 Happy Valentine’s Day from
Bilkent News! Unfortunately, Bilkent News received a limited number of
letters for the contest we solicited entries for last week. Because all of the submissions
were inspiring, we are printing all the submissions, as well as one letter submitted by
Prof. Varol Akman written by James Joyce. We hope you enjoy these sentiments and feel
inspired to write your own valentine letter!
Ali Ekber Demirtas (MAN/I)
Soul seed of my light,
Here, before you, naked I am all over in love. I have left all the ideas, the light of the
life to be absorbed into your love. Never have I ever been so real, so vivid. The mere
idea of being a part of the Eros and Philos with you is the spring of pure enjoyment. I
was not able to define my hometown and now, I know where it is. Your affection is my
hometown and the very soil you fertilize with your light is my country of happiness. Thank
you. Thank you for providing me with such a love both nourishing and consuming me. Yes,
your love is a consuming one and I forget who I am, what I am. I become the universe, I
become the reality residing in every soul, I become vulnerable leaves of the Daphne trees
to become a piece of cloth for the love by your affection. So huge is it that if I do not
share it with the earth, I will be a slave to it and even being a slave of such a master
is a source of limitless joy for the appetite of me towards you. I, thus, tend to you as
the lily tends to the sun, as Apollo tends to Daphne. I am the earth and all the tendency
of the humankind pours into me and I fertilize the soul with my pure affection. Thank you
for your love. Let me be drowned with this love, if the time to immigrate comes.
I send you my word of heart, my sweetheart.
Ann-Marie Thornton (HIST)
Dear David,
Do you remember the night you walked me back to the youth hostel in Cambridge? There was a
full moon, and you walked along briskly, as usual. I've long since forgotten what we were
talking about, but I do remember what it felt like to hold your hand for the first time.
It was a cold, January night, and you were wearing that long, blue winter coat of yours.
Your coat was brand new at the time, and it made you feel somewhat stiff and formal, even
awkward. Now that brand new coat is nineteen years old. It is worn through. The collar has
frayed, and it has faded at the elbows. The midnight blue is patched and tinged with gray.
When you take your coat off now, you just throw it down on the chair. You don't even give
it a second look. But somehow, it seems to fit you better, like a glove or like your own
skin. It looks more comfortable now, the way it keeps stretching and somehow getting
stronger as it grows more threadbare. It's kept you warm all winter. In the summer, you
might even fling it off completely. Perhaps we could go for an evening stroll again, like
we did before the children were born. But one thing I do know: however old and torn that
coat gets, it will see you through. It will see us both through, I guess. I love you, Ann-Marie
Nurşah Sak (AMER/III)
To the meaning of the mild breeze over my soul,
Lots of dreams were perturbing my mind in the morning of a painful night. What I have
lived all through my life was loneliness at all; I just could not give a single
explanation to what I dreamed of. You were holding my hand while we were in a crowded
white hall. The smile in your face was just like that of a baby. Happiness warmed my heart
when you grasped my hand firmly. Walking slowly in the crowd, we got out of the hall, and
I caught a glimpse of your face again. Your black hair was waving with a cool wind just
like the dark blue sea beyond. Bending my knees, I embraced your hands and talked about
leaving everything behind and going for a voyage. There were no questions, you just said:
"Come with me." We got into a small boat resembling a sea gull. There were just
small islands and long capes on the blueness, just like my long dreams lost in the
hollowness of my mind. Waking up from the world in which you are the only truth is just a
simple way of opening incurable wounds inside my heart. This was not the first time I
dreamt of you, and perhaps will not be the last time until your beauty enlightens my
world.
How can I stop thinking about your eternality when you have embraced everything I look at,
everything I meet, wherever I go and whatever I feel? Anything without you is enough to
let all the nightmares go on my way. Only tears wipe up the sorrow of your absence. The
lights of the houses at night tell me your story, sometimes with sadness, sometimes
reminding me of your image and existence. The footprints on the untouched snow feel cold
without your shine. Even the capital city of my dreams seeks for your cheering up to
blossom all its streets. Purple clouds long for rain over the dry land since you have
taken all the divinity with you. The worst of all is to miss you within the flavor of some
hot tea drunk in the café over the hill on an orange evening. But I still hope to meet
you again.
