A teacher of life and living

Hafiz's poems     

     The set of poems written by the Persian poet, Hafiz, undoubtedly made an impression on me. Through his poems he appreciates the beauty and the luxury of life. With correct insight, he explores the feelings and reasons associated with every level of love. Even though they are supposed to be spiritual or religious, I could relate to them easily. Maybe because the metaphors Hafiz uses are intentionally created for them to be interpreted differently, people consider Hafiz’s poems as a cherished wisdom from the Friend. Such ambiguities and different meanings make comprehending the metaphors difficult and thus the translating them a demanding task.  Hafiz also incorporates elements of Suffism that are complex and cause a lot of difficulties in the interpretation of his language. 

Translated by Daniel Lavdinsky in a very profound way, creates the sense of Hafiz’s healing words sounding very contemporary. I find it fascinating how Hafiz’s poems can be broken down into lines and used separately as guides for life and living.

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolution's ladder.
Whisper, "I love you! I love you!"
To the whole mad world

The movie vs. The novel

Love Story by Erich Segal and Love Story directed by Arthur Hiller

     In the late 1960s, Erich Segal wrote a script for a romantic story and failed to sell it. Upon his literary agent’s advice, he turned the script into a novel which become a sensation and will become a box office hit when it was filmed later.  Love Story has a cinematic touch in it.  Both in the movie and the novel the author fast establishes the characters, creates emotional situations, and move from one scene to another without any wait.  Witty dialogues and happy moments got a high boost with this pacing and no wonder the readers get a filmy feel throughout. However, the filmy feeling you get through reading the novel creates a movie of your own in your head, while the real movie in a way destroys your imagination. I like the novel a million times more than the movie. Even though the movie's theme seemed annoying to us, the romantic touch of the melody can be clearly felt. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTSc4hBdCd0).

I tragically love you

Love Story by Erich Segal

         Love Story by Erich Segal is a timeless story of tragic love. Oliver is a child of privilege, the son of a family of importance dating back many generations. Jennifer is the only child of a widowed baker, as opposite from Oliver as one person can be. However, their union is one of strength and volatility that sweeps them both up in an uncontrolled wave, their love surviving every obstacle except one, death. Love Story is the Romeo and Juliet of the twentieth century. The strength of Love Story is its simplicity in its depth and its down to earth characters.  Emotions and wonderful situations, witty dialogues and heartfelt situations make Love Story unique, special, and excellent. No wonder the book got over 21 million copies sold already. Jenny Cavilleri, a working class beauty meets with Oliver Barrett IV, an over rich jock with a rebellious attitude.   Opposite in appearance (they have a similar tempo and attitude), Oliver and Jenny immediately got attracted to each other. Capable of outperforming each other, the youngsters fall in love and the readers immediately become part of this love story.  Taking the readers instantly to the funny side of it, reminding the tragedy, is not an easy task; and one who manages to do that must be an extraordinary writer. The novel is as funny as it is a tragedy; the author keeps the reader laugh throughout but never forgets to remind that there is tragedy in it.  Intelligent and teasing, Jenny and even Oliver challenge our ability to understand the fun behind it. When we realize the fun in it we also get reminded of the sad reality or truth in it as well. The novel has been an inspiration for many stories & movies.  Directly or indirectly the book influenced many films other than its original makes. I would definitely say that this book is made for anyone who is in love, was in love, or wants to be in love.

