the pied piper of hamelin

• (bkz: sweet hereafter)
• sozlerini de yazayim tam olsun furyasinin beni surukledigi bu son noktada robert browningin yazdigi siir tadindaki oykuyu de eklemek isterim. atom egoyan bu versiyonu sweet hereafterda oldukca etkilyeci bir sekilde kullanmistir.
  
  i
  
  hamelin town's in brunswick,
  by famous hanover city;
  the river weser, deep and wide,
  washes its wall on the southern side;
  a pleasanter spot you never spied;
  but, when begins my ditty,
  almost five hundred years ago,
  to see the townsfolk suffer so
  from vermin, was a pity.
  
  ii
  
  rats!
  they fought the dogs and killed the cats,
  and bit the babies in the cradles,
  and ate the cheeses out of the vats,
  and licked the soup from the cooks' own ladle's,
  split open the kegs of salted sprats,
  made nests inside men's sunday hats,
  and even spoiled the women's chats
  by drowning their speaking
  with shrieking and squeaking
  ln fifty different sharps and flats.
  
  iii
  
  at last the people in a body
  to the town hall came flocking:
  "tis clear," cried they, 'our mayor's a noddy;
  and as for our corporation--shocking
  to think we buy gowns lined with ermine
  for dolts that can't or won't determine
  what's best to rid us of our vermin!
  you hope, because you're old and obese,
  to find in the furry civic robe ease?
  rouse up, sirs! give your brains a racking
  to find the remedy we're lacking,
  or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!"
  at this the mayor and corporation
  quaked with a mighty consternation.
  
  iv
  
  an hour they sat in council,
  at length the mayor broke silence:
  "for a guilder i'd my ermine gown sell,
  i wish i were a mile hence!
  it's easy to bid one rack one's brain--
  i'm sure my poor head aches again,
  i've scratched it so, and all in vain
  oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"
  just as he said this, what should hap
  at the chamber door but a gentle tap?
  "bless us,' cried the mayor, "what's that?"
  (with the corporation as he sat,
  looking little though wondrous fat;
  nor brighter was his eye, nor moister
  than a too-long-opened oyster,
  save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous
  for a plate of turtle green and glutinous)
  "only a scraping of shoes on the mat?
  anything like the sound of a rat
  makes my heart go pit-a-pat!"
  
  v
  
  "come in!"--the mayor cried, looking bigger:
  and in did come the strangest figure!
  his queer long coat from heel to head
  was half of yellow and half of red
  and he himself was tall and thin,
  with sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
  and light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
  no tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
  but lips where smiles went out and in;
  there was no guessing his kith and kin:
  and nobody could enough admire
  the tall man and his quaint attire.
  quoth one:"it's as my great-grandsire,
  starting up at the trump of doom's tone,
  had walked this way from his painted tombstone!"
  
  vi
  
  he advanced to the council-table:
  and, "please your honors," said he, "i'm able,
  by means of a secret charm, to draw
  all creatures living beneath the sun,
  that creep or swim or fly or run,
  after me so as you never saw
  and i chiefly use my charm
  on creatures that do people harm,
  the mole and toad and newt and viper;
  and people call me the pied piper."
  (and here they noticed round his neck
  a scarf of red and yellow stripe,
  to match with his coat of the self-same check;
  and at the scarf's end hung a pipe;
  and his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying
  as if impatient to be playing
  upon this pipe, as low it dangled
  over his vesture so old-fangled.)
  "yet," said he, "poor piper as i am,
  in tartary i freed the cham,
  last june, from his huge swarm of gnats;
  i eased in asia the nizam
  of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:
  and as for what your brain bewilders--
  if i can rid your town of rats
  will you give me a thousand guilders?"
  "one? fifty thousand!" was the exclamation
  of the astonished mayor and corporation.
  