This time will be different. I know you are hidden in a wonderful song whose lyrics no one
could understand but your addict. You call the one from a mythological castle, creating
your kingdom over all emotions. The feeling of heading the way of freedom is your name,
bringing all the childish joy of chirping birds among the old gray buildings, with your
glory. The proud green trees on the way you walk tell your mesmerizing tale. A drop of
water becomes the boundlessness in your hands, writing a humble awakening over his place
with the foams of the sea and creating a heaven on its own. While there are so many traces
around, it seems you will be near within a blink of eye, singing songs of sweet days
behind and announcing the brightness approaching. The day of rejoicing will come very
soon, and your calm hands I dreamt of will tranquilize all the disappointments wrenching
my heart. The pain, sobbing and tears will calm down in your arms. I am of sure that my
rebellious being only yields under your eternal presence and I am ready to do whatever you
will bring into my life as it is the sweetest slavery under the blue sky.
I will always wait to hear and obey your words in my dream: "Come with me."
Always there is the melancholic melody tuned with the silver strings of a lyre, shining
over my life. Always stay as the LOVE that I fell in love. With Love...
Yasir Yılmaz (HIST/Grad. Student)
As the world was dark and void, so was my life. A desolate tree surrounded by sand and
wind with no water to feed, so lonely was I, only you did I need. I looked high and low
but all I could find was the lone northern star as lonely as I. In mountains and valleys
on hills beneath, seeking the one, the one I would love and who would complete me. But
tired of seeking and wandering in vain, I turned to my Lord and called on His name. And
then to my branch did a nightingale appear, to rise up the dawn, sweet music on my ear.
Over the edge of the earth far away, a glimmer of hope from the rays of the day.
Upon seeing your face with true life it brought, the streams of your laugh to revitalize
my soul. But wander did I and wonder I did, would you return the affection I heartily
give. Oh that you might be that star in my sky, but how did I fear you would never draw
near. But as sure as the tide returns to shore, your love was returned to me.
And so love began and continues so strong, you're my soul mate and friend and lover for
long. I am your love and you are my queen, living a love that remains unseen. Neither
Leyla nor Helen of Troy whose beauties were incomparable in heaven and earth, possess such
an exquisite splendor, compared to you they are but dearth. Your eyes are like pools of
rain, deep as the ocean and dark as ink. Your hands like delicate crystal, your hair soft
as silk, your heart always warm like a fire in winter, and your laughter thrills me and
makes me tender. Like a puzzle remains incomplete without its pieces, so do I remain
without you in my life. Be with me and complete me. Be my rose for I shall be your
nightingale. When we grow older memories will be with us; words can't say, others can not
sense. You are my rhythm, you are my relief, in you is my every next breath.
And now the desert I can not see, for your stream of love has banished this loneliness far
from me. Like rich emerald stones only green do I see. What peace you have brought, my
love, my life, my all. Yasir
Submitte by Prof. Varol Akman (PHIL)
James Joyce, July 12, 1912
Via Della Barriera Vecchia 32'''
Trieste (Austria)
Dear Nora,
Having left me five days without a word of news you scribble your signature with a number
of others on a postcard. Not one word of the places in Dublin where I met you and which
have so many memories for us both! Since you left I have been in a state of dull anger. I
consider the whole affair wrong and unjust.
I can neither sleep nor think. I have still the pain in my side. Last night I was afraid
to lie down. I thought I would die in sleep. I wakened Georgie three times for fear of
being alone.
It is a monstrous thing to say that you seem to forget me in five days and to forget the
beautiful days of our love.
I leave Trieste tonight as I am afraid to stay here - afraid of myself. I shall arrive in
Dublin on Monday. If you have forgotten I have not. I shall go alone to meet and walk with
the image of her whom I remember.
You can write or wire to me in Dublin to my sister's address.
What are Dublin and Galway compared to our memories?
Jim
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