Losers are artists

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

          The repetition of the art of losing isn't hard to master is used intentionally by Bishop to reinforce the importance of the line. The reader gains a deeper sense of understanding because of such repetition. Unfortunately, modern traditions and society forces us as people to hide our feelings and emotions. In this poem, Bishop displays such a mask and basically makes it clear that she is collapsing because of the pressure from the mask. I believe that this poem appears to be a relatively complicated story of a women who is desperately trying to convince herself that loosing various things such as places and things (keys for example), are not such a huge deal. Bishop states that so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. However, I couldn't help but notice that the things that she keeps losing seem to increase in value throughout the poem as it progresses. She begins by losing car keys and by the end of the poem seems to have lost an entire continent. This poem is both meaningful and is able to simply relate to today. Losing or loss is something that people are faced with daily. Whether its door keys' or the hour badly spent is all loss. She focuses on the fact that things are often lost and it isn’t hard to master. In the end, she says she has lost a continent and although it is a tremendous loss, it isn't a disaster. She soon depicts that the loss of a loved one is a lot harder to cope with than the loss of various objects or even a continent. Loss is something that can be mastered but this type of loss is one that has to be dealt with.

For a certain man

A certain lady by Dorothy Parker

    Parker here through a satirical language portrays a typical woman of the 1800s who is actually in love, but very cynical about the concept of love and a woman’s role in a man's life. 

Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head,
and drink your rushing words with eager lips,

 She is simply supposed to sit there, listen and nod, smile a lot, and make tea, while inside of her she is dying to show her values to the world. It beautifully depicts 1800s female role, where women were just treated as porcelain dolls, and had to sit there, smile, and accept convents of the society, while they were screaming inside. She is pretending to be this happy, witty, charming creature for the man she is in love with who'll never know the pain she feels or the sorrow she experiences. She merely plays a role for him - the role he prefers.

And you believe, so well I know my part,
     That I am gay as morning, light as snow,
 And all the straining things within my heart
     You'll never know. 

She plays this role to keep him with her as long as she can, even though he will never know all the things that exist inside of her heart and mind. However, she knows he'll soon tire of her, and go off on other adventures or out with other women – but she gracefully accepts these norms created by the society of that time.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche

Tonight I can write the saddest lines by Pablo Neruda

        I first read this heart-touching poem when I was 14, and I immediately fell in love with it. It is not that unusual that I got it even though I was just 14; the simple language, symbols, and metaphors Neruda uses suggest his attempt to portray the pain of a lost love in a very comprehensible way. Neurda also explores emotions that almost everyone can relate to. The repetition of Tonight I can write the saddest lines shows how the speaker is struggling to maintain distance, to convince himself that enough time has passed for him to have the strength to think about his lost love. But these lines are the saddest; he cannot yet escape the pain of remembering. It becomes almost unbearable to think that I do not have her, to feel that I have lost her. His loneliness is reinforced by the immense night, still more immense without her. Yet the poetry that he creates helps replenish his soul like dew to the pasture. While reading the poem you can almost feel the sadness that lies in the poem's voice. The poem is a powerful depiction of tragic feelings, memories, pain, worries about the departed love. Neruda illustrates the agony of a failed love while reminiscing the beautiful days he used to spend with his beautiful beloved .He also seems to convey that his beloved used to love him occasionally, as if she was knowing that their relation is not going to remain forever.  My favorite line Love is so short and forgetting is so long is highly filled with the sad feelings the poet feels after separating from his beloved. 

Tonight I can write the saddest lines read very emotionally and beautifully by Andy Garcia:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHPk-ctoYY

Doggy love

Yoko by Thom Gunn

             The love of dogs for their owners has always fascinated me, and this poem does bring out the pure love of dogs - if we can call it love. When we started to read this very interesting poem I immediately thought that this is an ordinary love poem. After a bit we all realized that Gunn put Yoko-his dog as the monologist. In a way, I see this as an ironic monologue where it shows the dog's honesty towards his owner; dogs honesty totally outweighs man's honesty. 

At last deep in the stairwell I hear a tread,
it is him, my leader, my love.
I run to the door and listen to his approach.
Now I can smell him, what a good man he is,
I love it when he has the sweat of work on him,
as he enters I yodel with happiness,
I throw my body up against his,
I try to lick his lips,
I care about him more than anything.

A very nice way of unfolding companionship, friendship, sociability, and love through Yoko's eyes. I find this poem very well written ; in a truthful way without sentimentality.


