Thursday, October 11, 2007

Doris Lessing

Nobel edebiyat ödülünü Doris Lessing kazanmış.
Birkaç yıl önce Metis yayınlarınca çevrilen Kedilere Dair adlı kitabını okumuş, çok sevmiştim.Diğer kitaplarına da bakmalı.

"Bej renkli, ... ön ayakların bitiminde gümüşe çalan patiler. Kenarları beyazla çerçevelenmiş olduğu için simli gibi duran kulaklar dikilip, öne arkaya oynardı; dinleyerek, algılayarak. ... Kuyruğu, ucu sanki diğer organlarının alamadığı mesajları alıyormuş gibi, bir başka boyutta oynardı. Hava kadar hafif, pür dikkat oturur, tüyleriyle, bıyıklarıyla, kulaklarıyla, bütün varlığıyla, bakar, işitir, hisseder, koklar, içine çekerdi. Eğer balık sudaki hareketin somutlaşmış, şekillenmiş haliyse, endamına bakılırsa kedi de hissedilmeyen havanın çizgiye dökülmüş ve biçimlenmiş hali.
Ah kedi; derdim, daha doğrusu tapınırdım: Güzeeeel kedi! Nefis kedi! Zarif kedi! İpek kedi! Tüylü baykuş gibi yumuşacık kedi, kelebek patili kedi, süslü kedi, inanılmaz kedi! Kedi, kedi, kedi, kedi."




"I was coming back from the hospital with my son Peter who was sick. I stepped out of a taxi and there were all these cameras, a whole posse of photographers. As this street is very good for that kind of thing, I thought they were shooting a soap or an episode of Morse or something. But it was me. So I first heard that I had won the Nobel prize for literature from the reporters.
"It is the most glamorous prize, and naturally it has got a lot of prestige, which none of the other prizes have, so it's the icing on the cake. At one point, sometime in the 70s, they [the Nobel academy] didn't like me - they said they didn't - but they seem to have changed their minds. Committees are like that. Of course I didn't expect to get it. I've been on the shortlist for 40 years. It is good to be the 11th woman on the list, I'm only sorry that one of the first or fourth or the fifth wasn't Virginia Woolf. But I don't think it is helpful to talk about writers in terms of male and female. A lot of British writers have won it, which is good. We produce a lot of good writers. I've been talking non-stop all day. I've spoken to my publisher and agent and old friends who rang me up, which was very good. There were lots of people who have wanted me to have it for a long time, so it is very nice that I have. I'm exhausted. To celebrate I'd have to go and buy champagne. I'm going to bed."

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