CHAPTER 5 – TWO SHIRTS OF FLAME
174
virtue and beauty from Smyrna. She has been forced to flee from the occupation by
the Greeks who have killed her husband and her very young son. Her origins are the
reason why an English “rendering” by Muhammad Yakub Khan published in Lahore
in 1933 was given the title
The Daughter of Smyrna
18
. Ayşe has a brother, Cemal
(spelt Djemal by Halide Edip in the English version), who is a soldier as well and
lives in Istanbul. The other principal characters are Mehmet Çavuş, a roughneck and
veteran irregular who fought in the Balkans and Kezban, a village girl who resembles
Ayşe.
The romantic interest operates in the following way. As we have noted both Peyami
and İhsan, not to speak of every male in Istanbul and elsewhere, are in love with
Ayşe. Ayşe however is very reserved and the narrator Peyami only learns near the
end from İhsan himself that she had eventually succumbed to İhsan. Both of them are
killed in the Battle of Sakarya; Peyami, himself terribly injured, is content to be
buried next to them. Mehmet Çavuş for his part is in love and wants to marry
Kezban. Kezban, however, is in love with İhsan and, in disguise, saves him from
death at the hands of a village mob incited by the rebellious and jealous Mehmet
Çavuş. Once free, İhsan suppresses the rebellion over three days and has Mehmet
Çavuş hanged. We hear no more of Kezban.
In a certain sense “the Shirt of Flame” is Peyami’s and İhsan’s passion for Ayşe. But
in another sense it is Ayşe’s passion for Smyrna. İhsan here is speaking to Peyami
19
:
18
I am indebted to Erol Köroğlu for supplying me with a copy of this.
19
Adıvar 1924, 214-215
CHAPTER 5 – TWO SHIRTS OF FLAME
175
“One evening we talked of the day when we should enter Smyrna. I was
stronger and not easily tire. I pictured to her the first Turkish division
marching with music in the streets of Smyrna. Both of us had the vision
of the first Turkish detachment which should see the Mediterranean,
carrying the red flag of the Turks over the crowd and then with sudden
emotion, in spite of the veiled light I saw the fire in her eyes, the ecstasy
on her half opened crimson lips, the tremor in her awakening body and
soul. She was like a woman, receiving the first kiss of love. She had the
unspoilt passion and warmth of the earth’s simplest creatures, and the
vision of Smyrna suddenly enveloped her with the absolute passion of
historic women. No touch of her crimson lips could have stirred me as
the sight of her rapturous awakening at the Smyrna vision. I snatched her
hand and cried:
“ ‘ No matter which division enters first, you will be mine then.’
“I squeezed her hand, I shook her, but she did not heed me. Her hands
were on fire and her lips still open with the ecstasy of her dream.
And a few lines beyond Ayşe declares “I no longer can have a human tie, I am only
bound to the Smyrna ideal.” She finally consents to marry İhsan after they enter
Smyrna but imposes this condition: “But give me your word of honor, that all your
passion of your heart will be only for Smyrna”
20
.
Passages like this, in which the passion is projected onto the aim of the war, are the
key to the novel. Tanpınar had observed that the sentimental interest of
Çalıkuşu
was
rather unreal but the Anatolian background full of interest
21
. In
Ateşten Gömlek
the
characters and the romantic interest seem to be no more than a peg onto which a
history of the War of Independence and a programme for the future are hung. This is
even clearer in Halide Edip’s translation where she emphasises for the English reader
the verisimilitude of the story: she writes, for example, “Halidé Hanum’s own escape
20
Adıvar 1924, 216, 217
21
See Chapter 3
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