And here a dried old turd, so interesting
so old, so dry, yet so subtle and mellow.
I can place it finely, I really appreciate it,
a gold distant smell like packed autumn leaves in winter
reminding me how what is rich and fierce when excreted
becomes weathered and mild
but always interesting
and reminding me of what I have to do.

Through the scatological humor Gunn tries to focus on the outer world as opposed to his interior life. He applies this envelope of humor and sarcasm in this contemporary poem in order to reach to the audience in a very subtle way.

The machinery...

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Part Two

Chapter IV - Chapter VI  

     As usual, Meursault wants to hear the claims made by the two lawyers because he wants to hear people talking about him. Now Meursault feels further distanced from the courtroom than before because the lawyer keeps telling him that he will hurt the case if he spoke in his defense. In these last chapters all the questions we had in the beginning begin to be answered indirectly. 

Even though Meursault showed no sensitivity during the burial of his mother, this example is irrelevant to the case for which Meursault is being punished. However, through all these chapters Meursault is ironically condemned for being immoral and insensitive. According to the prosecuter, the moral killing of his mother is more horrible than the physical killing of the Arab. Because of the society’s standards Meursault was incapable of living a moral life. I see Camus here who wants Meursault to find his morality through another scene. Camus has created a murderer without any justification and forces our society to deal with him. Meursault is not a monster but neither is he innocent. He had no motivation or justification for his act whatsoever. All he can remember is the effect of the physical elements of the day; the beating sun and the red sand. The court only laughs; they do not believe that this type of human cannot be real. We furthermore see Meursault’s morals being trialed, not him. Meursault’s distance toward the trial ( he feels like he is not a part of if) sends him back to his memories; the moments spent with Marie. When the verdict that Meursault will be decapitated by the guillotine is read the moments move very fast. Meursault does not make eye contact with anyone but only emphasizes the bizarreness of the verdict. A man is condemned for something other than the crime he committed and then is to be killed in the name of people who he will never meet. We now begin to see Meursault’s feelings toward life. When the chaplain tries to turn Meursault to God, he refuses to get caught up in the idea that he is going to be dead soon. In contrary, Meursault only thinks how to live one more moment and enjoy it. He also makes up penal laws where the convicted would have a slight chance to escape. The trouble with the guillotine was that it did not afford even the slightest of possibilities. The other fact that constantly bothers Meursault is the fact that the guillotine was not as he imagined. The guillotine was just a simple killing method not a romanticized machine like in the French Revolution. Faced with death, he wishes to have one little piece of life to hold onto and give to his heart. With nothing to feed his heart, he wishes he had always fed it. He yearns for a chance which could play to his imagination and allow him the freedom of knowing there was a possibility of escape. He mentions hope and imagination as he never would have allowed himself to before. They never would have mattered. Facing the end of all time, nothingness, he realizes that to live, they matter. When Meursault points out that he has never seen a face or sweat in the stones of his cell, the priest recognizes his sincere attachment to the earth as opposed to any external or divine force. Meursault was living now solely for himself. He did not mourn the supposed death of Marie and expected no one to mourn for him. In fact, he realizes what he wants most is another chance to remember the life he has had and relive it again. There is no need to mourn. He simply hopes that he can enjoy remembering this time he has spent on earth for a little longer. Towards the novel’s ending we see Camus’ belief that this attempt at life is synonymous to death. According to Camus, we must live and make meaning in life without the pretext or motivation of God. Only WE are responsible and our life is worth no more than others. In the end Meursault is transformed into the type of hero Camus has been looking for. Meursault now is ready to meet equally the absurdity of life and the nothingness of death. But then again we do not get to see if Meursault gets executed or not. What if Meursault would have cried in his mother’s funeral? What if he told Marie that he loved her?  I believe that Camus intentionally leaves the page in half. The white page in a way symbolizes Meursault’s liberation of all of these conventional moral codes. 

