Chapter 5 White Castle 3

3(1) In those days, he thought about how he could develop a larger gear mechanism that would allow the clock to be adjusted and calibrated once a month instead of once a week.After developing this gear mechanism, he wanted to design a clock that only needs to be adjusted once a year for prayer times.In the end, he believes that the key to the problem is to find enough power to move the cogs of this great chronograph, because the number and weight of the cogs must be increased according to the adjustment time.That same day, he learned from his friends in the mosque's timekeeping office that the pasha had returned from Erzurum.

The next morning Hoja went to congratulate him.Among the many visitors, Pasha chatted with him specifically, expressed interest in his invention, and even asked about me.That night, we took the clock apart and rebuilt it again and again, added things here and there in the universe model, and painted the planets with brushes.Hoja recited to me the content of the speech that he had worked so hard to write and memorized, hoping to impress the audience with gorgeous and poetic language.In the morning, to calm the nerves, he recited to me this gorgeous essay on the logic of the planetary rotation again.But this time, as if reciting a spell, he recited it backwards.Loading our device into a borrowed carriage, he set off for the pasha's mansion.I was amazed to see how tiny the clocks and models that had filled the house for months seemed so small in a one-horse cart.That night, he came back very late.

After Hoja unloaded these devices in the courtyard of the mansion, the Pasha looked at these strange items with the indifference of a grumpy old man who had no intention of joking.Hoja then recited to him the speech he had memorized.According to him, the Pasha thought of me again, and said to Hoja what the Sultan would say many years later: "Did he teach you these things?" This was his only reaction at first.The pasha was even more surprised by Hoja's answer: "Who?" he asked, then realized that the pasha meant me.Hoja told him I was a well-read fool.When he told me this, he didn't think of me, all his thoughts were still on what happened in the pasha's mansion.Afterwards, he insisted that it was all his own invention, but the Pasha didn't believe it.Pasha seemed to want to find someone to blame, but he didn't want to blame Hoja, whom he loved so much.

That's why they didn't talk about the stars, but about me.I could imagine that Hoja didn't like discussing this topic very much.And so they fell silent, and the Pasha's attention was drawn to the other guests around him.At dinner, when Hoja tried again to bring up the subject of astronomy and his inventions, the pasha said that he had tried to recall my face, but it was Hoja's that came to mind.There were other people in the room, and they started gossip about how humans were created in pairs, and there were some exaggerated examples about this topic, such as twins whose mothers couldn't tell each other apart; people who looked alike saw The other party is very surprised, but they can no longer be separated like a demon; or the gangsters steal the names of innocent people and live their lives.After the dinner, the visitors gradually left, and the pasha asked Hoja to stay.

When Hoja spoke again, the Pasha didn't seem that interested at first, and was even very upset that his good mood was once again spoiled by a bunch of mixed and seemingly incomprehensible knowledge.But later, after listening to Hoja's recited speech for the third time, and at the same time seeing our orrery's earth and stars whirring in front of his eyes several times, he seemed to understand a little bit, and at least began to concentrate on listening to Hoja's words, showing that A little curiosity.At that time, Hoja excitedly explained again that the stars did not rotate as everyone thought, but as shown on the orrery. "Very well," said the pasha at last, "I see, it is possible after all. Why not?" At this moment, Hoja was silent.

There must have been a long silence, I thought.Hoja looked out the window, at the darkness above the Golden Horn, talking to himself.As for the question "Why did he stop, why didn't he say anything?", like him, I don't know the answer: although I doubt that Hoja has ideas about where the future will be, he doesn't know anything about it. Did not say.He seemed annoyed that he had no one to share his dreams with.Then the pasha became interested in clocks and asked him to open them and explain the cogs, mechanism, and counterweight.Then, terrified, he thrust a finger into the rattling contraption as if reaching into the lair of a horribly dark snake, and withdrew quickly.Just as Hoja mentioned the bell tower, extolling the power of a prayer that all perform at exactly the same time, the pasha burst out. "Get rid of him!" he said. "You can poison him if you like, and you can set him free if you like. Then you will be more at ease." I must have looked at Huo with fear and hope. Add a glance.He said he would not set me free until "they" noticed it.

I didn't ask what "they" had to notice.Maybe I'm afraid to find out that even Hoja doesn't know what it is, I have a hunch.Later, when they talked about other things, Pasha frowned and looked at the instrument in front of him with contempt.Knowing that he was no longer welcome, Hoja remained at the palace until late into the night, expectantly waiting for the pasha's interest to rekindle.Later, he had the equipment loaded into the carriage.I pictured in my mind a man lying in bed in a room on the dark and silent way home: he was puzzled by the sound of a gigantic clock ticking amidst the rumbling of wheels.

