The “yes-word” has gone through an axiological-psychological transformation in my mind, and I have come to a point of finding sentences without the “yes-word” in them as strange and weird.
I caught myself yesterday speaking in a “yes-language,” so similar to the final scenes of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” where Penelope speaks with a language that is a naked pronunciation of her consciousness which runs like a river of thought without any punctuation marks and without any pauses. All the punctuation marks are transformed into meaningful “yes-words” and the pauses are filled with yeses.
I won’t quote yes I shouldn’t as yes the final lines of Penelope are yes full of yes so strong use of yes the yes as a sexual and sensual word yes so yes it is better yes to mimic that passage yes in a yes not so romantic style yes and yes certainly yes.
Hundreds of times I have heard that “Evet mi? – Evet!” (Yes? - Yes!) dialogue between Prime Minister Erdoğan and the masses listening to him, so that it has become a cue that repeats itself in my mind, even when I am speaking: “For positive discrimination for our mothers and sisters, Evet mi? – Evet! For the law of the powerful to turn into the power of law, Evet mi? – Evet!”
Anyhow, my complaint about the referendum campaign is not about its content. Just like many opponents of the constitutional amendments who have no criticism on the content itself but rather resist the idea of amendments proposed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) whom they have always hated, I too have been suffering from this “Evet” campaign.
The reason behind my suffering is due to the sound of the “evet-word.” If we were passing through a “yes-no” campaign, I would probably not be experiencing this suffering. But an “evet-hayır” campaign has had unbearable and irreversible repercussions on my life.
The “yes-word” is a female word. It embraces, it caresses and it nurtures the consciousness of the addressee. It is not so with its Turkish equivalent. The Turkish “evet-word” is rather full of connotations related to eating. This may be my personal subjective experience, but to my consciousness, the word “evet” brings only scenes from a restaurant. “Yes” kisses like Ulysses, “Evet” eats like me.
As referendum day approaches and as I started to speak in a stream of consciousness style, I have been failing to say “no” to any offer to eat something. Months before the referendum I went to a nutritionist and managed to lose quite a significant amount of weight. And then this campaign started and I have been unable to say “no” to sweets, to fatty and juicy grilled meats and so on.
Despite the fact that I have been suffering from this “evet” campaign, my old restaurateur friends are quite happy with the campaign. The owner of the börek shop next to our building is particularly happy. If there are a few more people out there like me, I may say this constitutional amendment has already contributed to many livelihoods in the Turkish economy.
I will eat more evet and then evet get some more weight yes and but I don’t like the fat belly and evet I will go evet to the nutritionist and pay more to them yes and eat evet and all join a fitness center yes and yes all of us will be happy yes.
May this humorous piece be a gift of Mübarek Ramazan Bayramı to my Muslim readers and a gift of Shana Tova (happy new year) to my Jewish readers.