Killing time with memories...

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Part Two

Chapter I - Chapter III 

       The way the second part of the novel begins, directly into Meursault’s interrogation, we are again acquainted with the self-centered Meursault. He does not even mention the other people on the beach as they did not have the littlest impact on him. In the first book we learned that Meursault is honest to himself, indifferent, and nonjudgmental. In the second book Meursault is the object and it is society now which is deciding for the fate of this unconventional man. Till now Mersault was living a quite unexaminable life; however, now he is examined by the society. The scene where he is being interrogated reminds him of old crime story novels; that is how unserious the case seemed to Meursault. Meursault’s desire to shake the guard’s hand shows the reader the simple human interactions and when someone is kind. Meursault is just living the moment and does not concern about the past or future. He is still thinking as a free man and not understanding the severity of killing a human being. The lawyer is very concerned with Meursault’s inablitiy to lie about his feeling during his mother’s funeral. In this part now Camus asks all sort of questions that we as the audience asked in the first part. The questions were asked by the lawyer, the interrogators, the magistrate, the judge, and so on. With the meeting with the magistrate we see Camus revealed identity too. Camus being an existentialist does not believe in god, and with the scene where the magistrate shows the crucifix to Meursault,we see a sort of Camus mocking of the religion and religious symbols. Meursault does not even feel sorry for his actions. The magistrate gets very frustrated because he does not understands Meursault’s worldview. When the narrator starts to describe the details of the prison, the reader immediately starts to realize that now Meursault is not thinking anymore as a free man. He is conscious about the things he is deprived of, and that makes him unhappy.

The meeting he has with Mary before receiving that last letter is confusing. The room is filled with Arabs who are characterized as space consuming and loud. Meursault is more focused on his surrounding than in Mary ( for whom he was thinking a lot lately). The reasons why he is able to get over the longings for the sea when he can view the waves from his window, and sex, and cigarettes is time and memory. He realizes that no matter how tormenting the faces of woman he constructs in his mind are, they still work to pass the time and kill his boredom. He slowly learns to live without any physical stimulation besides that which he is able to create within his mind. Meursault quickly learns how to kill time. He also admits that he is not so unhappy. With his killing time methods a year goes by very fast. The hot summer is again present, and Meursault trial too along with the blazing hot sun. When Meursault arrives to the trial, the lawyer says the trial will go quickly since it is not the most important case. There he sees a lot of people who are there just for him but he does not seem to understand it since he thinks his behavior is perfectly normal. He also feels like a stranger there. We see how the author portrayed the society of that time very narrow-minded and judgmental, and Meursault very different from the society. What bothers Meursault the most is being watched from the others – now he is being examined. Each moment proceeds as always with Meursault's life, until time slows when the subject of Maman is broached. Hardly ever affected, this line of questioning highly irritates him. Still, he answer honestly as always without leaving out details that may upset or disturb the jury. The witnesses called against Meursault are only from his mother's home and based on the one day they met Meursault, at his mother's funeral. Does not it seem ironic that the trial of the case does not have one witness who in any way pertains to the actual crime? This seems as a trial for lack of morals and refusal to participate in a moral code, and not for killing the Arab. We also get acquainted with the first emotional moment of Meursault; when he “feels like e he could cry”.
The defense does little to help justify Meursault’s actions. The witnesses just gave comments such as Celeste’s idea of bad luch or Raymodn saying that it was all chance. This is ironic too because shooting a man five times is no bad luck or chance. In his way back to his cell he falls back in reminiscence of the happy summer of the last year. Meursault realizes again that the paths of life could lead as easily to a life of innocence or crime. Where the path leads is not important. 

Knocking on the door of unhappiness...