  vii
  
  into the street the piper stept,
  smiling first a little smile,
  as if he knew what magic slept
  in his quiet pipe the while;
  then, like a musical adept,
  to blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
  and green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,
  like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;
  and ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
  you heard as if an army muttered;
  and the muttering grew to a grumbling;
  and the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
  and out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
  great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
  brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
  grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
  fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
  cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
  families by tens and dozens,
  brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
  followed the piper for their lives.
  from street to street he piped advancing,
  and step for step they followed dancing,
  until they came to the river weser
  wherein all plunged and perished!
  save one who, stout as julius caesar,
  swam across and lived to carry
  (as the manuscript he cherished)
  to rat-land home his commentary:
  which was, "at the first shrill notes of the pipe,
  i heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
  and putting apples, wondrous ripe,
  into a cider-press's gripe:
  and a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,
  and a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
  and a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,
  and a breaking the hoops of butter-casks:
  and it seemed as if a voice
  (sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
  is breathed) called out, 'oh rats, rejoice!
  the world is grown to one vast dry-saltery!
  so munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,
  breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!'
  and just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,
  all ready staved, like a great sun shone
  glorious scarce an inch before me,
  just as methought it said 'come bore me!'
  --i found the weser rolling o'er me."
  
  viii
  
  you should have heard the hamelin people
  ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple.
  go," cried the mayor, "and get long poles!
  poke out the nests and block up the holes!
  consult with carpenters and builders
  and leave in our town not even a trace
  of the rats!"-- when suddenly, up the face
  of the piper perked in the market-place,
  with a, "first, if you please, my thousand guilders!"
  
  ix
  
  a thousand guilders! the mayor looked blue;
  so did the corporation too.
  for council dinners made rare havoc
  with claret, moselle, vin-de-grave, hock;
  and half the money would replenish
  their cellar's biggest butt with rhenish.
  to pay this sum to a wandering fellow
  with a gipsy coat of red and yellow!
  "beside," quoth the mayor with a knowing wink,
  "our business was done at the river's brink;
  we saw with our eyes the vermin sink,
  and what's dead can't come to life, i think.
  so, friend, we're not the folks to shrink
  from the duty of giving you something for drink,
  and a matter of money to put in your poke;
  but as for the guilders, what we spoke
  of them, as you very well know, was in joke.
  beside, our losses have made us thrifty.
  a thousand guilders! come, take fifty!
  
  x
  
  the piper's face fell, and he cried
  no trifling! i can't wait beside!
  i've promised to visit by dinnertime
  bagdat, and accept the prime
  of the head-cooks pottage, all he's rich in,
  for having left, in the caliph's kitchen,
  of a nest of scorpions no survivor:
  with him i proved no bargain-driver,
  with you, don't think i'll bate a stiver!
  and folks who put me in a passion
  may find me pipe after another fashion,
  
  xi
  
  "how?" cried the mayor, "d'ye think i brook
  being worse treated than a cook?
  insulted by a lazy ribald
  with idle pipe and vesture piebald?
  you threaten us, fellow? do your worst,
  blow your pipe there till you burst!
  
  xii
  
  once more he stept into the street
  and to his lips again
  laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;
  and ere he blew three notes (such sweet
  soft notes as yet musician's cunning
  never gave the enraptured air)
  there was a rustling that seemed like a bustling
  of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,
  small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
  little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,
  and, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering,
  out came the children running.
  all the little boys and girls,
  with rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
  and sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
  tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
  the wonderful music with shouting and laughter.
  
