mixed pics from three weeks

almost 3 weeks! poems and pics and favorite things

Poems: 

Optimistic Man

as a child he never plucked the wings off flies
he didn't tie tin cans to cats' tails
or lock beetles in matchboxes
or stomp anthills
he grew up
and all those things were done to him
I was at his bedside when he died
he said read me a poem
about the sun and the sea
about nuclear reactors and satellites
about the greatness of humanity

--Nazım Hikmet

Plea

this country shaped like the head of a mare
coming full gallop from far off Asia
to stretch into the Mediterranean
this country is ours!

bloody wrists, clenched teeth
bare feet,
land like a precious silk carpet
this hell, this paradise is ours!

let the doors be shut that belong to others
let them never open again 
do away with the enslaving of man by man
this plea is ours!

to live! like a tree alone and free
like a forest in brotherhood
this yearning is ours!

--Nazım Hikmet (more on him here if you want)

Favorite things! limited (for now) to three:

-çay, otherwise known as tea. It's served strong, often, and in small doses; it comes in a small,
hourglass-shaped glass. So far I've had it with toasted sandwiches, a croissant, baklava, and 
sütlaç (traditional rice pudding dessert) but there's nothing to suggest that I couldn't drink it
at every meal, with any kind of food.

-the Bosphorus. And the Black Sea. And the Sea of Marmara. I love getting to live by the sea. 
It feels like a great privilege, and I'm thankful that here I get to live by/in between two 
different seas. The smell of saltwater (and occasionally, fish) and the presence of seagulls and 
the ferry rides that make me realize I need to own a boat and the mixed sense of calm and 
exhiliration that comes from spotting the sea out of the corner of my eye--these are all 
things that contribute to my being extremely happy and at home in Istanbul.

-the call to prayer. Yesterday, in the middle of a packed Taksim square around rush hour, 
I heard the call to prayer. By now I've heard it many times, although you can't hear it from 
campus, and every time it gives me chills. Projected from loudspeakers on the minarets of
mosques, at first I thought the lovely singing was a recording, as I know some churches 
record the sound of bells to play from their belltowers. I recently learned that in fact, the call 
to prayer must be sung live, and that to be the person who sings it (I don't remember the 
arabic word) is a big honor. There's something very haunting about the melody and the style 
of it, and to hear it sung with such skill, in such a crowded metropolitan location, in the 
presence of people who are going about their daily business as if they don't hear it...it really 
hit me. In the midst of a decreasingly religious world, it is a strong and beautiful reminder of 
our traditions of spirituality.

Pics! including: things I like from the street, the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofya, and Topkapı Palace.