilinde (İtalyanca) gösterimi yapılan filmin hem Türkçe hem İngilizce altyazısı olunca da muhteşem bir kültür/yaş/ülke/dil/cinsiyet karışımı olan bir seyirci kitlesi çıkarmış ortaya. Yerlere atılan minderlerde arkanı da dayayabilince hem rahat bir ortam oluşmuş, hem de ilgi çok olduğundan tanımadığın insanlarla (ister istemez) yakınlaştığından çok sıcak bir ortam yaratılmış.

İtalyan yönetmen Francesco Rosi 1963 yılında tamamlamış olduğu bu filminde tüyler ürpertici bir gerçeklik sunuyor tam da Gezi 'nin yıldönümü ve seçim arifesinde olan bizlere.

Günümüzde, Türkiye'de, özellikle de İstanbul gibi büyükşehirlerde yaşanan, kentsel dönüşüm şemsiyesi altında şekillenen, siyasi ve kapital rantları, yönetim ve/veya denetleme gücüne sahip kişi, kurum ve kuruluşların çevirdiği dolapları öylesine bir gerçeklik ve 50-60 yıllık bir öngörüyle ortaya koyan bir film olmuş ki bu film, insan Taşkışla'yı, Gaziosmanpaşa'yı falan izlediğini sanıyor Napoli'nin yıllar önceki halini izlerken.

Bu noktada belirtmekte fayda var, 'öngörü' çok göreceli bir kavram. O zamanlar İtalya'nın Napoli kentinde geçen bu olayların kurgusal olmayan bir anlatımla ortaya konmuş olması da çok muhtemel. Zira kentleşme, siyaset, para ve çıkar öyle kavramlar ki, dünyanın her yerinde aynı şekilde yaşanıyor ve benzer acılar, benzer mağdurlar yaratıyor.

Filmi izlemenizi şiddetle tavsiye ediyorum. Büyük resmi göremiyorsak dahi görmemize bir yardımı dokunacağından eminim veya bize belki de daha önce hiç bakmadığımız bir bakış açısı kazandıracağından. Son olarak filmden bir alıntı ile bitiriyorum:

"Siyasi hayatta ahlaksal gazap değersiz bir şeydir. Tek gerçek günah nedir bilir misiniz? Kaybetmek."

[Short Documentary] One

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is known as a highly conservative place among many because it defines itself as a religious country. But who said 'religious' means conservative and intolerant? Daniel Malak, the director of the short documentary "One", discovers religious base of the UAE through his camera and encounters. "One" is about the religious tolerance, not difference; it is about similarities, being united, being 'one'.

The documentary is released for the first time during Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2014. It echoed its voice and reached to a big crowd after its showcasing. The subject is quite sensitive for today's world, yet the movie touches to everybody in the same way and nobody dares to see the other as 'the other' after watching it. "One" has a great potential of uniting different religions, sects, nations, people because of its message. The main reason I am writing about it is to make sure I also can contribute spreading the word so that more people can see this beautifully conveyed documentary. 

I had the chance of watching it during a screening at The Space Abu Dhabi, one of my favorite venues in town, along with the director Daniel Malak and the Reverend Andrew Thompson (one of the lead characters in the documentary). I had the chance of bombarding them with my questions when the scenes and lines from the movie was still echoing in my mind.

Daniel wakes up one day with an image like above in his mind while he was looking for a subject for his next documentary. He comes across Andrew and tells him about his idea. Very same day Andrew gets acceptance to proceed with his book, "Jesus of Arabia", he wants to share the same message through another medium: how similar Islam and Christianity actually are...

This documentary is a message to be carried forward. We must make this message centre of our life, carry it in our hearts... so that we can eliminate war from our world. The documentary is also up on YouTube because Daniel wants it to reach as many people/nations/religions as possible. You can also find a link below at the end of the review.  I will let the images and dialogues speak for themselves now. 

- One of the most important functions of religion, any religion, is to draw people together in communities. We are meant to be in relationship with God and we are meant to be in relationship with one another. To learn together, to pray together, to encourage one another...

