Behzat – As much as possible, as much as imagination and fantasy allow…
Surpik – I heard you have both polygamy and polyandry…
Behzat – There’s no polyandry. That’s slander… Only polygamy exists. But it’s not obligatory.
Surpik – How many women can a man take?
Behzat – They say four. But if he has the wealth, health, and need, as many as he wants.
Surpik – For example, ten…
Behzat – Eighty, a hundred…
Surpik – Oh, how dreadful…
Behzat – But, I repeat, this is not obligatory—there are many Turks, many wealthy and strong Turks who have been content with one woman throughout their entire lives.
Surpik – But they’re not obligated to live with one woman until death?
Behzat – No, they’re not…
Surpik – Can they separate from their wives whenever they wish?
Behzat – They can.
Surpik – Can they marry another woman without divorcing their wives?
Behzat – They can.
Surpik – Can they take back the wives they left if they wish?
Behzat – They can. But there are certain conditions!
Surpik – What kind?
Behzat – For example, the “hülle” condition…
Surpik – What’s “hülle”?
Behzat – I don’t know very well. I think if a Turk divorces his wife three times, he cannot take her back. Unless his wife marries another man for at least one night, then divorces him, and then returns to her former husband.
Surpik – Oh, there’s a kind of polyandry…
Behzat – But this is very rare! If such a thing happens, they perform religious tricks. For example, they marry the woman who must necessarily go to another man to a very old man, and this obligatory marriage naturally remains very Platonic, or… temporary marriage… In short, many tricks… I don’t know well, but if necessary, they even marry her to a rooster…
Surpik – Stop joking, my dear. This terrible freedom! With such weak restrictions! Almost like civil marriage… In love, it’s always the woman who loses, in marriage, it’s always the woman who ages first. If a man is not bound by a terrible bond to the woman whose beauty fades after a few years, he cannot endure the torment of fidelity. He immediately leaves her. And takes a very young and fresh girl in her place.
Behzat – Ah, can a beloved woman ever be abandoned?
Surpik – Look, you’re being “literary.” To love! Don’t try to test the innocence of speaking about eternal love, a spiritual and soulful love that ends with death! Love… A nothing, a passion, a temporary crisis… Such a crisis that its result is absolute hatred and weariness! And whoever confuses love with marriage will surely be disappointed. Marriage: For a woman, it consists of tolerating a man’s bad odors, rudeness, and harshness; for a man, it consists of ignoring a faded and worn woman’s affectations, inappropriateness, and nervousness! There is a bond, a chain that condemns two bodies to this mutual torment, and that is marriage. The guarantee of families, social benefits, and equal conformity is this chain. But it’s so weak… a… a cotton thread… No, no, I can never marry you, a Turk. I cannot sacrifice my entire life, my entire future unconditionally, without restriction, to a man’s whim…
Behzat – You’re exaggerating, why?
Surpik – If I become your mistress, you’ll still love me with this desire. We’ll probably spend a few sweet years.
Behzat – But…
Surpik – There’s no but. Cotton thread! My dear, for example, whether I become your mistress or your wife… Both are the same…
Behzat – You’re exaggerating, why?
Surpik – If I become your mistress, you’ll still love me with this desire. We’ll probably spend a few sweet years. Then… Inevitably, the former passion, the former desire will fade. And you’ll leave me. Don’t say “No!” This is an eternal novel whose words never change. If I become your wife, the same novel… After a few years, you’ll leave me and run to another love.
Behzat – Never…
Surpik – Because you’re not obligated not to leave. You have the right to leave. If you don’t leave me after getting tired, this is nothing but a morbid feeling of mercy! And one can never trust a feeling as much as a right, a law, an obligation. Here’s the conclusion of my reasoning: I will definitely marry a Christian. Because among Christians, marriage is a heavy, strong, unbreakable chain! This noble bond, which can only be broken by death, will bind me to my husband. I will live far from the fear of being abandoned, of being unfortunate…
(At this moment, a stiff, fake, and amateur actor, a young servant with correct demeanor enters. He bows to Mademoiselle Bagdeseryan.)
Servant – Monsieur Hamparsum Rupenyan!
Surpik – Let him in.
(Servant exits)
Behzat – Who is this?
Surpik – Strange coincidence! A man I hope to be engaged to soon. The only son of a very wealthy oil merchant from Kayseri… Wait, let me introduce you.
Behzat (Upset, nervous) – No, no, I don’t want to. Allow me to leave.
