The State of re-Union

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3. The State of re-Union

Re-union “denotes the state of union regained by the human soul after the experience of earthly realities or separation”. 163 Thus, after the lover suffers like the reed which is torn from the reed bed and constantly sings a song full of longing for the source. Before proceeding into the analysis of the final stage, it is worthy to recall the previous discussion that the division between separation and union is blurred as union and separation is precondition to one another. 164 This signifies that union does not always mean being in physical contact just as separation is not necessarily being physically apart. The re- union or the ending in Pamuk’s oeuvres is extraordinary distinctive as he uses death as the ultimate journey of his characters in his oeuvres. The occurrence of death seems to become the locus in Pamuk’s works. Besides his constant flirt with East and West identity conflict, Pamuk is never tired of ‘killing’ the characters in his works. Pamuk’s intimacy with death keeps echoing in almost of his tales. The Silent House, his early novel written in 1983 and recently translated into English in 2012, exposes the death of Nilgun who is murdered by Hasan, a boy who is desperately in love with her. Finding that the girls his heart sings a love song is a communist, Hasan cannot help but beats her as he believes that she betrays their Islamic values. Nilgun dies few days later as a result of Hasan’s beating. In The New Life 1995, again Pamuk short cuts his characters life on a bus accident while they searching for a new life as promised 163 Lalita Sinha, Unveiling the Garden of Love: Mystical Symbolism in Layla Majnun and Gita Govinda Indiana: World Wisdom 2010, 49. 164 Lalita Sinha, Unveiling the Garden of Love: Mystical Symbolism in Layla Majnun and Gita Govinda Indiana: World Wisdom 2010, 81. 95 by a book they read one day. A book that had changed their life but in searching for the brand new life as stated in the book, the characters have to trade their life and meet their destiny: die. The aroma of death is also thick in P amuk’s My Name is Red 1998 one of his masterpieces that earned him an international big hit that focusing on finding the mu rder in the novel in order to finish the Sultan’s order. The conflict starts with the death of Master gilder Elegant Effendi who was murdered by a fellow artist. He and three other miniaturists had been working secretly on a book delegated by the Sultan using the new Frankish methods. The thriller of the novel closes when the murderer is found following by the death of the murderer itself. 165 Death, in an ordinary point of view is naturally recognized as the end of one’s life or journey. In mystical perspective, death is used as a symbol that signifies unity. It is the point of union in Sufi tradition. In the circle of darwis, it is not birthday that they celebrate, but their ursh their death. 166 Thus, death is central topic in most of Sufi poetry, and death has endangered “the innumerable cruel description of the lover dying on the path towards the Beloved. ” 167 The 165 See Orhan Pamuk, The Silent House, trans. Robert Finn London: Fabeer and Faber, 2012; The New Life, trans. Güneli Gün new York: Farrar Straus Girroux, 1997; My Name is Red, trans. Erdağ Göknar London: Faber and Faber, 2001. 166 In the circle of dervish, death is worth celebrating than birthday. They are not celebrating their birthday but their ursh, the day of their death. The most well known celebrated death day is Rumi’s demise. Devout seeker and pilgrimage from all the corner of the globe visits his mausoleum in Konya, Central Anatolia, Turkey and celebrates his death every December 17. To emphasize the joy of death, in his tomb written a precep t says “Now for my funeral, Bring drums and tambourines and kettledrums. And bring me dancing to my grave, my friends, Intoxicated, joyful, cla p your hands” 167 Annemarie Schimmel, As Through a Veil: Mystical Dimension of Poetry in Islam New York: Columbia University Press 1982, 46. 96 hadith from the Prophet “die before ye die” is the basis that tantalizes the longing for death on the path of the beloved. Attar put this state of union in a poetical way “If you hope for union then die” 168 Death is a medium to be united with the beloved; it is the remedy to cure the pain of separation encounters by the lovers. In Sufi literature, death is such an exclusive thing that the lovers longing in their whole life. Death is the bridge that will unite the lovers with their beloved. 