**

- Diversity between human beings is natural. As long as I have an independent mind and you have your owns, [...] it is only natural that divergence should occur. However we are meant to have some common factors which would bring us together and these common factor should overcome the differences and render them as normal. 

**

- I think it is important that we don't ignore our differences, those differences are real, those differences cannot be reconciled. We have got to first of all establish what we have in common and then to look at what we have in difference. 

- On the night of the 31st December in 2010, a very strange accident had happened in Egypt. At El Kedeseen Church, on New Years Eve, it was very strange to the Egyptians, the church was bombed. Later that week, we had our mass. That night, one third of the church were Muslims. There were about 350 people, people of different religions and races, local men and women, Arabs from every country, Muslims, non-Muslims...

**

Believe me, religions are nothing but windows, through which the worshipper approaches God. I feel the spirit of Jesus, son of Mary, in the Holy Qur'an, and in the Bible a glimpse of the Prophet Mohammed's spirit.

*All the screenshots are taken from the documentary. Feel free to share the video and the review with as many people as possible.

** Why not translate the documentary into your language? Why not organize community screenings yourselves? Please reach out and I will connect you to the director.

For any questions: gulsengecim@hotmail.com

[Performance] To Our Countries - Faia and Rihan Younan

A brief story of wars... a world next door which we never knew, never understand, never will...

Syria...
3 years and more of a crazy, selfish and illogical war...
3 years of which souls, hearts and minds have been destroyed...
A war that sneaked through the doors stealthily without knocking, to settle down in the homes and humiliate their owners...
A war in which children and women were sold in slave markets...
A war that brought the nation's mothers to tears and exhausted its men...
A war that never knew its beginning, a war dreaming of its end...


And in Iraq...
...there has been a liberation for more than 10 years.
A liberation from injustice, oppression and tyranny...
...that came with a greater tyranny, injustice and oppression.
A liberation in which the people of the country were all expelled...
A liberation that divided what is already divided and broke what's already broken...
A liberation where civilizations cease to exist...
A liberation in which all the Iraqi citizens were marginalized regardless of their ethnic and religious background...
A liberation that enslaved people and demolished homes, one that killed the human and motherland...


For the past 40 years, Lebanon and its people have suffered all kinds of wars.
A civil war... a religious war and a sectarian war...
and agressive invasions... and paying the price for regional turmoils...
and international compromises and deals...
40 years that made little Lebanon very big in its scars and daily struggles...
40 years of pain... a pain in most cases, resistant and silent...


Palestine...
The compass directing all causes...
The biggest and oldest of them all...
More than 60 years of violations and howls of generations witnessing the illogicality of yesterday, barbarity of today and fear of tomorrow...
Expelling, abusing and deprivation of rights followed by deprivation of land...
More than 60 years in which geography has gradually disappeared so that new borders can be drawn...
...borders that penetrate hearts and minds...
Borders that refused to be fused so they cling to history and the future...
Borders that create a resistant present and people with willpower...
...for an existing, alive and lasting nation.


Our contries...
The countries of wars and pain...
The countries of love and dreams...
Our contries...

İyi ki Doğdun Nazım Usta!

Henüz 3-4 yaşlarında iken teyzemin büyülü bulduğum o kitaplığına dalar ve sürekli aynı kitabı çekip çıkarırdım bana okusun diye: Nazım Hikmet - Masallar... 

Öğretmenler ve devrimcilerle dolu bir ailede büyüdüm ben ve edebiyatın her zaman iki yüzü oldu benim için: edebi doyum ve yaşam mücadelesi... İnsanlar en güzel kitaplarda resmedildi hep, yaşam en güzel kitaplarda işlendi. Ve hayatım boyunca öğrendiğim şeylerin büyük bir kısmını böylelikle başka yaşamlar yoluyla öğrendim ben. Nazım Hikmet o dünyanın hep büyük bir parçası oldu. Kuvâyi Milliye'sinden Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları'na, Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim'den Benerci'sine... Onu okurken gördüğüm, tanıdığım yaşamlar, insanlar mıh gibi çakıldı aklıma. Ondan insancılığı öğrendim ben, hayatı her şekline rağmen kucaklamak gerektiğini bir de...