Surpik – But you’re acting as if you’re offended.
Behzat – Not at all… With your permission…
Surpik – But please come again, let’s have loud debates. I mean, let’s think openly. I’m very sorry that I couldn’t get you to accept and confirm my conclusion by continuing until the end today. Come… Soon…
Behzat – Soon…
(Behzat bows, greets Mademoiselle Bagdeseryan with a polite reverence. Just as he’s about to leave, Hamparsum Rupenyan has entered. The two men greet each other. Behzat exits nervously in haste. Rupenyan shakes the hand of Mademoiselle Bagdeseryan, who is standing.)
Rupenyan – How are you, my dear?
Surpik – I’m fine! Sit down! You haven’t come for a week. Why?
Rupenyan – A few fellow countrymen came from home. I was busy settling them in.
Surpik (Laughing) – Noble occupation.
Rupenyan – Who was that gentleman you didn’t introduce to me?
Surpik – The gentleman who just left? A Young Turk! An engineer educated in Europe. We met last winter. Now he’s among our most intimate friends…
Rupenyan – I don’t know him. I’ve never seen him.
Surpik – You wouldn’t know him. I regret not being able to introduce him. Oh, if you knew what strange things we talked about…
Rupenyan – What did you talk about?
Surpik – We talked about marriage and wedding ceremonies.
Rupenyan – Truly strange!
Surpik – I understood again that the Turks’ religion is very perfect! Especially their marriages are so natural, so compatible with nature… almost an imaginary goal of civilization and evolution…
Rupenyan (Grinning) – Either you’re joking or exaggerating…
Surpik – I’m neither joking nor exaggerating! Among them, marriage and wedding are so unrestricted, so free that if one analyzes and examines it a bit more, one would cry out “It doesn’t exist at all!”
Rupenyan – How so?
Surpik – First of all, Turks can take as many women as they want.
Rupenyan – This is polygamy! But is it good?
Surpik – Is it bad? Extremely compatible with nature! All specialists, all scholars, all philosophers claim and prove that humans are naturally polygamous. All the stories, novels, studies, and investigations in life are seen to confirm this truth. There is no man in the world—even on the condition of being very honorable—no man who has been content with only one woman throughout his life. Yes, no man can say “I’ve never known a woman other than my wife in my life.” The Turkish proverb “One flower doesn’t make spring!” contains a great truth of nature. For the continuous change and transformation in life, the reproductive instinct, this eternal law of nature, makes man sensitive to many women. Man is defeated by this feeling. In the face of the eternal and irresistible power of nature that comes from God, everything that comes from humans—those laws, beliefs, delusions, customs, conventional and established traditions—collapses and falls. The Turkish religion has not opposed nature. It has accepted and encompassed this truth and left man free to take as many women as he wants, as many as he can afford.
Rupenyan – But it hasn’t considered the woman at all.
Surpik – No, in this freedom in marriage, there is also benefit, advantage, and right for the woman. The woman is also freed from the suffering of living with a man she’s tired of, she divorces, naturally goes to another man.
Rupenyan – Admit that there’s a clear crudeness in this! First of all, don’t you see a noble meaning, a virtue in a woman and a man being bound to each other until death?
Surpik – No, I only see an empty lie, contrary to nature, refuted by all events and feelings.
Rupenyan – This is an anarchist idea!
Surpik – Why should it be an anarchist idea? Don’t you know, among the first humans whose minds weren’t yet so diseased with the fever of evolution and change, the reproductive act was in the form of “promiscuity.” It gradually changed, entered into order. It took the form of extensive and complete polygamy. Then one day the Jews rebelled against this eternal law of magnificent nature. They laid the foundation stone of monogamy for the first time in the world. We Christians, since we emerged from among them, accepted this mistake of theirs. We invented many other kinds of ceremonies, restrictions, conditions, artificial and false things. We made a chain called marriage, and today under its unbearable weight, only rebellion and hypocrisy can live. There is no sincerity at all. Then the Muslims broke this chain. They restored nature’s right. They put a cotton thread in place of this chain. No need for rebellion and hypocrisy. Those who don’t love, those who loved first but then tired, can separate whenever they want. Yes, the Turkish religion has never been an enemy of nature, hasn’t attempted to fight or struggle with it! Their national languages, even their heresies are things closest to nature that are neglected in the world!…
Rupenyan – How their heresies?
