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61 " فما فائدة المعرفة إن لم يكن بإمكانك أن تغير شيئاً؟!إنها سم تجعلك عاجزاً طوال حياتك. فلا تستطيع أن تلفظها خارجاً، ولا تستطيع أن تموت!! "
― Elif Shafak , The Bastard of Istanbul
62 " The past is anything but bygone "
63 " Don't call me wretched! it declared. the wretched too have a heartلا تقل أني بائس. فللبوئساء قلوب أيضا. "
64 " How on earth could she now tell Armanoush that, though only nineteen, she had known many men's hands and did not feel a speck of guilt for it? Besides, how could she ever reveal the truth without giving the wrong impression to an outsider about "the chastity of Turkish girls"? This kind of "national responsibility" was utterly foreign to Asya Kasancı. Never before had she felt part of a collectivity and was accomplishing a pretty good impersonation of someone else, someone who had gotten patriotic overnight. How could she now step outside her national identity and be her pure, sinning self? "
65 " Though books were potentially harmful, novels were all the moredangerous. The path of fiction could easily mislead you into the cosmos ofstories where everything was fluid, quixotic, and as open to surprises as amoonless night in the desert. Before you knew it you could be so carried awaythat you could lose touch with reality—that stringent and stolid truth fromwhich no minority should ever veer too far from in order not to end upunguarded when the winds shifted and bad times arrived. It didn’t help to be sonaïve to think things wouldn’t get bad, for they always did. Imagination was adangerously captivating magic for those compelled to be realistic in life, andwords could be poisonous for those destined always to be silenced. "
66 " Don't forget that your mind is a stranger at nights. Don't talk to strangers. "
67 " How amazing was this ability to achieve plenty by achieving little, to go home empty-handed yet still satisfied at the end of the day! "
68 " To her way of thinking, anyone who can't rise up and rebel, anyone devoid of the ability to dissent, cannot really be said to be alive. In resistance lies the key to life. The rest of the people fall into two camps: the vegetables, who are fine with everything, and the tea glasses, who, thought not fine with numerous things, lack the strength to confront. It is the latter that are the worse of the two. "
69 " Si no le cuentas a nadie lo extraordinario, todo el mundo supone que es normal. "
70 " لقد أصبحت الشوارع ملكهم، الساحات لهم، العبّارات لهم. لقد أصبحت جميع المناطق المفتوحة لهم. و بعد بضع سنوات، ربما لن يعود لنا مكان نلجأ إليه سوى هذا المقهى. منطقتنا المحررة الأخيرة. إننا نهرع إلى هنا كلّ يوم هرباً منهم. أوه نعم، هم! فليحفظني الله من شعبي. "
71 " Since when is being a rotten drunkard a symbol of freedom? "
72 " My friend, wake up, there is no together anymore. Once a pomegranate breaks and all its seeds scatter in different directions, you cannot put it back together. "
73 " Neredeyse safak vaktiydi, geceyle gunduz arasindaki o tekinsiz esige ramak kala. Hala mumkun avuntu bulmak ruyalarda ama onlari silbastan insa etmek icin artik cok gec. "
74 " Животът е съвпадение ... "
75 " If you couldn't help harboring higher aspirations in life, you should at least harbor only simple desires, reduced in passion and ambition, as if you had been de-generized and now had only enough strength to be average". "
76 " In resistance lies the key to life "
77 " لقد علقنا. لقد علقنا بين الشرق و الغرب. بين الماضي و المستقبل. فمن ناحية تجد أن العلمانيين العصريين يفتخرون بالنظام الذي أقاموه، ولا تستطيع أن تنتقدهم بكلمة واحدة، لأن الجيش و نصف الدولة يقف إلى جانبهم. و من الناحية الأخرى، هناك التقليديون المتمسكون بالتقاليد، المفتونين بالماضي العثماني، ولا يمكنك أن تنتقدهم بكلمة واحدة، لأن عامة الناس و النصف الآخر من الدولة يقفون إلى جانبهم. فماذا تبقى لنا؟ "
78 " المعاصرون يطلبون منا أن نتقدم إلى الأمام، لكننا لا نؤمن بأفكارهم عن التقدم. و التقليديون يطلبون منا أن نعود إلى الوراء، لكننا لا نريد أن نعود إلى نظامهم المثالي إيضاً. إننا محصورون بين الأثنين، نتقدم خطوتين إلى الأمام و خطوة إلى الوراء، تماماً كما كانت تفعل فرق الجيش العثماني! حتى أننا لا نعزف على أي وتر! أين المفر؟ حتى أننا لسنا أقلية. فلو كنا أقليّة عرقية، أو شعباً من الشعوب الأصلية لأصبحنا تحت حماية ميثاق الأمم المتحدة، و عندها يمكن أن نحصل، على الأقل، على بعض الحقوق الأساسية. أما العدميون و المتشائمون و الفوضويون فلا يُعتبرون أقلية، بل أصبحنا نوعاً منقرضاً، و أخذ عددنا يقلّ يوماً بعد يوم. إلى متى يمكننا أن نبقى على قيد الحياة؟ "
79 " she yearned for success in multiple tasks in life and ended up accomplishing none. "
80 " Family stories intermingle in such ways that what happened generations ago can have an impact on seemingly irrelevant developments of the present day. The past is anything but bygone. "