Bugün Nazım Usta'nın 113. doğum yılı. İyi ki doğdun Nazım Usta, iyi ki bunca hayata dokundun!

"Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları"ndan...

Haydarpaşa garında
1941 baharında
 saat on beş.
Merdivenlerin üstünde güneş
         yorgunluk ve telâş
Bir adam
      merdivenlerde duruyor
  bir şeyler düşünerek.
Zayıf.
Korkak.
Burnu sivri ve uzun
yanaklarının üstü çopur.
Merdivenlerdeki adam
        -Galip Usta-
  tuhaf şeyler düşünmekle
    meşhurdur:
"Kâat helvası yesem her gün" diye düşündü
   5 yaşında.
"Mektebe gitsem" diye düşündü
               10 yaşında.
"Babamın bıçakçı dükkânından
Akşam ezanından önce çıksam" diye düşündü
                            11 yaşında.
"Sarı iskarpinlerim olsa
kızlar bana baksalar" diye düşündü
    15 yaşında.
"Babam neden kapattı dükkânını?"
Ve fabrika benzemiyor babamın dükkânına"
        diye düşündü
                       16 yaşında.
"Gündeliğim artar mı?" diye düşündü
      20 yaşında.
"Babam ellisinde öldü,
ben de böyle tez mi öleceğim?"
  diye düşündü
  21 yaşındayken.
"İşsiz kalırsam" diye düşündü
                         22 yaşında.
"İşsiz kalırsam" diye düşündü
          23 yaşında.
"İşsiz kalırsam" diye düşündü
          24 yaşında.
Ve zaman zaman işsiz kalarak
"İşsiz kalırsam" diye düşündü
          50 yaşına kadar.
51 yaşında "İhtiyarladım" dedi,
                  "babamdan bir yıl fazla yaşadım."
Şimdi 52 yaşındadır.
İşsizdir.
Şimdi merdivenlerde durup
  kaptırmış kafasını
   düşüncelerin en tuhafına:
"Kaç yaşında öleceğim?
Ölürken üzerimde yorganım olacak mı?"
                 diye düşünüyor.
Burnu sivri ve uzun.
Yanaklarının üstü çopur.
...............................................
...............................................

Etihad Modern Art Gallery - Abu Dhabi

People who live in Abu Dhabi know very well that a place where you can fill yourself with art and culture is not something easy to find in this city. And when you are hungry for it, there are a few places which unfortunately will not exceed fingers of two hands. 

Well, couple of weeks back, I discovered a lovely corner, somewhere this city (and me!) was craving for. And I wanted to share it loud for other art lovers:

Etihad Modern Art Gallery

Located in a villa in Al Bateen Area, Etihad Modern Art Gallery greets you first with its museum-like garden. You see different trees from different countries with their names and information on them. You take a step inside, well decorated rooms, stairs and doorways are waiting for you with art works by different local and expat artists. Luckily, I caught the Art Souq and T-rex exhibition both of which is still on now.

(*)

This T-rex skeleton, named Tinker, is the first and only junior T-rex skeleton which has over 50% of its bones original and well-preserved. This is actually a shocking percentage when you hear the fact that most dinosaur skeletons being exhibited around the world have only about 5% of their bones original. T-rex kind has only been found in the USA so far and all the T-rex skeletons outside the USA are actually plastic imitations of the originals. So, Tinker is the first authentic traveler T-Rex which we have here in Abu Dhabi! And this became possible with collaborative work of The Houston Museum of Natural Science (Houston, Texas) and Etihad Modern Art Gallery (Abu Dhabi, UAE).

And of course, T-rex is not the only thing that the gallery is offering currently. Yiannis Roussakis, Wilma Burton, Khalid Al Najjad, Khulood Al Jabri are among the names who fill the walls of the gallery and their works are part of the Art Souq.

