Translations:Yirmi Altıncı Lem'a/115/en

For a year or two in Istanbul after returning from being held as a prisoner-of-war, I was overcome by heedlessness. The politics of the day directed my attention away from myself and scattered it on the outside world. Then one day I was sitting on a high spot overlooking the valley of the Eyüb Sultan graveyard in Istanbul when I was overcome by a state of mind in which, while I was looking down on it, it seemed my private world was dying and my spirit was withdrawing. I said: “I wonder if it’s the inscriptions on the gravestones that are giving me such illusions?”, and I drew back my gaze. I looked not at the distance, but at the graveyard. Then the following was imparted to my heart: “This graveyard around you holds Istanbul a hundred times over, for Istanbul has been emptied here a hundred times.