  xiii
  
  the mayor was dumb, and the council stood
  as if they were changed into blocks of wood,
  unable to move a step or cry,
  to the children merrily skipping by,
  --could only follow with the eye
  that joyous crowd at the piper's back.
  but how the mayor was on the rack
  and the wretched council's bosoms beat,
  as the piper turned from the high street
  to where the weser rolled its water's
  right in the way of their sons and daughters!
  however he turned from south to west
  and to koppelberg hill his steps addressed,
  and after him the children pressed--
  great was the joy in every breast.
  "he never can cross that mighty top!
  he's forced to let the piping drop
  and we shall see our children stop!
  when, lo, as they reached the mountain-side,
  a wondrous portal opened wide,
  as if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;
  and the piper advanced and the children followed,
  and when all were in to the very last,
  the door in the mountain-side shut fast.
  did i say all? no! one was lame,
  and could not dance the whole of the way;
  and in after years, if you would blame
  his sadness, he was used to say,--
  "it¹s dull in our town since my playmates left!
  i can¹t forget that i'm bereft
  of all all the pleasant sights they see,
  which the piper also promised me.
  for he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
  joining the town and just at hand,
  where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew
  and flowers put forth a fairer hue,
  and everything was strange and new
  the sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
  and their dogs outran our fallow deer,
  and honey-bees had lost their stings,
  and horses were born with eagles' wings:
  and just as i became assured
  my lame foot would be speedily cured,
  the music stopped and i stood still,
  and found myself outside the hill,
  left alone against my will,
  to go now limping as before,
  and never hear of that country more!"
  
  xiv
  
  alas, alas for hamelin!
  there came into many a burgher's pate
  a text which says that heaven¹s gate
  opes to the rich at as easy rate
  as the needle's eye takes a camel in!
  the mayor sent east, west, north and south,
  to offer the piper, by word of mouth
  wherever it was men's lot to find him
  silver and gold to his heart¹s content
  if he'd only return the way he went,
  and bring the children behind him.
  but when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
  and piper and dancers were gone forever,
  they made a decree that lawyers never
  should think their records dated duly
  if, after the day of the month and year,
  these words did not as well appear,
  and so long after what happened here
  on the twenty-second of july,
  thirteen hundred and seventy-six:
  and the better in memory to fix
  the place of the children's last retreat,
  they called it, the pied piper's street--
  where any one playing on pipe or tabor
  was sure for the future to lose his labor.
  nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
  to shock with mirth a street so solemn,
  but opposite the place of the cavern
  they wrote the story on a column,
  and on the great church-window painted
  the same, to make the world acquainted
  how their children were stolen away,
  and there it stands to this very day.
  and i must not omit to say
  that, in transylvania there's a tribe
  of alien people who ascribe
  the outlandish ways and dress
  on which their neighbors lay such stress,
  to their fathers and mothers having risen
  out of some subterraneous prison
  into which they were trepanned
  long time ago in a mighty band
  out of hamelin town in brunswick land,
  but how or why they don't understand.
  
