A Server Bedî Novel: From Bay Window to Rumba

Bey: Bey is a general title of respect for men in Turkish countries, added after a personal name and equivalent to “sir” in conversations in English. Similar to ‘’monsieur.’’ 

Hanım: Hanım is a general title of respect for women in Turkish countries, added after a personal name. Similar to ‘’mademoiselle’’ or ‘’madam.’’

Peyami Safa published most of his works under the name of Server Bedî. According to common belief, Safa makes this distinction in order not to confuse the works he makes a living with and the works he thinks have artistic value. Nevertheless, no matter how different the name is, the effect of Peyami Safa’s ideas can be seen in all of his works since the person is the same. And Ötüken Neşriyat published this novel under the name of Peyami Safa, not Server Bedî.

The general theme that Safa performs in many of his works is present in this novel too: East-West dilemma. This situation is not different in this text, which is a Server Bedî novel. This contradiction is processed through Cemile, the protagonist of the novel. Cemile lives in an old-style house with a bay window (cumba) in Karagümrük with her sister Şahende, Şahende’s son Altay and their mother Asiye Hanım. Cemile is a person who stands out with her sincerity and honesty. Because of her sudden and unrestrained attitude and overly straightforwardness, she is referred to in the neighbourhood as the “Karagümrük’s Mad Cemile’’. She is untroubled by this name.  Cemile, who lost her father at a young age, does not have much education. Her mother Asiye Hanım doesn’t have much opinion of her own. She cannot do a thing without consulting her neighbours. Şahende is a quiet, good-natured woman.  They have nothing in common with Cemile in terms of temperament. 

The novel generally consists of two parts. There are also sections within these parts. There are chapter titles that will give a little clue about each chapter. In the first part, Cemile’s life, family and neighborhood life are mentioned. From there, we understand how uncomfortable Cemile is with the neighborhood. The only thing she wants is to move out from the neighborhood and she makes readers feel that she can do anything for this cause. Cemile coincidentally comes across a rich and polite-looking guy named Tahsin Bey Bey from Kayseri and accepts the ball tickets she gave her. Cemile, who is not satisfied with her life and thinks that she has nothing less from Beyoğlu girls, sees this as an opportunity and immediately starts to prepare. During this rush, a part of their house is rented, and the tenant’s son Selim and Cemile fell for each other. When Cemile sees Selim, she has all kinds of intrigues on her mind.

Tahsin Bey Bey shops for the ball with Cemile and makes an offer to her. According to the offer, Tahsin Bey Bey will rent an apartment in Taksim and Cemile will stay in this house as his fiancée until Tahsin Bey Bey divorces his wife. Even though Cemile chases after a life of luxury, her temperament will not let her completely turn her back on her own values. -A different point from Safa’s other novels attract attention here. Cemile does not embrace the West blindly like Neriman in ‘’Fatih-Harbiye’’ and Meral in ‘’Yalnızız’’ (We Are Alone). Cemile’s ball adventure is an incident itself. Although she wears a very revealing dress with a low back, her mother Asiye Hanım does not want to take off her chador. Şahende comes to the ball with her baby. Even though Cemile is uncomfortable with all of this, she keeps her mouth shut. She also invites Selim and spends most of her time with him.  A great conflict arises between Tahsin Bey and Selim. Tahsin Bey gets jealous of Cemile and sees Selim’s refusal to talk to him as an insult. At the end of the night, Cemile realizes that she has to make a choice between Selim and Tahsin Bey. Cemile has already fallen in love with Selim. Since Selim’s alternative is Tahsin Bey, Cemile gets more attached to him. Because the idea of being Tahsin Bey Bey’s wife makes her extremely disgusted. After the night that they made wedding plans and Cemile proved how much she loves Selim, the fact that Selim’s father was imprisoned shows up. That means a hair in the butter for them. Cemile can’t stand Selim’s sadness. She asks Tahsin Bey for money to get Selim’s father out of jail. Eventually, they make a deal and Cemile accepts to stay in Tahsin Bey Bey’s house in Taksim. Cemile does not want Selim to know the sacrifice she made. Because she thinks that he has another woman in his life. She leaves Selim and tells him that she will live in Tahsin Bey Bey’s house. The first part ends here.  

