Thursday, May 25, 2006

Petri on Kathara Deftera Day

The day after Tyrofagis Sunday is Kathara Deftera (ΚΑΘΑΡΑ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ) which in Greek means "Clean Monday", and its the 1st day of Lent. End of February beginning of March. A first Monday for sure, not only the residents of Tatavla (1) but denizens of other neigborhoods (2) enjoys life at the bars like Ararat, Panoroma, Akrapolis, Paris, Lemonia. And Petri was hiding in Bostan District in a garden shack in half ruins. Did he don a mask and joined the crowds? Was Tahta Kilise/ Wood Church standing nearby? Church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, at Tatavla foothils is not yet built in its place at the parish of the Virgin Evangelistria Propodon.

On this Shrove Monday (Kathara Deftera) He is alone and can only dream the flatbread (lagana), the kite, the olives, the fasolada and tarama salad…Picture of Peruz dimly lit by a window sill. Dragoman still waiting for him at a Kalyoncu Kulluğu dive? In love. Drunk?.. and suddenly a joyful Laterna music was heard...

Karoçeri Trava, na pame sta Tatavla
Posa Talira yirevis, ya na pas ke na mas feris!
Büyükdere ke Therapia; Tatavla ke Nihori
Afta ta tessara horia, pu stolizune tin poli

Carriage driver, take us to Tatavla
How many bills of five you need to take us there
Büyükdere and Tarabya; Tatavla and Yeniköy
Four places that make this city (İstanbul) real nice

Çek arabacı Tatavla'ya gidelim
Bizi oraya götürmek için kaç beşlik istersin
Büyükdere ve Tarabya; Tatavla ve Yeniköy
İstanbul'u güzelleştiren işte bu dört köy.

(1) Tatavla, area known in Byzantine times as the Tabula which means "horse stable" in Greek, is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Şişli today called Kurtulus whose population consists of Turks, Albanians, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, Jews and Alevis. It was originally built as a residential area reserved for Ottoman citizens of Greek descent. First settled by Greeks from the Mani who worked in the Imperial Ottoman dockyards of Kasımpaşa. To the Greek visitor it aroused similar and even stronger emotions than the Rio dei Greci in Venice and the Griechengasse in Vienna. Till the mid 18th century Tatavla was one of the most distinctly working-class neighbourhoods - a legendary neighbourhood nonetheless, known indeed as 'legendary Tatavla'. It was remarkable for its dashing young men (Bishop Pamphilos Melissinos dubbed them "spirited and mettlesome "), young men who would not hesitate to take on the gendarmes who overstepped the bounds and became excessively oppressive, and for the efficiency of their volunteer fire-fighters and renowned housewives: 'a Tatavlian housewife' was high praise for the mistress of a house.

(2) Şakakları zülüflü, beli kuşaklı, bol paçalı Tatavla, Yenişehir, Papasköprüsü palikaryaları; pabuç kaşlı, gaga burunlu, pos bıyıklı Feridiye, Elmadağı, Pangaltı ahbarları; vapur dumanı fesli, göğsü çapraz camadanlı, yumurta ökçe şıpıdıklı tulumba reisleri; fiyakalı omuzdaşlar; saltalı, poturlu esnaf; frenk gömlekli, kravatlı kalem katipleri; kürklü yakalı, altın saat köstekli mirasyedi beyler; sırma kordonlu, çifter çifter madalyalı bıçkın hünkâr yaverleri..

SERMET MUHTAR ALUS Source: (İstanbul Yazıları, İBBKİDBY, 1994 / 19 Şubat 1944)

See also:
Greek Archives, Vol. 9: Constantinople in Old Recordings
and
Guardians of Hellenism, Vol. 5 This album has a good mix of popular music styles from Constantinople and its environs dating to the 18th and 19th century.

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