Hoja stood there until dawn broke.In the meantime, I wanted to replace the burnt candle, but he stopped me.Knowing that he wanted me to say something, I said, "The pasha will understand." It was still dark when I said this, and maybe he understood as well as I did, but I didn't think so.But before long, he exclaimed, the point was to unravel the mystery of why the pasha had stopped talking. In order to find out as soon as possible, he went to see the Pasha whenever he had the opportunity.This time the pasha welcomed him happily.He said he already knew what had happened, or Hoja's purpose.After reassuring Hoja's feelings, he advises Hoja to pursue the study of weapons: "A weapon that will turn the world into a prison for our enemies!" That's what he said, but he didn't indicate what such a weapon would be like thing.If Hoja turned his passion for science to this field, the Pasha would support him.Of course, he didn't say anything about the donation we expected.He simply gave Hoja a purse full of silver coins.We opened the wallet at home and counted the money: there were seventeen silver pieces--what a strange number!After giving the wallet, he said he would persuade the young sultan to give Hoja an audience.He explained that the young sultan was interested in "this kind of thing".Neither I, nor Hoja, who is more prone to ecstasy, took the promise too seriously, but a week later there was relief.After breaking his fast in the evening, the pasha would introduce us—yes, including me—to the Sultan.

3(2) Prepared so that a nine-year-old child could understand what was being said, Hoja revised the speech he had recited to the pasha and memorized it by heart.But for some reason, his mind was still on the pasha, not on the sultan, and he was still wondering why the pasha had suddenly fallen silent at that moment.He said that one day he would find out the secret.What kind of thing would the weapon that Pasha wanted to make be?I have nothing to say, Hoja is now working independently.He shut himself in his room until midnight, and I sat by the window in a daze, not even thinking about when I'd be able to get home, but daydreaming like a stupid kid: working at the desk , The one who can freely go anywhere at any time is not Hoja, but me!

In the evening we loaded the apparatus into the carriage and set out for the palace.I have come to love walking the streets of Istanbul, feeling like invisible people, ghosts moving among them, among the tall plane trees, chestnut trees and redbud trees.With the help of others, we set up the instrument in their designated second courtyard. Sultan is a sweet kid with rosy cheeks and a stature for his tiny age.He operates the instruments, treating them as his own toys.I can't think now whether I wished to be his companion and friend at that time; or at another time, long afterward, when we met again fifteen years later?However, I immediately felt that I had to treat him well.The crowd around the sultan waited curiously. At this time, Hoja was a little nervous.Finally, he could finally start.He added many new things to his report, talking about the stars as if they were intelligent beings, likening them to mysterious and fascinating beings who knew arithmetic and geometry, and gyrated according to their knowledge.Seeing the little sultan beginning to be infected and looking up at the sky now and then in wonder made Hoja even more eager.See, the model here represents the planet hanging on the transparent rotating celestial body; there is Venus, which turns like this; the big ball hanging there is the moon, that is, it follows a different orbit.When Hoja turned the star, the bell attached to the model jingled sweetly, and the little Sultan was startled and took a step back.Then, summoning up his courage, he approached the ringing machine as if approaching a magic box, trying to understand it.

