The Gaze Elif Shafak Quotes

If only time never came to its senses. If somehow it wouldn't succeed in walking a straight line. If it would only lurch, behave nonsensically, fall to pieces. And we would watch, and, condemning its actions, would never have to refer to it again.

be deprived of a voice means to be deprived of agency over our own lives. It also means to slowly but systematically become alienated from our own journeys, struggles and inner transformations, and begin to view even our most subjective experiences as though through someone else’s eyes, an external gaze. ‘There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you’, wrote the poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.

To the one in the skies, this city must look like a scintillating pattern of speckled glows in all directions, like a firecracker going off amid thick darkness. Right now the urban pattern glowing here is in hues of orange, ginger, and ochre. It is a configuration of sparkles, each dot a light lit by someone awake at this hour. From where the Celestial Gaze is situated, from that high above, all these sporadically lit bulbs must seem in perfect harmony, constantly flickering, as if coding a cryptic message to God.

İnsanın canı neresinden acırsa, kalbi orada atardı.

Oysa aşk dedikleri, solup kurumaya mahkumdur, bir sebebi olduğu andan itibaren.

​Âdem ile Havva: Âdem ile Havva, yasak elmanın tadına varınca, farklılıklarını gördüler ilk defa. Utanıp incir yapraklarıyla örtmek istediler çıplaklıklarını. Ama birinde bir, ötekinde üç incir yaprağı vardı. Sayı saymayı da öğrenince, bir daha hiç aynı olamadılar.

So it's not possible to forget everything. What we call the eyes may succeed in forgetting all of what they've seen in life, but it's impossible to stop thinking about having been seen. If there are no witnesses a person can forget the past. If they are witnesses everything changes. Their every look is an accusation, their existence an obstacle to forgetfulness.

Karanlık ve uzaklık büyütür gözbebeğini; aydınlık ve yakınlık küçültür. Yanı bu kararsız çember, ışık varsa küçülür, ışık yoksa büyür. Yakına bakarken de küçüldüğüne göre, yakın olan aydınlıktır, aydınlıktadır. Uzağın payına karanlık düşer. Zaten karanlığı kimse yakınında görmek istemez. Aşık olunca da büyür gözbebeği; demek ki aşık olunan hep uzaktadır. Aradski mesafenin verdiği acıyı azaltmak için, maşuka "Gözbebeğim!" diye hitap edilir.

Ask bir korsedir. Niye bu kadar kiymetli oldugunu anlayabilmek icin haddinden fazla sisman olmak gerekir. Senebesene katman katman cogalmis, vicik vicik yayilmis, pelte pelte yigilmis yaglari sarip sarmalar, hizaya sokar. Ve sonra da gecip karsisina kendi eserinin, seyrine bakar kudretinin. Ask bir hayal taciridir. Kiyida kosede kartlasmis hayalleri cekip cikartir, yikayip paklar, allayip pullar ve terutaze sifatiyla sahibine kakalar. Ask insani guzellestirir. Goruntulerle oynar pervasizca.; yani sifatlarla, yani aynalarla. Kuskunleri aynalarla baristirir, yalnizlari aynalarda cogaltir. Ask bir korsedir. Gun gelir, hic beklenmedik bir yerde, hic beklenmedik bir anda, ativerir citcitlarindan biri yahut cozuluverir iplikleri. Neler olup bittigini anlamaya vakit kalmadan, korsenin cenderesinden kurtulan yaglar surusepet disari cikmistir coktan. O kesmekeste, goz acip kapayincaya kadar eski haline donuverir govde. Ask bir korsedir. Nicin bu kadar surdugunu anlayabilmek icin haddinden fazla sisman olmak gerekir.

Aslını inkar, varlığına isyan eden tek ölümdü donmak. Kısık sesiyle mırıl mırıl konuşurdu kurbanının kulağına. Coşkuyla anlatırdı yalanlarla örtülü hikayesini. Sonra durup aniden susar, hikayeyi yarıda kesip gitmeye yeltenirdi. Kurban telaşla sarılırdı sıcacık avuntu yayan buz kesmiş avuçlara; gitmesine izin vermezdi. Öldürürken, kurbanının rızasını alan tek ölümdü donmak. Öldürürken gülümseten tek ölümdü donmak. Denizci huzurla gülümsüyordu.

Bilirdi ki, yalnızlık en çok erkeklere koyardı. Erkekler sırf gece yalnız kalmamak için hava kararır kararmaz kendilerini dışarıya atıp önce birbirlerini, sonra da birbirlerinin sohbetinde aradıkları teselliyi bulur; ama vakit ilerledikçe, çokluktan bokluk damıtıp cılkını çıkarırlardı iki kadeh arkadaşlığın. Ne vakit bir araya gelseler, hele de kafaları az buçuk dumanlıysa, birbirlerinden kuvvet ve kuvvetlerinden feyz alarak, bakır akçe kahramanlıklar peşinde koşarlardı.

