Yenikoy Yalis (Seaside Mansions)
If there is one piece of poetry written on any city that haunts me, that is ‘The City’ by the Greek Egyptian poet Cavafy (1863-1933). He was the son of a family from Yenikoy, Istanbul who had moved to Egypt in 1850. He had landed in Istanbul running away from the British bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. He lived in Kadikoy and Yenikoy where his family owned a property and spent three years of his life in Istanbul before he left for his home town.
Greek Orhodox Church Panagia in Yenikoy where Cavafy’s sculpture stands in the garden
Cavafy’s poem which was written in 1894 is still very popular among the residents of Istanbul although most can not correctly recall who the poet was. This poem ironically has been associated with Istanbul by the locals although art critics say that the poem refers to the city of ‘Alexandria’.
Istanbul has a spell very similar to what Cavafy has described in his poem. It is a city that haunts you and does not ‘let go’ although one seeks another country or another shore. I know the feeling as I lived away from ‘home’ over seas and I have friends who still do. This is especially true in a period like ours where so many are seeking to ‘live’ elsewhere away from home, trying to seek new opportunities and new horizons. But the spell of the city is strong and the longing is intense.
Cavafy’s Bust in the Garden of the Greek Orhodox Church in Yenikoy
Let’s listen to the lines of Cavafy as a tribute to a man who produced one of the best pieces of poetry that still lives in the subconscious of the Istanbulites.
‘You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,
find another city better than this one.
Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong
and my heart lies buried like something dead.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”
You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You’ll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighbourhoods, turn grey in these same houses.
You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:
there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.
Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.’
The lyrics were composed by a Turkish music group: Ezginin Gunlugu. Let’s lend an ear.
