Juniper Prayer Beads

Notes

Notes:

Andiz Tesbih = Prayer Beads made of Juniper tree seeds

Rayiha is an archaic word in Turkish, it has Arabic etymology, and it means “beautiful scent”. The sound “ra-yi-haaa” is truly beautiful.

“How generous is the Juniper tree’s seed” “How hard is the Juniper tree’s seed” could also be: The Juniper tree’s seed is so generous; The Juniper tree’s seed is so hard. While in Turkish, she uses the singular, a plural use in English may capture the feeling too.

Katil = killer, murderer, slayer, assassin…

oluk ılık oluk ılık: Several things are happening here: the sound and rhythm “ik, uk” a word play: the phrase “oluk oluk” means “quite a lot” in Turkish oluk means gutter, ılık means lukewarm, in Turkish something can also pour like “oluk” (oluk gibi akmak) – for example money: which means “come abundantly and abruptly”

Menzil can have several meanings, I have translated menzilsiz (without menzil) as out of range, but here are several possible meanings: A place to stop to rest during a trip (a mansion for example) The distance between two mansions/resting place, A one day journey

malmışçasına is one of those words made possible with agglutination: mal = goods mışçasına = as if

yığılı = stacked, üstüste bindirilen = stacked on top of each other – so here, she repeats the idea of stacked goods but highlighting with the verb “bindirmek” which means “being piled up”.

Sonrası means afterwards, but can also be post- , after, sequel, “what comes after”

devlet elli ölümler = state fatalities but literally: “those who die by the State’s hands”, so she basically says, those that the State murdered. Here it is important to know about Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist – also a friend of Karin’s – who was murdered.