painted on water Wherever I May Roam
Turkish Author Orhan Pamuk Opens Museum Based on Novel

Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence now has its own museum, created by the author. Apparently, Pamuk’s penning of the novel and creating the museum were simultaneous. While some might find opening a museum based on one’s own work a tad presumptuous, the museum seems, much like the book itself, to be largely dedicated to the nostalgia of another Turkey.

An eloquent musing on grief and loss, enhanced only through personal experience.

In “Hayat öpücüğü” or “Kiss of Life,”  singer Murat Boz rhetorically asks, “How can I forget your breath, your scent, the incomparable ways you’ve touched my heart? /How can I forget that you’re gone?”

The answer, of course, is that it is impossible. We will never forget. You are always with us.

Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, Ilya Repin 1876 (Russian State Museum)
According to the Russian epic of the same name, Sadko, a gusli player, was playing his music on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar overheard him, and was so pleased by his playing, he offered to help him. The Sea Tsar told Sadko to make a certain bet with a fisherman. Of course, Sadko wins the bet, and as a result gains a fortune. Sadko becomes a wealthy sea merchant, yet he and his sailors neglect to keep their end of the bargain by thanking the Sea Tsar for his kindness. Furious at Sadko’s ungratitude, the Sea Tsar stops Sadko’s ships in the sea like flies in honey. After their attempts at appeasement with gold are unanswered, the sailors toss Sadko overboard, and the Sea Tsar whisks Sadko to his realm. There, Sadko plays the gusli for the Sea Tsar, and after a night with a sea maiden, Sadko awakens next to his wife.
In the painting, Sadko is relatively unimpressed by the fantastical rusalki or water sprites, who are fascinated by him, and instead holds and maintains his gaze with the lovely (though mere) mortal who waits for him on Russian shores. Repin’s imaginative rendering of this scene delights the water nymph in me.

Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, Ilya Repin 1876 (Russian State Museum)

According to the Russian epic of the same name, Sadko, a gusli player, was playing his music on the shores of a lake. The Sea Tsar overheard him, and was so pleased by his playing, he offered to help him. The Sea Tsar told Sadko to make a certain bet with a fisherman. Of course, Sadko wins the bet, and as a result gains a fortune. Sadko becomes a wealthy sea merchant, yet he and his sailors neglect to keep their end of the bargain by thanking the Sea Tsar for his kindness. Furious at Sadko’s ungratitude, the Sea Tsar stops Sadko’s ships in the sea like flies in honey. After their attempts at appeasement with gold are unanswered, the sailors toss Sadko overboard, and the Sea Tsar whisks Sadko to his realm. There, Sadko plays the gusli for the Sea Tsar, and after a night with a sea maiden, Sadko awakens next to his wife.

In the painting, Sadko is relatively unimpressed by the fantastical rusalki or water sprites, who are fascinated by him, and instead holds and maintains his gaze with the lovely (though mere) mortal who waits for him on Russian shores. Repin’s imaginative rendering of this scene delights the water nymph in me.

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