Now, when I rearrange my memory and try to write a past for myself, I find that this happy scene is exactly like the fairy tales I heard in my childhood, and it is exactly like the pictures drawn by the painters in those fairy tales.Just missing some cake-like red-roofed houses and glass globes that make it snow when you flip them over.Afterwards, the child began to ask Hoja questions, and Hoja worked out the answers to those questions. How do these stars stay in the sky like this?They hang from transparent celestial bodies!What are these celestial bodies made of?It's made of something transparent!Won't they collide?No, they each have their own area, layered just like the model!With so many stars, why not so many spheres?Because they are very far away!How far?Very, very far!Does the bell ring when the other stars turn?No, we added these bells to make it clear that the stars make full circles!Does thunder have anything to do with this?No!So what does it have to do with it?rain!is it going to rain tomorrow?Judging from the state of the sky, it shouldn't be!What did the sky say about Sultan's sick lion?It will heal, but there has to be patience, blah, blah. While talking about the sick lion, Hoja continued to look at the sky as he did when talking about the stars.After returning home, he talked about this detail lightly.The important thing, he said, was not for the young Sultan to discern the difference between science and nonsense, but rather for him to "notice" something.He used the same word again, as if I already understood what he was referring to as something "to be noticed".Instead, I was wondering if I should become a Muslim.When we left the palace, they gave us a purse with five gold coins in it.Hoja said the sultan had realized that there was a logic to how the stars worked.Oh my sultan!Later, after a long time later, I really got to know him!I am amazed to see the same moon appearing outside our window, I want to be a kid!Hoja could not help returning to the same subject: the lion question was not important, the boy loved animals, that was all. The next day he shut himself up in his room and set to work: a few days later he loaded the clock and globe into the carriage again, and this time he went to the elementary school, watched by curious eyes behind the latticed windows.When he came back in the evening, he looked a little frustrated, but not to the point of silence: “I thought the kids would understand like the sultan, but I was wrong,” he says.They were just taken aback.When Hoja finished his lesson and began to ask questions, one of the children answered that the other side of the sky was hell, and then burst into tears. He spent the next week boosting his confidence in the wisdom of the King.He went over and over with me everything that happened to us in the second courtyard, seeking my solidarity with his judgment: the kid is smart, yes; he already knows how to think, yes; he has enough stamina Under the pressure of the court people, yes!So long before the Sultan dreamed because of us, we dreamed because of him.Hoja was working on the clock at the same time; he was also thinking a little about the weapon, I believe.That's what he told the pasha when he was summoned to see him.But I feel that he has given up hope for Pasha. "He has become like everyone else," he said: "he no longer wishes to understand what he does not understand." A week later, the Sultan again declared to Hoja, and he went to the palace again. Sultan happily received Hoja. "My lion is healed," he said, "as you said." Then, accompanied by the sultan's attendants, they went into the courtyard.Sultan pointed to the fish in the pond and asked him what he thought. "They are red," Hoja said he answered when he told me the incident. "I can't think of anything else to say." Then he noticed that the fish had a marching pattern.It was as if they were actually talking to each other about the pattern and trying to make it as good as possible.Hoja said he found the fish to be intelligent.Hearing Hoja's words, a dwarf standing next to the eunuch in the harem laughed and was reprimanded by the sultan.The sultan was accompanied by a group of harem eunuchs, responsible for constantly reminding the king of the admonitions of his mother.In order to punish the red-haired dwarf, the sultan did not take him with him when he got into the sedan chair. They took sedan chairs to the lion house at the racecourse.One by one the Sultan showed Hoja a lion, a leopard, and a jaguar chained to the pillars of an ancient church.The crowd stopped in front of the lion that Hoja predicted would recover.The Sultan spoke to it and introduced Hoja to the lion.Then they walked over to another lion lying in a corner.This lion is pregnant with cubs and doesn't have a dirty smell like other lions.The sultan asked with twinkling eyes, "How many cubs will this lion have? How many males and how many females?" Distraught, Hoja did one thing. He told the Sultan that he had a knowledge of astronomy but was not an astrologer."I did it wrong," he later told the teller. "But you know more than Sir Hussein, the royal astrologer!" said the kid.Hoja was worried that the people nearby would hear it and hear it in Hussein's ears, so he didn't answer.The impatient Sultan asked again: Does Hoja know nothing? Does he look at the stars for nothing? 3(3) In response to the Sultan's question, Hoja had no choice but to make an explanation that he had planned to give later: He replied that he had learned a lot from the stars, and based on what he had learned, he had drawn many useful conclusions.The sultan listened with wide-eyed eyes, and Hoja felt that the king's silence was a good thing, so he said that it was necessary to build a star observatory.Just like the observatory built ninety years ago by Murat III, the grandfather of the Sultan's grandfather Amet I.The observatory was later abandoned due to disrepair.Or, something more advanced than this observatory: the Academy of Sciences.This academy not only allows scholars to observe the stars, but also helps them observe the whole world, all rivers, oceans, clouds, mountains, flowers and, of course, animals.Let these scholars gather together to discuss observations, to promote the development of knowledge, and to enhance our wisdom. It was as if the sultan had listened to a delightful fable, listening to Hoja speak of a plan which was the first I had ever heard of.When returning to the palace in the carriage, he asked again: "What do you think the lion's birth situation will be like?" will be balanced." At home, he told me that