Aşk bir korsedir. Gün gelir, hiç beklenmedik bir yerde, hiç beklenmedik bir anda, atıverir çıtçıtlarından biri yahut çözülüverir iplikleri. Neler olup bittiğini anlamaya vakit kalmadan, korsenin cenderesinden kurtulan yağlar sürüsepet dışarı çıkmıştır çoktan. O keşmekeşte, göz açıp kapayıncaya kadar eski haline dönüverir gövde. Aşk bir korsedir. Niçin bu kadar kısa sürdüğünü anlayabilmek için haddinden fazla şişman olmak gerekir.

Hal böyleyken, ölüm bu kadar yakınındayken, illa da bir şey olacaksa, kaftan olmalıydı insan, kaftanı taşıyan değil; yahut altın olarak doğmalıydı insan, altını takan olmak için değil.

How could I know in that moment that I was making the biggest mistake of my life and would spend the rest of my days regretting it? How could I know it would be so hard to kill the dervish and that even long after he was dead, his knifelike gaze would follow me everywhere?

Hasan, the Begger: Believe it or not, they call this purgatory on earth “holy-suffering”. I am a leper stuck in limbo. Neither the dead nor the living want me among them. Mothers point me out on the streets to scare their misbehaving little ones, and children throw stones at me. Artisans chase me from their storefronts to ward off the bad luck that follows me everywhere, and pregnant women turn their faces away whenever they set eyes on me, fearing that their babies will be born defec-tive. None of these people seem to realize that as keen as they are to avoid me, I am far keener to avoid them and their pitiful stares. Friday is the best day of the week to beg except when it is Ramadan, in which case the whole month is quite lucrative. The last day of Ramadan is by far the best time to make money. That is when even the hopeless penny-pinchers race to give alms, keen to compensate for all their sins, past and present. Once a year, people don't turn away from beggars. To the contrary, they specifically look for one, the more miserable the better. So profound is their need to show off how generous and charitable they are, not only do they race to give us alms, but for that single day they almost love us. I’ve realized that the trees and I had something in common. A tree shedding its leaves in autumn resembled a man shedding his limbs in the final stages of leprosy. I am naked tree. My skin, my organs, my face are falling apart. Every day another part of my body abandons me. And for me, unlike the trees, there would be no spring in which I would blossom. What I lost, I lost forever. When people looks at me, they don’t see who I am but what I am missing. Whenever they places a coin in my bowl, they do so with amazing speed and avoid any eye contacts, as if my gaze is contagious. In their eyes I am worse than a thief or a murderer. As much as they disapproves of such outlaws, they don’t treat them as if they are invisible. When it comes to me, however, all they see is death staring them in the face. That's what scares them--to recognize that death could be this close and this ugly.

Ama fazla da üzülmemiştir herhalde.Nasil olsa donup kalacak degildi bu kalıpta. Sonsuzdu zaman, sınırsızdı mekan.Elbet eriyecekti bir gün; eriyip yeniden katılaşacak, katılaşıp yeniden eriyecekti. Nasıl olsa bir başka zamanda, çok çok sonra ya da pek yakında;ve bir başka mekânda, çok çok uzakta ya da hemen burada, bir daha dönecekti bu dünyaya. Yeni bir isim, yeni bir meşgaleyle

I was a naked tree. My skin, my organs, my face falling apart. Every day another part of my body abandoned me. And for me, unlike the maple tree, there would be no spring in which I would blossom. What I lost, I lost forever. When people looked at me, they didn't see who I was but what I was missing. Whenever they placed a coin in my bowl, they did so with amazing speed and avoided any eye contact, as if my gaze were contagious. In their eyes I was worse than a thief or a murderer. As much as they disapproved of such outlaws, they didn't treat them as is they were invisible. When it came to me, however, all they saw was death staring them in the face. That's what scared them - to recognize that death could be this close and this ugly.

but I also knew that girls who got married changed forever. A new gaze came to their eyes, and they took on a new demeanor, to such an extent that people started to treat them differently. Even little children could tell the difference between a married woman and an unmarried one. Gevher smiled tenderly and held my hand. She

but I also knew that girls who got married changed forever. A new gaze came to their eyes, and they took on a new demeanor, to such an extent that people started to treat them differently. Even little children could tell the difference between a married woman and an unmarried one. Gevher smiled tenderly and held my hand. She had noticed that it was the getting-married part that worried me, not getting married to Shams.

Perhaps marriage is less a legal arrangement or social institution than a book awaiting interpretation. Every reader brings his or her own gaze to the text, and ends up reading the story differently.

Being in love with Roxana was like watching a boat pass by in the distance. Adem sat on the shore stock still, shielding his eyes from the sun. Under his gaze the ship kept moving. Not too fast, never in a hurry, an almost imperceptible farewell.