In the first section of the second part, Cemile tries to carry out the requirements of her new life. Cemile has to host the guests of Tahsin Bey in the house, which is furnished in a very bad taste. She gets to know new people and starts to get colder and colder from this life. One day, Cemile, who sees Selim and Nahide (a friend of Selim from school, Cemile thinks they have a relationship) in a restaurant they went with Tahsin Bey, gets very shocked and becomes unable to get out of bed. A few days later she receives a letter from Selim and goes to meet him. Many issues that are misunderstood as they speak, come to light. But Cemile, who feels that Selim has doubts, turns away from him again. Cemile, who is preparing for a princess’s invitation from Egypt who has been to Istanbul through Memduh Bey, participates in the scheme that was made by Tahsin Bey and Memduh Bey. Everyone at the invitation recognizes her as the poet Nahide, who is in love with Memduh Bey. Cemile’s having to lie in an unfamiliar environment causes her to get very angry. And when she finds Karagümrük’s burned on the phone call from her mother, she tells everything that comes to her mind in front of the guests. Tahsin Bey Bey’s intention is not understood by both Cemile and the reader until the part of the “Confessions of Tahsin Bey Bey” in the novel. In this episode, Tahsin Bey tells Cemile about everything he wants to do, his past and his deceased daughter, and says that he wants to marry Şahende. This news makes Cemile both stunned and happy. Unfortunately, this moment of joy ends with Nail Bey’s visit to Cemile on the same day. Nail Bey came to inform Cemile that Selim is sick. That eats her heart out, she immediately goes to see Selim. Doctors say that Selim needs treatment abroad, and Nail Bey agrees. But Cemile doesn’t want to leave Selim. The day he’ll go to Swiss, Cemile catches the train and makes them get off the train. On the wedding day of Selim and Cemile, Nail Bey admits that he made up this abroad trip to test Cemile’s love. 

There is no explicit date in the novel. Based on the events, we can say that it is the time interval corresponding to the phase of rapid changes that occurred with the proclamation of the Republic. Since the publication date of the book is 1936, we can call the period in the novel the late 1920s and early 1930s. The general place is of course Istanbul. We witness that Kayseri and Ankara are also mentioned in the “Confessions of Tahsin Bey” section though. As a matter of fact, “Cumbadan Rumbaya” (From Bay Window to Rumba) seems to gives an outline of a spatial conflict. In the first part of the novel, Cemile unwillingly lives in the house left by her father in Karagümrük; In the second part, in the extremely luxurious flat in Taksim, where Tahsin Bey paid the rent. Bay window is the name given to the protruding part on the upper part of old houses. Which it represents tradition. Rumba, on the other hand, is a kind of Latin-American dance, which represents modernity. While Bay Window and Karagümrük are East, Rumba and Taksim are West. We see the East-West conflict seen in many of Peyami Safa’s novels with the above concepts in this novel as well. The name in the middle of all these values is Cemile. Other places in the novel are; Şehzadebaşı, Büyükdere, Beyoğlu and the University. The circumstance is narrated from the third person omniscient perspective. Writer; sees, hears and knows everything. We hear the inner voices of the heroes. However, we cannot get any news about the future so that the curiosity aroused by the events does not disappear. The wording of the author is quite simple compared to his other novels. However, it would not be accurate to make such a comparison for the works of an author who published his novels under different names. Of course, evaluations on philosophy and art, and extensive spiritual depictions could not be included in this novel as in “We are Alone”. Here, there is an extremely fast narrative that will leave the reader curious. Cemile is a person among the people. Her behaviour and words also bear traces of the society she lives in. The author never polishes Cemile’s words. Sometimes there are slang words in the novel. 

The biggest technical problem in the novel – as an aspect not found in the author’s other novels – is that it contains a few unnecessary flashbacks. For example, Selim and Cemile sit in a pastry shop and Cemile suddenly gets upset. The reader understands the reason for this changeable mood in Cemile. But in the following pages, the author comments on every move seen in Cemile. Peyami Safa also adds his problematic ideas about “woman” to this “Server Bedî” novel. Through Cemile, he actually makes a reference to all women: Cemile wears the dress she wore at the ball at every opportunity for Selim to like her. Like all the girls these days who waited for what the heart could not do from fabric and meat, she expected help from the gloss of her body and soul. [1] ‘’From Bay Window to Rumba’’ is a novel that saddens the reader from time to time, especially on the occasion of Selim’s sickness. However, it is a humorous piece in general. In fact, it is a novel that looks funny from a distance and gets bitter when it comes close. Traditional value judgments and West are always in conflict in this novel, in which the people’s perception of modernity is highly scrutinized. Cemile, too, is idealized-caricatured as a type who has a deep desire in European style of life but does not ignore tradition. At the end of the novel, the author says that Cemile found the right way. So much so that those who did not know where the mad Cemile from Karagümrük, who rose like a made of light in white, came from, could not understand any moment of her fast travel between the two worlds from any step. But most of the guests knew the past of this crazy girl who jumped from a bay window to rumba. That day they learned what they did not know: It turns out that the crazy Cemile was smarter than all of them.  [2]

Footnote:

^[1] Peyami Safa, Cumbadan Rumbaya, 10. bs., Ötüken Neşriyat, İstanbul 2016, s.198

^[2] age, s.414

References:

Köksel Behiye, Peyami Safa’nın Romanlarında Kadın, İnönü Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Eğitimi Ana Bilim Dalı (Yayımlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi), Malatya 1992

Yıkan Zülfikar Uğur, Peyami Safa’nın Server Bedî İmzalı Romanları, Gazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yeni Türk Edebiyatı Bilim Dalı (Yayımlanmamış Master Tezi), Ankara 2004.

Safa Peyami, Cumbadan Rumbaya, 10. bs., Ötüken Neşriyat, İstanbul 2015.

Writer: Seda Öztürk

From Bay Window to Rumba was adapted into a movie by Turgut Demirağ in 1960. Cemile was played by Çolpan İlhan and Tahsin Bey was played by Vahi Öz in the movie.