Α. Παπαδιαμάντης, «Ο ξεπεσμένος δερβίσης», Απάντα ΙΙΙ, επιμ. Ν.Δ. Τριανταφυλλόπουλος, Αθήνα, Δόμος, 1989, σσ. 111−116 |
THE FALLEN DERVISH Alexandros Papadiamantis
Rendered by Vassilis C. Militsis
Two, three, five, ten drops. Similar to the unvaried pace of the vigilant sailor on deck watch. He is sailing on the spacious dark seas, and all he can see is sky and wildly rough waters; and swathed in his cape he is promptly groping through the dark aided by the burning tip of his cigarette.
The roosters had not yet crowed their third cock-a-doodle-do. They might have been frightened by the deep, mournful voice of the salep peddler, who had started to advertise his merchandise deep into the night on the onset of autumn. And his voice sounded like the cawing of an unearthly vulture, which had lost its homing and swooped down on the city seeking whatever prey to snatch. - Boiling hot! … It was boiling in the night. The salep was hot, but slumber was sweeter. Only the roosters were intimidated by the cry of the salep street vendor. It had rained for some time, but it soon cleared up. The rain water was slowly trickling down the spout onto the yard.
- Hey! And where, in this world?
The utterance issued from the vendor’s mouth in the dark. A window creaked open from a low room overlooking the street. A man wrapped in a shawl leaned out. He put out a large bowl to the street peddler, but the latter was tarrying. The man bent out to see what the delay was for. A tall figure, wearing a white turban, a colored greatcoat and black tunic, had stood before the vendor.
- Where, in this world? - Bu dünya çarkifelek. - Aşk olsun … whispered the salep vendor. He did not recognize the man, but his attire. Everyone else would have passed him as a ghost; but he was not daunted for he was also from those parts. When did he show up? Days or weeks ago. Wherefrom? Perhaps from Roumeli, from eastern Turkey or from Istanbul. How and why? And who was he? Was he a dervish of the Bektashi Order ?A Hoca? An imam? An Ulama?He was tall, swarthy, prepossessing and sweet in a rough way, with his turban, his sleeveless coat and his dolama.Was he in favor or was has he fallen out of grace? Did he once prosper? Was he then dishonored and exiled? - Bu dünya çarkifelek. This world is a sphere that turns around. That evening the Dervish had been invited to join a knot of companions. They were seven to eight bosom friends. They enjoyed life and their youth. One of them used to cook pots of roast meat with pasta every evening. The others merely relished the meal. He was a lottery ticket winner and earned from ten to fifteen drachmas a day. He wondered how to spend his money, thus he had pots cooked and treated his friends to them. They were ‘lottery tickets’ eaters in its literal sense. They also loved music and singing. The Dervish did not drink wine; he only drank mastic liquor. They were also ‘dervishes’ like him. They asked him to sing; he did. They asked him to play; he played. They did not like it. What he sang was a Turkish long drawn love song. The Dervish sang the song the way they were not used to hearing it. He went again to the coffee house; the one opposite Theseion.* There was a tavern next to it. Both joints were opposite the old station, too. Further on from the coffee house a tunnel was in process of being built and it was almost completed. It was fall of that year. The Dervish would sit there and drink mastic liquor if someone was kind to buy him a drink. He was in his fifties, with his turban, his curly grey beard and sported a long pipe. He had been staying there all night for some days, for he was homeless and wandering. The small coffee house had the permit to stay open the entire night. It was frequented, except for the regulars, also by those coming from improvised casinos and the theaters. They would drink rum and sage. The Dervish would occasionally play the Ney. The constable on duty did not disturb him, as he enjoyed listening to him.The constable was a kind man. When he had assumed his office some years before, he performed his duty with excessive zeal. Once, when he noticed a row, he hurried to pacify the belligerents. An older colleague took pity on him: “When you see a row,” he advised him, “you’d better hide into a side alley, take your time until the brawl calms down a little and then make your appearance.” He also gave him still another piece of advice: “At a squabbling, you ought always to pay attention to who is stronger than you so you can watch out for yourself. Reprimand the one who is less strong than you; give him a slap to restore order, and you’ll come out unscathed in this way.” And he still went on: “Each new appointed officer superior to you tends to be very strict, because he wants to impose himself on others. Then he mellows out and finally gives up. Therefore, you should conform to the whims of your chief. And you’d better be more zealous than before the first days.”