was safe. "That stupid boy will be completely in my hands," he said. "I am better than Lord Hussein, the royal astrologer!" I was surprised to hear him use such words for the Sultan; Even a little angry.During that time, I kept myself busy with household chores to relieve my worries. Later, he began to use this word, as if it were a magic master key that could open every lock: because of "stupid", they saw the stars above their heads without thinking; They will first ask what is the use of things; because they are "stupid", they are not interested in details, but in general; because they are "stupid", they are all the same, and so on.I said nothing to Hoja, although I liked to criticize people like this when I was in my own country some years ago.In fact, he was preoccupied with those "stupids" at the time, not with me.He said that my "stupid" is another type.During those days, I thoughtlessly told him a dream I had: He went to my homeland as me and married my fiancée, and no one found out that he was not me at the wedding.And I was wearing a Turkish costume, watching the celebration in the corner. When I met my mother and fiancee, although I was crying, they didn't recognize me and turned away from me.Finally tears finally woke me up from this dream. During those days, he went twice to the Pasha's mansion.The pasha probably wasn't happy to see Hoja developing a relationship with the Sultan away from his watchful eyes.He questioned Hoja, questioned me, investigated me, but Hoja did not tell me about it until much later, when the Pasha was expelled from Istanbul.He worried that if I knew, I might live in fear of being poisoned.However, I feel that the Pasha is more interested in me than in Hoja.Hoja was like mine, and it bothered the pasha more than me, which made me proud.At the time, this resemblance seemed to be a secret that Hoja would never want to know, and his presence gave me a strange courage: I sometimes thought that, purely because of this resemblance, I would stay away as long as Hoja was alive. Danger.Maybe that's why I contradicted Hoja when he said that the Pasha was one of the idiots too, he was annoyed by it.I sensed that he was unwilling to give up on me and at the same time ashamed in my presence, which gave me an unusual impudence: I kept asking about the Pasha, asking what he thought of us both, which To make Hoja angry, and I believe that even he himself does not understand the reason for his anger.Then he repeated that they would get rid of the pasha soon too, that the Janissaries would do something soon, and he sensed that something was brewing in the palace.Therefore, if he wants to accept Pasha's suggestion and engage in weapon research and development, he should not make it for the minister who may be short-lived, but for the Sultan. For a while, I thought his mind was only on vague weapon ideas.I told myself he was doing it, but he wasn't making any progress.Because if there is progress, I'm sure he'll share it with me, even if it's to make me look worse.He would tell me about his designs and get my opinion.Every two or three weeks, we would go to Aksaray's brothel to listen to music and hang out with women.One evening, on our way home from there, Hoja said he was going to work till dawn, then asked me about women—a subject we never talked about—and then said suddenly: “I’m I think..." But at this time, we entered the house, and he immediately locked himself in the room without saying what he was thinking.He left me alone with the books, but I don't even want to turn them now, just thinking about him: thinking that whatever plans or ideas he has, I'm sure won't go anywhere; Locked up in a room by myself, sitting at a table I haven’t quite gotten used to, staring at a blank page before my eyes, sitting for hours doing nothing, ashamed and angry…. Some time after midnight, he emerges from his room like a troubled student who cannot solve some small problem and needs assistance.He shyly called me to his table. "Help me," he said suddenly, "let's think together, I can't make any progress by myself." I was silent for a while, thinking it had something to do with women.Seeing my dazed look, he said seriously, "I was thinking about those idiots. Why are they so stupid?" Then, as if he knew how I would respond, he said, "Well, even if they're not stupid, their Something is missing in my head." I didn't ask who "they" were. "Don't they have a place in their heads for this kind of knowledge?" he said, looking around as if searching for a word. "There's supposed to be a cubicle in their head, like this cabinet drawer, a place to keep things, but they don't seem to have that. Do you understand?" I want to convince myself that I do One or two, but not very successful.We remained silent and sat face to face for a long time. "Who the hell can understand why a man is this way or that way?" he said at last. "Hey, if you're a real doctor, you can come and teach me." He continued, "Teach me about our bodies, and the insides of our bodies and minds." He seemed a little embarrassed.I think, in order not to freak me out, he tried to announce with an air of feigned humor that he wasn't going to give up and was going to see it through to the end.Not only because he was curious about what might happen, but also because he had nothing else to do.I don't understand anything, but it's a joy to think he's going to learn it all from me. Later, he often repeated what he said then, as if we both understood what they meant.But despite his feigned determination, he had the air of a daydreaming student asking a question.Whenever he said he would hold out until the end, I felt like I was witnessing a hapless lover complaining sadly and angrily about how this could have happened to him.During those days, he said that sentence very frequently.So he would say when he learned that the Praetorian Guards were plotting a mutiny; After not even reading half of it, after throwing it aside angrily; after leaving the mosque timekeeping roommate who is now only out of habit; after taking a bath that is not hot enough, and the body is cold; favorite books are scattered on the patterned bed cover on the bed, after stretching his limbs; after hearing the foolish conversations of the men doing ablutions in the courtyard of the mosque; After he should get married, he will repeat this sentence: He will persist until the end. Now I cannot help wondering: who among those who have read what I have written, or who have patiently observed all that I have imagined and been able to describe, will say that Hoja has not kept his word?