  xv
  
  so, willy, let you and me be wipers
  of scores out with all men -- especially pipers!
  and, whether pipe us free from rats or from mice,
  if we've promised them ought, let us keep our promise.
• (bkz: fareli köyün kavalcısı)
• (bkz: peter & max)
• (bkz: the whistler)
• avrupa masallarının çoğu erken ortaçağ’da oluşturulmuştur, en azından folk bilimciler bunu söylüyorlar, bu masallar dünyası sınırlı ve doğa ile ilişkisi çetrefilli, güvenli biçimde ve uzun yıllar hayatta kalması zor ortaçağ insanının korkuları olan kurt, karanlık orman, cadı, dev, peri gibi doğal ve doğaüstü elementlerle süslüdür daima. (gerçi hala filmler bunun üzerine kurulu, insanoğlu olarak bilim çoğu şeyi çözmüş olsa da bilinmeyene ve fantastik olana tutkumuz geçmiyor.) ilkokul üçe başladığım gün bana hediye edilen grimm kardeşlerden masallar kitabı hala aklımdadır. çocuk aklımla bazı masalların beni ölesiye korkuttuğunu anımsıyorum, özellikle hansel ve gretel, jorinda ve jorindel ve yaşlı balıkçı… ama masallar içinde en ürkütücüsünün bizim fareli köyün kavalcısı dediğimiz “the pied piper of hamelin” (hamelin’in alacalı kavalcısı diye çevirebiliriz, kavalcının rengarenk giysisi yüzünden bu isimle anılır) olduğunu düşünüyorum.
  bu masalın ürkütücülüğünün altında gerçek olaylara dayanması yatıyor aslında, bilmeyenler için hamelin (bazı yerlerde hammelin) almanya aşağı saksonya’da bir kasaba. 1284 yılının ilk aylarında kasabayı bir fare istilası sarıyor, değmedikleri yiyecek içecek kalmıyor ve durdurulamıyorlar. bu sırada rengarek, alacalı giysili bir kavalcı ödeme karşılığı fareleri çaldığı kavalın peşine takarak kovacağını vaat ediyor ve bunu gerçekleştiriyor, ama sonra kasaba halkı ödemeye yanaşmayınca kavalcı intikam yemini edip aynı yılın temmuzunda geliyor ve kaval çalarak kasabanın tüm çocukları bu lanetli ezginin peşine takıp bilinmeyen bir diyara götürüyor, geride kalan sadece sakat olduğu için onu takip edemeyen bir erkek çocuk oluyor. ayrıca değişik iki versiyonun birinde çocuğun sağır olduğu için ezgiyi duyamadığı, diğerinde ise kör olduğu için yolu bulamadığı anlatılıyor. bu az ya da çok hepimizin bildiği hikaye. altında yatan ise çok daha ürkütücü:
  bir teori farelerin “veba” demek olduğu ve köyden kayboluşlarının çocuk ölümlerini simgelediğini, bir diğeri ise korkunç bir yoksullukla savaşan hamelin köylülerinin çocuklarını kendi istekleriyle gönderdiğini -ki burada yine kavalcı yoksulluğu ve acımasızlığı temsil ediyor-, başka biri ise kavalcının bizzat ölümün vücut bulmuş hali olduğunu ve çocukları yanına aldığını iddia ediyor. hatta bu çocukların bir örneği 1212’de görülen, her köyden yoksul çocukların toplanması ile oluşturulan “çocuk haçlılar” ordusu gibi topluca savaşa gönderildiği de dillendirilen bir fikir.
  her ne olursa olsun hamelin’de ne olduğu rahatsız edici bir gizem olarak yüzyıllardır orada duruyor: kasabada bulunan bir kayıt ve vitray üzerindeki bir resim kavalcıyı alacalı, çocukları ise bembeyaz giysiler içinde gösteriyor. 1384 tarihli hamelin vakayinamesi (chronicle) ise “çocuklarımız bizi terk edeli yüz yıl oldu” gibi kan dondurucu, başka bir açıklaması da olmayan bir ifade kullanıyor.
  bu ürkütücülük yetmezmiş gibi çevirisini hocam yusuf eradam’ın yaptığı yastık adam'ı (tiyatro oyunu, yazar martin mcdonagh) 4 kez izledim, olsa yine izlerim, oyun, masalı bambaşka bir noktaya taşıyor. film olarak kişisel favorim kavalcı rolünü monty python ekibinden eric idle’ın oynadığı 85 yapımı film, diyaloglar robert browning’ in aynı adlı şiirinden dizeler aynı zamanda. eric idle tam hayallerimdeki kavalcı: şeytani, ürkütücü ve tekinsiz, baştan aşağı kıpkırmızı giyinmiş, upuzun ve sivri burunlu. bu arada yeniden çevrilip "kavalcı" yı marilyn manson oynasın bence.
  çocuklar için kayıp, yok oluş, bilinmezlik, aileden koparılma ve kavalcının intikamı ile korkutucu, büyükler için ise arkasında yatabilecek gerçekler ile son derece ürkütücü bir masal. hep söylerim zaten, eski masallar şimdi "pisikolocisi bozulur amanın" diyerek ağız tadıyla avaz avaz bağıramadığımız mira ve poyraz' lar için çok fazla, en hardcore olan evdeki ilacı şeker zanneden salak çocuğun şarkılı hazin sonu çünkü. o da köpürerek ölmüyor ha, karnı sancımış, kıvrım kıvrım kıvranıyor, yaptığından utanıyor. gerzek.
  ps. hamelin’ de doğmuş bir arkadaşım var: düşününce hakikaten o da ürkütücü bir kadın.
  edit: imla