Surpik – I read in an English work. Among them, apparently there’s a very small sect that remained in heresy called “Kızılbaş” which promotes “promiscuity”… There’s a step taken toward nature! A goal to be reached in a few hundred, perhaps a few thousand years with the victory of natural sciences, evolution, and progress!… Do you want me to tell you my opinion very freely? I will never put this marriage chain around my neck. I will remain free, that is, happy.
Rupenyan – So you’re giving up marriage?
Surpik – No, I’m giving up the chain, our Christian marriage. Otherwise, if I come across a young and discreet Turk, I’ll immediately accept his extended hand. I won’t give any importance to my mother’s fanaticism or my father’s objections. Oh, cotton thread… Whenever I want, I’ll tell him I don’t love him anymore, I’m tired, and I’ll leave. He’ll do the same to me. If we live, we’ll live happily. If we don’t, we’ll immediately separate. We won’t suffer. We won’t spend our entire lives in tragic struggles, in poisonous enmities, with hypocrisy and rebellion.
Rupenyan (A bit harsh) – Let me also tell you freely. Your mind is extremely corrupted, ruined. You’ll be unfortunate. Having close relations with Turks causes such disasters. This is the wisdom of why our priests always urge us to stay away from them. I’m sure that Turk earlier inspired these bad ideas in you.
Surpik – Not at all… I’ve read most of what’s written about Islam in English. If you read them too, you’ll understand the truth. All conventional and traditional things collapse in the face of truth, science, and nature. Don’t you see and feel that European civilization, in a noisy confusion, is going toward Islam without even realizing it? In relatively savage countries like Spain, civil marriage laws are being accepted. Every government that exists has accepted parliamentary, consultative methods. Now they’re all slowly moving toward evolution, toward republic. The most magnificent, most terrible of social movements is Socialism! Free Thinker societies everywhere! Awakening from delusions of twenty centuries ago… Freedom in marriage, consultative method, democracy, republic, absolute equality, socialism in a universal cooperation form very close to sharing—all are the foundations of Islam… The victory of natural sciences is destroying all lies, even the strongest stubbornness and oppressions can no longer resist…
Rupenyan – I’m afraid you’ve become Muslim?
Surpik – No, the change in form and appearance has no importance—but be assured, all thinkers, those who can think, are actually Muslim. Islam, according to what I’ve read and understood, consists only of thinking, not remaining fixed on one idea, not being bound to a belief or assumption, always seeking the truth, reality. And whoever does this is spiritually Muslim. You, my dear, don’t you ever think, pursuing the phantom called truth in everything, don’t you reason how ridiculous and foolish many conventional lies are?
Rupenyan – What are you saying? Your ideas are very, very terrible… I’m almost frightened. I studied at the Jesuits’ school. Our director was a very respectable, very noble, very blessed priest… When speaking to us about truth, he would say: “My children! Don’t seek any other truth. All truth came with Christ and there’s nothing left in the world to be sought and found!” In his speeches, he would always repeat in Latin “…There is nothing new under the sun!” and add that there can never be anything new from now on. I, I say it with pride, am religious! I hate blasphemy. I neither say nor think things that could be considered sins.
Surpik – Ah, did you study at the Jesuits’ school? Then I pity you… Who are the Jesuits, don’t you know? They are hungry and black crows expelled from the horizons where the dawn of truth has begun to break, from the land of science and knowledge, order and progress, who always seek darkness! They gnaw and swallow the brains, minds, thinking abilities of the bodies they perch on; they reduce them to a mass of moving and living corpses… They’re so terrible that…
(At this moment, the door opens. Madame Bagdeseryan enters. A white-haired, plump woman.)
Madame Bagdeseryan – Ah, is it you, Monsieur Rupenyan?
Rupenyan – I came to visit you, madam. I was talking with Mademoiselle.
Madame Bagdeseryan (Laughing) – What are you talking about?
Surpik – Always about the weather, mother dear, about the beauty of the weather!
Madame Bagdeseryan – Indeed beautiful weather… Almost like summer! This morning after leaving church, I walked in the garden for half an hour. Ah, it came to my mind, especially that new preacher… What he said. He made us all cry… Do you know this young priest, Monsieur Rupenyan?
Rupenyan – I know him, madam, he’s my old school friend. Yes, he’s as noble, religious, and sacred as he is capable, such a great man that…
(Rupenyan praises his old classmate for hours, and Mademoiselle Bagdeseryan, together with her mother, listens without making a sound!)
Ömer Seyfettin
