{"id":100,"date":"2020-10-20T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/?p=100"},"modified":"2020-11-06T16:47:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T13:47:28","slug":"a-server-bedi-novel-from-bay-window-to-rumba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/a-server-bedi-novel-from-bay-window-to-rumba\/","title":{"rendered":"A Server Bed\u00ee Novel: From Bay Window to Rumba"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bey: Bey is <\/span>a general title of respect for men in Turkish countries, added after a personal name and equivalent to \u201csir\u201d in conversations in English. Similar to \u2018\u2019monsieur.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Han\u0131m: Han\u0131m is a general title of respect for women in Turkish countries, added after a personal name. Similar to \u2018\u2019mademoiselle\u2019\u2019 or \u2018\u2019madam.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peyami Safa published most of his works under the name of Server Bed\u00ee. 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\u2019s ideas can be seen in all of his works since the person is the same. And \u00d6t\u00fcken Ne\u015friyat published this novel under the name of Peyami Safa, not Server Bed\u00ee.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 Bed\u00ee 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 Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck with her sister \u015eahende, \u015eahende’s son Altay and their mother Asiye Han\u0131m. 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 “Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck\u2019s Mad Cemile\u2019\u2019. She is untroubled by this name.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Cemile, who lost her father at a young age, does not have much education. Her mother Asiye Han\u0131m doesn\u2019t have much opinion of her own. She cannot do a thing without consulting her neighbours. \u015eahende is a quiet, good-natured woman.\u00a0 They have nothing in common with Cemile in terms of temperament.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 Beyo\u011flu 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 fianc\u00e9e 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\u2019s other novels attract attention here. Cemile does not embrace the West blindly like Neriman in \u2018\u2019Fatih-Harbiye’\u2019 and Meral in \u2018\u2019Yaln\u0131z\u0131z\u2019\u2019 (We Are Alone). Cemile\u2019s ball adventure is an incident itself. Although she wears a very revealing dress with a low back, her mother Asiye Han\u0131m does not want to take off her chador. \u015eahende 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s father was imprisoned shows up. That means a hair in the butter for them. Cemile can\u2019t stand Selim\u2019s sadness. She asks Tahsin Bey for money to get Selim\u2019s 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s invitation from Egypt who has been to Istanbul through Memduh Bey, participates in the scheme that was made by Tahsin Bey and Memduh Bey. <\/span>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 Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck’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 \u201cConfessions 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 \u015eahende. This news makes Cemile both stunned and happy. Unfortunately, this moment of joy ends with Nail Bey\u2019s 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\u2019t want to leave Selim. The day he\u2019ll 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>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 Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck; 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 Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck 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; \u015eehzadeba\u015f\u0131, B\u00fcy\u00fckdere, Beyo\u011flu 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\u2019s words. Sometimes there are slang words in the novel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 Bed\u00ee” novel. <\/span>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. <\/span>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] <\/span>\u2018\u2019From Bay Window to Rumba\u2019\u2019 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. <\/span>So much so that those who did not know where the mad Cemile from Karag\u00fcmr\u00fck, 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.\u00a0 [2]<\/span><\/p>\n

Footnote:<\/p>\n

[1]<\/strong><\/sup><\/em><\/a>\u00a0Peyami Safa,\u00a0Cumbadan Rumbaya<\/strong>, 10. bs., \u00d6t\u00fcken Ne\u015friyat, \u0130stanbul 2016, s.198<\/p>\n

[2]<\/strong><\/sup><\/em><\/a>\u00a0age,<\/strong>\u00a0s.414<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

K\u00f6ksel Behiye,\u00a0Peyami Safa\u2019n\u0131n Romanlar\u0131nda Kad\u0131n<\/strong>, \u0130n\u00f6n\u00fc \u00dcniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstit\u00fcs\u00fc T\u00fcrk Dili ve Edebiyat\u0131 E\u011fitimi Ana Bilim Dal\u0131 (Yay\u0131mlanmam\u0131\u015f Y\u00fcksek Lisans Tezi), Malatya 1992<\/p>\n

Y\u0131kan Z\u00fclfikar U\u011fur,\u00a0Peyami Safa\u2019n\u0131<\/strong>n Server Bed\u00ee\u00a0<\/strong>\u0130mzal\u0131 Romanlar\u0131<\/strong>, Gazi \u00dcniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstit\u00fcs\u00fc Yeni T\u00fcrk Edebiyat\u0131 Bilim Dal\u0131 (Yay\u0131mlanmam\u0131\u015f Master Tezi), Ankara 2004.<\/p>\n

Safa Peyami,\u00a0Cumbadan Rumbaya<\/strong>, 10. bs., \u00d6t\u00fcken Ne\u015friyat, \u0130stanbul 2015.<\/p>\n

Writer: Seda \u00d6zt\u00fcrk<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From Bay Window to Rumba was adapted into a movie by Turgut Demira\u011f in 1960. Cemile was played by \u00c7olpan \u0130lhan and Tahsin Bey was played by Vahi \u00d6z in the movie.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 Bey: Bey is a general title of respect for men in Turkish countries, added after a personal name and equivalent to \u201csir\u201d in conversations in English. Similar to \u2018\u2019monsieur.\u2019\u2019\u00a0 Han\u0131m: Han\u0131m is a general title of respect for women in Turkish countries, added after a personal name. Similar to \u2018\u2019mademoiselle\u2019\u2019 or \u2018\u2019madam.\u2019\u2019   Peyami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}