169 At the heart of The Black Book is the search for the beloved who leaving without a trace and when finally appearing they are found died. The death of the beloved however, is accompanied by the dea th of Galip’s garden of memory. Galip wanders every corner of Istanbul and meets diverse people including his schoolmate and the prostitute that makes him feel newly born, to find Rüya but comes to no avail. At the end he realizes that the only way to find her is to find Celâl. Celâl, his wife step brother, also disappears at the night when his wife is missing. Galip concludes that the only possible way to find Rüya is to seek Celâl. Galip believes that Rüya and Celâl must be hiding in similar place. Therefore, finding Celâl will take him to Rüya as well. In his anguish of loosing Rüya, Galip takes a great confidence that Celâl is the answer to work out his predicament. Galip then visits Celâ l’s office in a hope to find his wife. He will do as what he does to anyone else. He will not tell him the truth about Rü ya’s missing in the first place instead he will tell him about a distraught client whose wife abandons h im. Galip will tell him “that Rüya a little 168 Ibid. 70. 169 Schimmel, “Sun at Midnight. Despair and Trust in the Islamic Mystical Tradition” Diogenes 165. 421 1994:1-24. 97 out of sorts, nothing more” BB, 95. Thus, on his way to Celâl’ office, Galip is imagining how his conversation with Celâl will flow. How Celâl will respond to his story after he listens carefully to every detail of Galip’s story. A soothing feeling embraces his heart as he knows that whenever Celâ l speaks ‘the world would begin to make sense again” BB, 95. At this point, Galip thinks “how much that everything will be better if he could leave this world behind forever and live in Celâ l’s world instead” BB, 95. Sadly, Celâl is not available at his office and instead of finding Celâl, Galip meets two old journalists tha t tell him about Celâl’s absence for days. “Celâl Bey hasn’t been in for days” BB, 96. The two old journalists advise Galip that in order to find Celâ l, Galip has to study his writing. They say “If you want to find him, study his columns ” BB, 102. The old columnist and the magazine writer assume that if Celâl is gone into hiding to sort of his crisis, they believe that Celâl must have someone with him, “Someone to whom he could pass on his literary secrets, his will and testament” BB, 103. Eventually, one night Galip finds Celâl died in front of Alaadin shop. Celâl is apparently being murdered by one of his fanatic readers. The next day, Rü ya’s body is found inside Alaadin shop among the dolls on the display. This novel brings two different state of death yet shows similar theme which is union. The death of Rüya and Celâ l is the final search for Galip’s wandering either in every corner of Istanbul or in Celâ l’s bottomless well of past memory. By the death of these two, Galip is eventually united with his beloved. He finally can reach his dream Rüya by achieving enlightenment Celâl. Galip ’s union with his beloved 98 thus shows the ideal of Sufi framework, people need to suffer in order to reach purification. He endures this suffering every night by exploring Ist anbul’s street in searching for Rüya and Celâl. Thus, Galip has to endure the pain caused by Celâl and Rüya missing prior to his struggle to achieve enlightenment and to be united with his beloved Rüya. Galip finally reaches his union with his dream after he successfully reinvents Celâ l’s garden of memory, inventing Celâl’s garden of memory and past, Galip cannot persist to write as Celâl. Celâl has not died but lives trough Galip and continues writing as Celâl. This is how Galip securing himself into a new liberating literary career in Celâ l’s identity. Kemal in The Museum of Innocence is eventually be united with his beloved Füsun after she crashes the car on their way to Europe. He is no longer embarrassed with his collection of objects that becomes his consolation during his pathetic days and heartache to win Füsun back. He finally displays all the objects that were laden with Fü sun’s memory into a museum devoted to the memory of his beloved. He wants to spend the rest of his life with all objects that reminds him of Füsun. In approximately