Valuable guidance. A new police chief was appointed on those days. Our constable ordered the coffee house to close at that night to show his zealous performance of his duty. The following day or the day after that he would allow it to open again. But the dice was cast that night, which was going to be a fated one. The good constable bore his colleagues advice in mind. He had to compel the owner to close for the night. Neither did he allow his helper to stay in so that he could not open to someone who might knock on the door. He did not allow the homeless, errant Dervish to stay in, either on the pretense of playing his ney and attracting noisy people who disturbed the neighbors’ sleep. Thus, the Dervish wearing his turban, his long sleeveless coat and his dolama, took his pipe and ney, and left. But there was nowhere to go. He walked around the coffee house aimlessly. In the vicinity there was the tunnel under construction. He felt chilly due to the nocturnal off-shore wind. It was after midnight. The constable pounded his beat under the zinc shelters of the shop porches. The nomadic Dervish walked down the tunnel hoping to seek refuge in its lee. He sat down and leaned on the wall. He was brooding upon the fickle human conditions. Aşk olsun çevirmek. Happy is he who knows how to make this world go round. Time went by. The patrolling constable was wondering what had become of the Dervish, whom he had seen walking down the tunnel. Where is he, indeed? His question was answered by a sweet voice accompanied by a melodic tune. The newcomer Moslem was freezing where he was sitting and his eyelids were growing heavy. In order to warm himself, he took his ney and began playing a tune at random. Oh, sweet, coquettish ney! A sky breeze, a sweet, mellow and intoxicating song!
Little does it differ from Christ’s affirmative, meek, gentle and charitable Nai. [Cf. Matthew 5:37-3937 But let [a]your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. 37 εστω δε ο λογος υμων ναι ναι ου ου το δε περισσον τουτων εκ του πονηρου εστιν] From down the pit of the tunnel a melody was emanating like the purl of a brook, like myrrh, sugared powder, a vapor, an elegy, a passion borne on the feathers of the nocturnal breeze, mild, mellow, guileless, crystalline, ripping the air, hailing the void, pleading with the infinity in the voice of a bewailing virgin, like the whimpering of a sorely winter-afflicted fowl longing for the return of spring. The thick walls and the bulky columns of Theseion as well as its impressive roof were not surprised by that melody. They remembered and recognized it, for they had heard it before in the times of rise and fall. That music is not as barbaric as the Asian races are supposed to be. It is closely akin to the ancient Phrygian and Lydian harmonies. The deep wee hours were drawing nigh, but it was still dark. The night still spread her veil, and the salep street vendor was vociferously advertising his merchandise on sale while the roosters cringed in their coops. The small window creaked open and the peddler went on talking with the homeless, stranger Dervish in Turkish. Before long the mysterious and mellow song had ceased and the ney had fallen from the Dervish’s hands. The sky was overcast and it began to rain, but it stopped after a few minutes. The constable was nowhere to be seen. Numb, soaked and cold the Dervish ascended to the ‘upper world.’ He picked up an alley passing in front of the Holy Angels’ Church. The alley bore on a plate the name Lepeniotou Street, as it was named by the venerable trustees of the church. If Lepeniotis** himself, the lionhearted, much as he nurtured a vindictive hatred for the murder of his heroic brother, could have walked in incorporeal form in that place and could have seen the miserable Dervish, persecuted, exiled, homeless and shivering in that narrow street gliding between the rows of old cottages, he would most certainly have taken pity on him. Likewise, the salep vendor felt for him and for a nickel he gave him a double portion of salep along with half a bun to dip in, and let the neighbor, wrapped in his shawl and hastily risen from his warm bed, stay in the cold at the small window. “Come on, peddler, darn you…” “Bu dünya…” On that morning, the Dervish drank his salep and ate his bun. Then all day long he tended to snooze wherever he happened to sit. On the other days, he spent his nights in the coffee house, which resumed its overnight operation, after that fated night. He drank mastic liquor and smoked his pipe. Occasionally he would still play his ney. Some days later, he disappeared and was never seen again. No one knows whether he is alive or dead; perhaps he is still wandering in other parts or he might have been recalled from the exile and returned to his homeland No one knows. He might at this very hour have earned the favor of the powerful Padishah, and he may be great among the Ulamas in Istanbul; he even might be serving as an imam in a well-known mosque. Or better, he may be the Caliph’s favored one and have become a chief ulama or Shaykh al-IslāmBu dünya çarkifelek.
*Temple of Hephaestus**Κostas Lepeniotis (1777 – 1812) a heroic partisan against the Turks in the prerevolutionary times.About dolama also see: Dolama – 16th-Century Istanbul - Issendai.com
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