The Case of Cem by Vera Mutafchieva

Author:Vera Mutafchieva
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sandorf Passage
Published: 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVENTH TESTIMONY OF THE POET SAADI ON THE PERIOD FROM OCTOBER 1483 TO JUNE 1484

AS FAR AS I can remember, my previous testimony ended with Rumilly—the Order’s stronghold in Savoy. I had spoken to you of Rumilly with loathing, yet when I look back at the entirety of our exile, Rumilly was not so objectionable. In Rumilly we still had hope.

Our stay there ended suddenly in the autumn of 1483. Immediately after Cem’s illness and, in fact, before my master was fully recovered. I have already mentioned Cem had his first fainting fit when our men were sent away. That night I somehow dragged him to his bed and tucked him under the covers. Cem lay there deathly pale; even unconscious, he had not lost his expression of suffering and pain. Cem, my dear friend, I thought, where have the days gone when you would be waiting for us in the morning, already warmed from riding, flushed and tan, lively and joyful for no reason? You yourself were like the dawning day, so wondrously well did we greet the day with you.

I had dampened his temples and unbuttoned his robe. I was afraid to call one of the knights, even though they surely had already noticed Cem’s unwellness. I was afraid of the cup they would bring to their guest. We no longer had anything of our own within the walls of Rumilly. We had to stumble along, clutching onto each other like the blind man and the deaf man from that old fable.

I did not sleep for a whole week, passing my nights in some kind of light dozing. In the darkness, the curtains seemed to ripple with human movement, while the wind’s howl was warm with human breath. Everything around us breathed an all-pervading hostility, and we were completely alone, completely defenseless in the face of it.

No matter how I describe it, you will not be able to imagine: two young men, Eastern poets, untested by the world, far from their homeland, sitting locked up within unknown walls, surrounded by incomprehensible warriors—a fully foreign world.

No, you are once again sidestepping the core of our drama. You are inclined to pity us because of the imprisonment our own trust led us to fall into. But that was not the main problem. What oppressed us most, what truly made Cem ill, was the clash not between two deeply different ways of life, but ways of thinking.

I’ll have you know, your modern viewpoint places Oriental man in an untrue light—you judge him according to a much later image. This image offends me, an Eastern thinker from the fifteenth century. Because during the Middle Ages, which were on their way out at that time, the East was something mighty. It did not know nations made up of a single people; in its boundless empires dozens of languages were spoken and several faiths professed, alongside quite a few heresies. There, no one had erased the legacy of antiquity; there, soldiers became emperors, while many emperors died in exile.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.