Farewell To Aunt Nazife Poem by Bulent Karaalioglu

I heard it's snowing in Istanbul.
What pain can snow wash away.
Oh, Istanbul.
You took away two of my favourite people.
On the 25th anniversary of my mother's death.
I also lost my aunt.
It was snowing when my mum's funeral was coming.

The house you entered as a bride,
Tomorrow as a guest, we will say goodbye to eternity in the family graveyard
2019-2022
Every year we lose a descendant of Mother coincidence

In December 2019, my aunt's husband
July 2020 my uncle
(While waiting for my uncle's funeral, my uncle went to my aunt's window.
When he told my aunt that it was our turn, she didn't hear him.
What is he saying to his daughter..she says the grave is ready'') He said
We lost two of the four witnesses to this incident
In 2021 we lost my sister's husband, my mother's son-in-law.
2022 two days after women's day
We lost my sister-in-law

I must tell you about my aunt.
To understand what we've lost.
If it was a novel, it would be Scarlett O' Hara and Fosforlu Cevriye.
Let me complete the missing link with a poem
I'm not a poet
I am a person who records pain, memories and emotions

You know the ballad about the 15-year-old nazife lady?
Remzi was young and twiggy when she married my uncle.
How well Albanian blood suits the Caucasian Georgian-Turkish blood.

My sister-in-law always loved me and I loved my sister-in-law.
Bahattin is the eldest of my cousin's children.
I'm seven months older.
I grew up with my cousins

I used to go to the village often with my mum.
15 or 20 minutes
In the evening, there was a family gathering under the gas lamp.
Mum, your uncle comes all the way from the village.
He said his trousers wouldn't get muddy
How safe everything was
Until 1970
We lost my grandmother, my uncle six months later.
My uncle was the village headman
He was hit by an accidental bullet.

Grandpa wanted to remarry
My mum was against it, but my aunt stood up for my grandfather.
Mum left to go to the village.
I went to the village. My cousin Fatma came to her aunt.
I wish the world was like this
Neither the villagers ostracised me.
Nor did my mum give my cousins a sour face.
My cousins, I have a confession to make.
My secret mission was to get my grandmother's picture off the wall.
My grandmother's picture on the wall
It's like 'I belong here, I look good here
My weird mum didn't ask me why I didn't take the picture.
Children have more common sense than adults.

My grandfather got married to relieve my aunt's burden.
my aunt is a typical Anatolian woman.
My cousins were very young then.
My sister-in-law became their mum and dad.
House and field and brick factory in the threshing floor
He kept the labourers' wages
He worked in the threshing floor like a labourer.

He didn't leave his children hungry in that poverty.
All three daughters became the best dressed girls in the village.
They tried to cover their father's deprivation

My grandmother's guest embraced the tradition
He did not close his door to the guest. He believed in the blessing of the guest.
Teacher, nurse, teacher, traveller, peasant and driver.
Shared bread with the village madman
Remzi for born male children
It has become customary to name girls Nazife
Understand what we've lost

You don't know my cousins
I don't like weddings
I don't wear my uncle's fedora to every wedding.
I was very impressed with her topless and bandaged in the hospital.
I'm sorry, every wedding has been a nightmare.
When I was 11, I was a kid, too. My mind was more or less made up.

Water is like pain, it undermines the hardest rock.

1970-2022,52 years, I've lost members of the motherland.

5 JANUARY 1970 -Mother
8 August 1970 - Uncle Remzi 38 years old
27 December 1977 -Dedem
31 August 1979 Hasan Uncle
23 September 1996-Ahmet Uncle
28 January -1997- Mum
14 August 2011- Aunt Asiye
25 December 2013- My aunt
25 December 2019- My aunt's husband is my brother-in-law
20 July 2020 I'm at Metin
10 March 2022- Aunt Nazife

From a woman to a woman
It started with my grandmother and ended with my aunt.

Just as atoms make a chain reaction
When a small snowball becomes an avalanche
If ants come out of the ground together
My pain and memories come alive one by one
I didn't just lose my aunt today.
My mum, my uncles and my aunt
It's like my maternal lineage was genocided.
My pain is raging

Mevlüt grandfather, my pink grandmother and in-laws
You gathered your daughters, sons, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law at one table.
There's no place for us grandchildren at the table for now.

Just as the judge broke his pen after the execution, I broke mine.
If the ruler of the cosmic realm of the universe were a poet
Even if there is no suffering, if death is forbidden

10 March 2022
Sinop
18.07 hours

MY DEAR SISTER-IN-LAW THIS IS NEVER GOODBYE.. WE DIDN'T SAY GOODBYE TO YOU.
Despite the heavy snow and mud in the cemetery on the hill, all I wanted was to be there...It was very difficult for my crutch...Why I succeeded...I got my strength from the eldest and the youngest of the family members (noble) , family friends and neighbours...I especially got my strength from my endless love and respect for my aunt...LOVE OVERCOMES ALL OBSTACLES-