eight years that he spends with Füsun and her family, Kemal only once verbally admits to Füsun’s mother that he loves her daughter, the rest of his times he only sits by her side contentedly and passively, expressing his love through looks and brief brushes of skin. When Füsun separates from her husband and agrees to marry Kemal, she demands that Kemal first takes her and her mother on a road trip across Europe. On the first night of the trip, Kemal and 99 Füsun make love for the first time since their first lovemaking in 1975. The following morning, tipsy and accusing Kemal of thwarting her chances at cinematic stardom, Füsun drives the 1956 Chevrolet Kemal inherited from his father into a 105-year-old plane tree going 105 kilometers per hour. From the passenger seat, ever the pensive and reflective narrator, Kemal explains to readers: Truly I knew then, in the depths of my soul, that we had come to the end of our allotted portion of happiness that our time had come to leave this beautiful realm, by way of racing toward the plane tree. Füsun had locked onto it, as onto a target. And so it was I felt, my future could not be parted from hers. Wherever we were going, I would be there with her, and we were never to enjoy the happiness one could find on this earth. It was a terrible shame, but it seemed inevitable MoI, 488. Within seven seconds, Füsun is dead, and Kemal enters a coma from which he eventually recovers one month later. Losing Füsun for the second time, without any chance to see her again Kemal discovers that he no longer lives as himself. He feels that Füsun lives inside him regardless of her physical absence. And just like Majnun 170 who concentrates his thought on Layla, Kemal focuses his life on Füsun and he creates a “world” that assumes the form of Füsun in his life. After visiting 5000 museums all over the world, not the big crowded “ostentatious ones”, but “the empty museums”, “the collections no one ever visits” MoI, 495, Kemal discovers consolation of his broken heart: “Whenever wandering alone trough museums like this, I felt myself u plifted. […] it was as if I had entered a se parate realm that coexisted with the city’s crowded streets but was 170 In Sufi tradition, Majnun literally means crazy, is an epitomizing figure of the seeker who travels the thorns of love caused by his separation from Layla, his bel oved. Majnun’s predicament is the most perfect example of mystical quest. Layla Majnun is a classic poem of Nizami which was written in latter half of 12 th Century. See Nizami, The Story of Layla and Majnun, trans. Rudolf Gelpke New York: Omega Publication, 1997. 100 not of them; and in the eerie timelessness of this other universe, I would find solace” MoI, 495 Kemal then decides to buy the Çukurcuma home to house his fetishistic collection and to live with it: by immortalizing Füsun into a museum, Kemal unites with his beloved by living in constant remembrance of Fü sun’s memory: ” I may not have “won” the woman I love so obsessively, but it cheered me to have broken off a piece of her, however small ” MoI, 372. Kemal’s museum is his ‘kaaba’ 171 , a place, in Rumi and Hafiz’s word is not a physical place but a spiritual place representing the state of union and symbolizing intimacy. Kaaba also symbolizes the Divine essence, while the Black stone within it represents the human spiritual essence. 172 Museum of Innocence that he builds upon Fü sun’s death is the home of all the objects that Füsun has touched which he pilfers during his visits to the Keskin household in Çukurcuma. This re- union reveals the ideals in Sufi tradition that union or separation is beyond physical dimension. This means that experiencing union is not always being physically united. As a person can find connectedness in separation, a person can also taste disconnectedness in union. 173 Either Galip or Kemal, they lost their beloved when they are united with them. When they undergo the stage of separation from their beloved, they believe that after all the pain they endure they 171 In Muslim tradition, the fifth tenet of Islam is the pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Mecca. Kaaba represents the house of Allah where they will encircle the kaaba and recite a prayer. 172 Lelah Bakhtiar, Sufi: Expression of the Mystic Quest New York: Thames Hudson 1976, 137. 173 Hafiz, The Green Sea of Heaven, trans. Elizabeth T. Gray, JR. Oregon: White Cloud Press 2002, 21. 