Noble Dancing

Tags

Australian poet, Circassia, Circassion genocide, Circassion Noble Dancing, Ottoman Empire, poem, poetry, White slavery

𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠

{ 𝘊𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪a𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩-𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦d𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦. 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴. 𝘕𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯d 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘴}

Pity not the proud Circassians,
Plundered by the cruelest nations.
Listen to their tunes entrancing —
Glory in their Noble Dancing.

— D.N. O’Brien

Noble Dancing

Beersheba

Tags

4th Light Horse Brigade, AIF, Australian Light Horse, Australian Slouch hat, Beersheba, Beersheba Charge, Bush Poetry, German Officers, Negev Desert, Ottoman Empire, poem, poetry, The Battle of Beersheba, The Charge at Beersheba, Turkish soldiers, Turks, World War One

𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐛𝐚

Faint rays falling on the horses and the host,
And the Officers of Germany are dreaming of the coast.
Desert day is dawning, the defenders are dug in.
Slouch-hatted soldier scrapes the salt-beef from the tin.
Turk stokes the withered wood, spreads palms towards the fire,
And wonders why there are no mines, and where is the barbed wire?
On drags the dreary day and late grows the hour —
Before the sun begins to set, a cry from the tower:
“There are cavalry towards the east, so danger’s close at hand!”
But the Officers of Germany, the Turks don’t understand.
The Officers of Germany are tired of sweat and sand.
The Officers of Germany are in a foreign land.
An Officer of Germany screams at the Turks: “You see!
They are but mounted infantry — they are not cavalry!”
Eight hundred horsemen, mounted tall, that is the spotter’s count.
Eight hundred infantry, that’s all — and they will all dismount.
The Officers of Germany have fallen for the ruse;
The Officers in Germany will read the dreadful news.
Scream the German officers: “Men, now hold your fire!”
The Turks can see the plain, the rising dust, and no barbed wire.
Come on the lines of horsemen, and too late the Turkish sons
See that the riders won’t dismount — they’re underneath the guns.
Eight hundred riders make the charge and all of them stay mounted,
Except those who from their mounts fall, and thirty one are counted.
Slung on their backs their rifles, and with bayonets held on high,
They reach the Turkish trenches as the Turks shoot at the sky.
And suddenly the fighting is all over — as before,
This blasted land, the blood-soaked sand that knows the ways of war,
This poor Beersheba, once again, gives up her precious wells,
Remembering the pounding hooves, gun shots and bursting shells.
And many Turks that night they find a cold and dusty bed,
And slouch hats top the rifles of the riders who are dead.
The lucky Turks are led away into captivity,
As are those splendid men, the Officers of Germany.

— D.N. O’Brien

Beersheba Charge

At the Flicks – Young Turks

Tags

Australian poet, Australian traditional poetry, Erdogan, Ertugrul -Resurrection, Formal poetry, islam, Islamic propaganda, Osman the first, Ottoman Empire, poem, poetry, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Resurrection - Ertugrul, Turkey, Turkish film industry

Now Hollywood is staffed by jerks,
I much prefer the honest Turks.
I watch each series on Netflix;
I’ve given up on Western pricks.
Sure, some scenes have excessive sighs
Where actresses with mournful eyes
Gaze lovingly at bearded guys
With weapons of enormous size –
Sharp scimitars wielded with force,
Beheading Christian Knights, of course.
The body-count logic defies,
But then Turks don’t apologise
For showing Muslims in this light –
They always win – Christians can’t fight!
It’s propaganda unashamed;
Their past empire is never blamed;
They don’t at belly-buttons gaze;
They celebrate those gory days.
They say a prayer then say: “Amen.”
They’re making Turkey Great Again!

At the Flicks – Young Turks

Yes, you’ve got to hand it to the Turks when it comes to making block-busting historical dramas. Soap operas really, that under the watchful gaze of the Turkish Government censors carefully tread the right path, the Islamic path, as laid down by Erdogan – he who would wish to see the Ottoman Empire rise again. But hey! – who am I to complain. I enjoy these shows, all 150+ episodes of each. The Turks are unapologetic in their portrayal of their past heroes and their victories – no self flagellation of the Western kind; no denigration of their ancestors, despite their sins – quite the opposite. The Muslims are always right and on the side of right, and the enemy, the infidels, are not only wrong, but they are also sneaky, dishonest and beneath contempt – they are demons.

So why as a non-Muslim do I enjoy these shows? Well apart from the enthralling stories, amazing costumes, the frequent sword fights, the excellent acting and of course, the gorgeous women, I basically enjoy their honesty – there is no surreptitious, sneaky, underhanded social engineering of the type we find in everything made in the West these days. No subtle (well subtle to the blind and deaf) attempts at brain-washing. The Turks don’t try to hide their prejudice. Their method of propaganda is not “sophisticated” you might say. They are confident in their convictions and consequently make no attempt to cloak their intentions. There is no undercurrent, no hidden agenda – it’s all out in the open. Typically, these shows are simply delightful Turkish Islamic nationalistic propaganda with no attempt to hide the fact – that’s what’s great about them; you can just ignore the obvious message and get on with enjoying the production despite all the “Allahu Akbahs!” – it’s refreshing!

At the moment I’m watching “Resurrection – Ertugrul.” (well that’s the approximate English translation) I’m only up to episode 55 so not a lot has happened, but I feel things will begin to move shortly. Ertugrul was the father of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman I, so he is quite an important guy in Turkish folklore. I say folklore because almost nothing is known about him, but that doesn’t stop an imaginative Turkish script-writer from turning him into a great founding father and Turkish Muslim hero, and good on that script-writer for doing so!

I’m not going to spoil the plot for anyone but it’s sufficient to say the Muslims are the good guys and the Knights Templar (here representing the Christians) are just about the worse guys you could imagine. They are sneaky, cowardly, scheming cheats with no redeeming qualities at all. To be fair this may not have been too wide of the mark judging by their historical reputations, but I do object to their pitiful sword-fighting skills – one Muslim alp (as their fighters are called) will quite easily lay waste to a dozen Knights Templar and hardly raise a sweat.

Do these Turkish shows have faults? Sure, as you may have guessed already things sometimes move at a snail’s pace (a sluggish snail) and those long looks into each other’s eyes (including some of the man to man encounters) can be pretty trying, as can the religious meetings where dervishes monotonously chant and mysterious beams of light suddenly descend from the clouds, but hey, that’s just Turkish culture and religion and that’s what the fast-forward button is there for. Anyway if you are as sick as I am of the pathetic crap coming out of Hollywood and elsewhere and you can read subtitles, then do yourself a favour – give the Young Turks a go!

Resurrection – Ertugrul