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Part One

Chapter IV - Chapter VI

    Camus now does not need to show us other in the routine anymore. At this time the week flies away. Now again Meursault goes for swimming with Marie, and again we find Mersault arrested in his behavior by a physical sensation. Swimming and absorbing the salt leads to the sexual act back at Meursault’s place. For the first time the harmony between these two is noticed. However, the next morning this harmony is ruined by the ugly fight between Raymond and his girl. The fight comes right after the moment that Meursault states that he does not love Marie. It is visible that he is not involved in emotional boundaries. After the fight Marie insists in calling the police but Mersault does not want to because he does not like police. This reply is selfish, and it discloses the nature of human stupidity.
When the police come, the true identity of Raymond is revealed. Raymond is not the tough guy anymore; he is in fact trembling in front of the ‘’tougher’’ guys.
After the fight is over, Meursault and Marie return to lunch. Marie has lost her appetite whereas Meursault eats all of his lunch. This also tells us how indifferent is Meaursault toward other people’s issues.
How Salamano is portrayed at the end of the chapter is much different than the previous portrait. Although still acting the part of the hating dog owner, his compassion and love for the dog can be seen. While Salamano’s grief Meursault suddenly thinks of his mother - yet he falls asleep without eating. It is the first time that Meursault gives up a physical pleasure for emotional pain.
Meursault’s indifference continuously shows up. When Meursault’s boss offers him a job in Paris, Mersault apathetically answers “ it was all the same to me”. There comes a point where Meursault’s ambitions as a student are discovered. It is implied that something happened to him that vanished his dreams – yet he continued to live that routine life of his. Meursault continues to not participate in the society’s expectations. Everytime Marie asks to marry her he gets annoyed that she questions his reasons. This also connects to how now Salamano is portrayed as a truly pitiful creature left without his companion. It is also very ironic how the loss of one’s dog is more exaggerated than the death of the other’s mother. Is this son a monster? But then again he feels compassion toward Salamano’s loss ; which could be Camus definition of a meaningful life.
The scene where Meursault is walking with Marie immediately tells us that this leads to the novel’s climax. Once he reaches the street, the sun does not have the normal soothing effect on Meursault but instead slaps him on the face. If the sun is represented in a negative way by Camus, it is an indication for catastrophic events. Arriving at the beach, the atmosphere is still highly negative. Even though on the surface, one might think that is is very positive. Marie’s joy is heavily contrasted to Meursault’s darkness. The fact that this is the first time Meursault seriously thinks of asking Marie to marry him stimulatingly makes the reader believe that something will be drastically changing in Meursaults life. While talking to Raymond, who is now playing the role of the leader, Mersault’s indifference marks his decisions. It was easiest to agree. So Meursault agrees to stand aside in case the third Arab comes. The fight leads to a superficial wounding of Reymond and him acting like it is the end of the world. This again shows us the fearful character of Reymond. Meursault follows Raymond back to the beach even though he furiously insists to be left alone. The sun is still becoming hotter and more overpowering. When Raymond reaches toward his pocket for the gun, Meursault tries to stop him. We see Meursault here trying to do something conventionally moral. Does this reveal the moral makeup of Meursault or is he reacting to the situation objectively?
They finally leave the Arab. After that Meursault decides to go back to the beach because “ to stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing’’. Arriving there the sun has become more and more sharp; symbolized as a knife. It is implied that Meursault acts instinctively. And this is the begining of the climax – Mersault brutally kills the Arab. He shoots once and he realizes that that action was a path to being doomed. The 4 consecutive shots are the peak of Meursault’s life. He knows that by shooting the Arab 4 more times “he is knocking on the door of unhappiness”. So why does he shoot 4 more times? Is Meursault a mad man? Or is he just strange/unconventional and he has a different meaning of happiness? 

Nothing changed...