And last but not least, the loveliest discovery of all for me was definitely

Art House Café!

Think of a place where you have stools made out of gas cylinders, lamps out of wine bottles, drawers out of old style suitcases! Almost every single furniture in the cafe was made out of recycled materials which impressed me the most.

A colorful atmosphere, isn't it? Well, go and check it out yourselves!

http://www.etihadmodernart.com/

(*) This photo was taken from the gallery's Instagram account. All the other photographs are taken by Gülsen Geçim, all rights reserved.

[Film] A Single Man - Tom Ford

Story of a single man... His struggle with being alive... This beautiful movie drags you in every way with its story and every single frame. A not to miss performance by Colin Firth and a stunning directing performance by Tom Ford (photo below), from "A Single Man"...

Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now'. For the past eight months waking up has actually hurt. The cold realization that I'm still here slowly sets in. I was never terribly fond of waking up. I was never one to jump out of bed and greet the day with a smile like Jim was. I used to want to punch him sometimes in the morning he was so happy. I always used to tell him that only fools greet the day with a smile that only fools possibly escape the simple truth... that now isn't simply now. It's a cold reminder. One day later than yesterday. One year later than last year. And that sooner or later it will come. He used to laugh at me and then give me kiss on the cheek.

**

- Just get through the goddamn day.

**

- Of course, the Nazis were wrong to hate the Jews. But their hating the Jews was not without a cause. It's just that the cause wasn't real. The cause was imagined. The cause was fear. Let's leave the Jews out of this just for a moment. Let's think of another minority. One that... One that can go unnoticed if it needs to. There are all sorts of minorities, blondes for example or people with freckles. But a minority is only thought of as one when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority. A real threat or an imagined one. And therein lies the fear. If the minority is somehow invisible then the fear is much greater. That fear is why the minority is persecuted. So, you see there always is a cause. The cause is fear. Minorities are just people. People like us.

**

- We always seem to get stuck talking about the past. The past just doesn't matter to me.

- The present?

- I can't wait for the present to be over. It's a total drag. Well, tonight is the exception.

- What? Tonight, yes! The present, no!

- Let's drink to tonight.

- Tonight. ...So if the past doesn't matter and the present is a total drag. What about the future?

- What future? Cuba might just blow us up.

- Death is the future. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be depressing.

- It's not depressing.

- It's not depressing, it's true. It may not be your immediate future but it's what we all share. Death is the future.

- You're right, I guess.

- If one is not enjoying one's present there isn't a great deal to suggest that the future should be any better.

- Yeah, I've thought that before. But the thing is you just never know. Look at tonight. Actually I feel really alone most of the time.

- You do?

- Yeah. I've always felt this way. I mean we're born alone, we die alone. And while we're here we are absolutely, completely sealed in our own bodies. Really weird. Kinda freaks me out to think about it. We can only experience the outside world through our own slanted perception of it. Who knows what you're really like? I just see what I think you're like.

- I'm exactly what I appear to be. If you look closely.

- You know the only thing that has made the whole thing worthwhile has been those few times that I've been able to really, truly connect with another human being. I had a hunch about you, sir.

- You did?

- Yes, sir. I had a hunch you might be a real romantic. You know, everyone keeps telling you that when you're older, that you'll have all this experience. Like it's some great thing. That's a load of shit.

- I think I've actually just gotten sillier and sillier.

- Really?

- Absolutely.

- So, all your experience is useless.

- No, I wouldn't say that. As our friend Mr. Huxley says: Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.

- Let's go swimming.

- Okay.

- What?

- It was a test.

- I thought you were bluffing about being silly so I said to myself I'll suggest doing something completely outrageous. And if he resists, if he even hesitates then I know he's full of shit.

- Well, I wasn't. Were you?

- Hell, no!

**

A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity. When for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think. And things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them but like everything they fade. I've lived my live on these moments. They pull me back to the present and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.