101 will discover happiness. They will eventually unite with their beloved and all the pain and longing they are suffering will meet its remedy. Füsun, Rüya, and Celâ l’s death for Kemal and Galip respectively means that they encounter final separation from their beloved. However, Kemal and Galip’ loss of their beloved no longer hurts them as they way they suffer in their first separation from their beloved. This is in accordance with Sufi tradition as Sufi believes that physical death could not but be “the moment of celebration when the last obstacle was lifted and he was able to return fully to the ocean of light from which he had become momentarily separated. ” 174 In their final separation, Kemal and Galip discover that it is not necessary to search for their beloved or suffering from incurable heartbroken. They are aware that as their beloved live in them and they live as their beloved; hence there is no need to search for their beloved. Kemal installs a museum as his retreat for Füsun and Galip assumes a new life by securing Celâ l’c columns. This state of re-union is what Sufi tradition recognizes as “seekers who finally became one with those they sought ” BB, 261. Or the fusion of I and you, for there is no I or you but we. This is the state that Rumi beautifully puts in his mathnavi “if I am He, then why am I still searching?” 175 Ka, in Snow experiences a slight different re-union. He abandons the happiness he finds in Kars and he prefers to go home to Frankfurt without İpek 174 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Rūmī and the Sufi Tradition. Studies in Comparative Religion”, © World Wisdom, Inc 8. 2 1974: 1-18, 11. 175 Rumi, Mathnavi Qtd in Orhan Pamuk. The Black Book, trans. Maureen Freely London: Faber and Faber, 2006, 261. 102 and lives his lonely life all by himself. For years and years Ka has drawn deeper into his solitude and does not even bother to se nd all the letters he wrote to İpek. He withdraws himself from his surrounding and lives in the silence of his pain: All my li fe I’ve felt as lost and lonely as a wounded animal Ka wrote…But here I am, abandoned and wasting away; the scars of my unbearable suffering on every inch of my body. Sometimes I think it’s not just you I’ve lost, but that I’ve lost everything in the world Snow, 259-260. The following four years after his visit to Kars and his unbearable solitude, Ka is shot to death by one of Blue’s admirers as the price he has to pay for breaking his promise to Blue: “ Whatever they do to you, they must also do to me” Snow, 325. Ka’s demise is a consequence of his decision prior to his departure from Kars with İpek. Ka’s choice is provoked by Z Dermikol, the police commander in Kars who tells him heartbreaking news about İpek. İpek to whom Ka pins all his Frankfurt happiness was once upon a time Blue’s mistress: “This İpek Hanim 176 with whom you hope to live happily ever after- she was, once upon a time, Blue’s mistress” Snow, 356. Z Dermikol then reads a few excerpts of some conversation between İpek and Blue that chase away Ka’s doubt: My dar ling, my dearest, the days I spend without you I’m hardly alive” That. For example is what İpek Hanim said on a hot summer’s day four years ago. […] “Everyone has only one true love in life, and you are that love in mine.” [...] In the past two days alone, she’s phoned him three times. We don’t have transcript of these last conversation, but it doesn’t matter; when you see İpek Hanim, you can ask her yourself Snow, 358. 176 Hanim is the title for Turkish female, for men it is Bey. These traditional Turkish titles which belong to Ottoman’s legacy were abolished in November 1935 by Atatürk and replaced with Mr, Mrs, and Miss. See History Today, November 2009. 103 Alth ough Z Dermikol cannot provide İpek and Blue’s latest conversation, what he has been telling Ka obviously changes Ka’s mind as well as his destiny. Only a few hours after this painful revelation, a group of soldiers raids Blue’s hiding place and kills him Snow, 389. Blue’s demise turns out to be Ka’s fate four years later. As tragic as it may seem, Ka’s death however freed him from all his lamentation: the state of exile either in Kars or Frankfurt, the crushing pain of his jealousy to Blue, and his solitude in Kars. Ka’s death is his portal to free himself from all of his predicaments. As Hallaj 177 had sung, “In my being killed is my life.” 178

4. Conclusion