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Part One

Chapter I - Chapter III

     Mersault is a young shipping clerk living in Algiers. This very incomparable novel starts with the death of Mersault’s (the narrator) mother. What immediately reveals the  personality of Mersault is the next immediate thought after he read the first sentence of the telegram “Mother died today”.”Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure”; the details of the telegram which he does discuss only concern his uncertainty of the date. He does not mention any emotional effect on him. The simple action verbs Camus uses reflect the detached personality of Mersault. It is very fascinating how the structure of the novel made me feel as I was inside Mersault’s head. His paradoxical decisions and thoughts very often resemble to a human being that just exists – nothing else. Through the first three chapters Mersault’s personality is exposed more and more. The fact that he tries to excuse himself for his mother’s death is a very meaningful detail. This detail reveals a common flaw of human nature – pointing the finger to someone/something else to clear one’s consciousness. Many times through the first chapter Mersault falls asleep. This shows Mersault’s passiveness during a moment which can happen to anyone yet he experiences everything with very little emotion. In his mother’s funeral a woman friend of hers and M. Perez are the only ones who cry. The images Camus creates stimulatingly form a picture in the reader’s mind. Mersault is melted by the hot sun more than by the funeral of his mother. This strengthens my conviction on Mersault’s personality. Consequently, Camus introduces the regular Saturday and Sunday of Mersault. The tone used in these three chapters represents the sameness and indifference of Mersault’s life. The fact that Mersault focuses only on his physical environment rather than on the emotions derived from the death of one’s mother show us the character of a man without hope, vision, or future. On the first day after returning from his mother's burial, he is right back into his ordinary life and chooses swimming as his first activity. This is where we get introduced whith Marie; a former typist at Mersault’s office. We learn only superficial traits of Marie - she was a typist. The social interaction of Marie and Mersault is explained very coldly and shortly. On the next day Mersault is only concerned with the fact that it is Sunday and not that Marie has left. Mersault’s Sunday is portrayed as a very long day accompanied with Mersault’s thoughts of people outside of his window. The emptiness of his Sunday is written all over. Before that Sunday ended Mersault realizes that the death of his mother changed nothing; everything is still the same. We also get introduced to a typical work day of Mersault; the littlest details of an everyman job are publicized. The moment where Mersault does not know the exact age of his mother reveal a lot to the reader; a typical son would know his mother’s age. Through the third chapter we get introduced to two new characters; Salamano and Raymond. Salamano is an old neighbor of Mersaults who has been living with his dog since his wife died. This clearly exposes human’s fear of being or dying alone. Raymond is another revolting type who does everything to show off as a tough guy. The simplified explanation of Mersault and Raymond social interaction is that Raymond talks to Mersault because he listens and Mersault listens to Raymond because he cooks him dinner.  Even though Mersault is never portrayed as a ‘’bad guy’’, the moment that he helps Raymond into manipulating his mistress raises a paradoxical issue. Throughout these three chapters colossal questions about the human nature and existence are raised. I believe that Camus does this intentionally because he clearly is an existentialist. 

Life through a railway...

Trans-Siberian Prose and Little Jeanne from France by Blaise Cendrars

“I used the word 'prose' in the Trans-Siberian in the early Latin sense of prosa dictu. Poem seemed to me too pretentious, too narrow. Prose is more open, popular.”

         The prose visibly introduces modernity in 20th century poetry. Modernity is all about mobility and the erosion of time. Cendrars drags us through the longest virtual journey; the journey of life through the Trans-Siberian railway. Cendrars did not write about the joy or the displeasure of the long trip - he wrote a narration of life itself. This attempt to narrate life’s smallest details leads to author’s declaration that “he is a very bad poet”. When it comes to life, heart, or emotions everyone is a bad poet. In a way Cendrars shoves every little memory or thought about love, hate, war, sex, peace, remembrance, affection, perversion, and greed in this prose. The prose is written in very vivid stanzas which make the reader feel Cendrars’ hurt or bliss. The author continuously jumps from time to time, city to city, country to country, or continent to continent ; Cendrars travels throughout time and distance in a single train.

Here is a page where today’s Trans-Siberian railway can be seen:

http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm