Muammer Ketencoglu - In English
21 Mar 2010 - 15:32:33
I met Muammer in Ankara, in 2003, in a restaurant. The first comment he made, that afternoon, after we were introduced, in his irreproachable English, was that he "wasn't very graceful while eating". Some time later, I realized that, opposite to what he said, Muammer is gracious in everthing he does and, much more than this, I reviewed my concept of graciousness. Muammer, who is blind from birth, tought me how to see a much more "graceful" world than I've ever thought could exist and, above this, tought me how to listen to it.
And that is exactly this: listening to Muammer is listening to the world. This man, with his brilliant soul, sweet smile and incredible Linguist, Political and Literary knowledge chose as his profession, after graduating in Political Sciences in one of the best universities in Turkey, enchanting the music of the world, the music of the whole world.
His research concerns the investigation of the music of various countries, in several languages, especially Bulgarian, Greek (!), Armenian (!!!), Kurdish (!!!!!). Sounds strange? Daring, at least. Risky too. Muammer uses his music for gathering, instead of separating, and works together with many artists from all these ethnicities and from many others. He studies the music of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, from the Basque country and also from Brazil. He listens to Luiz Gonzaga, Jacob do Bandolin, Orlando Silva and to many other artists whom even the majority of the Brazilian people never heard about.
Once Muammer gave me two flower bouquets that never withered... My relationship with flowers has definetely changed since then.
His liveliness never fades. It's amazing. In one of the pleasant conversations we had in his house, drinking "tchay", that he prepared himself for us, he talked about Brazilian Literature. Muammer was the only Turk I met in two years in Turkey who read the Brazilian Literature. Not even the Turkish writers I interviewed knew anything about it. He talked enthusiastically about the book "Gabriela, Cravo e Canela", by Jorge Amado. From that day on I started to love the book and, once more, to see and listen to things on it that weren't there before.
What a bless: Muammer lends me his eyes and teaches me how to watch the world, a brand new world, a Muammerian world, full of beauties and multicultural sounds. We start to listen and to almost believe we can understand all of them... With Muammer, I speak Persian, Greek, Azeri,...
Moreover, Muammer is charming, intelligent, contemporary, has a contagious sense of humor and so many stories to tell from the various trips he made around the world, including Brazil.
I wish all of us had a little from Muammer in our lives...
The person who gave me the honor of meeting him was his inseparable friend, Özgün Arman, and later I was the one who was begging not to miss any of his concerts.
One of the best stories was when he, having a concert in a place that was distant from my house and that I couldn't reach by myself, sent me two of his girl friends to take me there. They were both blind. They literally guided me all through the city, calling me "fistik", which is the slang for "chick" in Turkish. We had such a good time together on the way... Afterwards I was sure that I wasn't that able to see things as complex as they can be.
Sublime moments!!!
To my dear and eternal friend, whom I will always admire and thank for the precious gifts he gave to me, specially, his music! Hoping that it will be more and more understood and listened to by the most different people and transform them as it did to me.
And that is exactly this: listening to Muammer is listening to the world. This man, with his brilliant soul, sweet smile and incredible Linguist, Political and Literary knowledge chose as his profession, after graduating in Political Sciences in one of the best universities in Turkey, enchanting the music of the world, the music of the whole world.
His research concerns the investigation of the music of various countries, in several languages, especially Bulgarian, Greek (!), Armenian (!!!), Kurdish (!!!!!). Sounds strange? Daring, at least. Risky too. Muammer uses his music for gathering, instead of separating, and works together with many artists from all these ethnicities and from many others. He studies the music of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, from the Basque country and also from Brazil. He listens to Luiz Gonzaga, Jacob do Bandolin, Orlando Silva and to many other artists whom even the majority of the Brazilian people never heard about.
Once Muammer gave me two flower bouquets that never withered... My relationship with flowers has definetely changed since then.
His liveliness never fades. It's amazing. In one of the pleasant conversations we had in his house, drinking "tchay", that he prepared himself for us, he talked about Brazilian Literature. Muammer was the only Turk I met in two years in Turkey who read the Brazilian Literature. Not even the Turkish writers I interviewed knew anything about it. He talked enthusiastically about the book "Gabriela, Cravo e Canela", by Jorge Amado. From that day on I started to love the book and, once more, to see and listen to things on it that weren't there before.
What a bless: Muammer lends me his eyes and teaches me how to watch the world, a brand new world, a Muammerian world, full of beauties and multicultural sounds. We start to listen and to almost believe we can understand all of them... With Muammer, I speak Persian, Greek, Azeri,...
Moreover, Muammer is charming, intelligent, contemporary, has a contagious sense of humor and so many stories to tell from the various trips he made around the world, including Brazil.
I wish all of us had a little from Muammer in our lives...
The person who gave me the honor of meeting him was his inseparable friend, Özgün Arman, and later I was the one who was begging not to miss any of his concerts.
One of the best stories was when he, having a concert in a place that was distant from my house and that I couldn't reach by myself, sent me two of his girl friends to take me there. They were both blind. They literally guided me all through the city, calling me "fistik", which is the slang for "chick" in Turkish. We had such a good time together on the way... Afterwards I was sure that I wasn't that able to see things as complex as they can be.
Sublime moments!!!
To my dear and eternal friend, whom I will always admire and thank for the precious gifts he gave to me, specially, his music! Hoping that it will be more and more understood and listened to by the most different people and transform them as it did to me.
Dear Aline,
ResponderExcluirI'm so happy to hear from you! Thank you so much for the article you wrote. It's a wonderful feeling to be followed by you though from far away. But I always know that we're close in heart. 15 days ago, when we met Ozgun, we remembered the time we spent in Ankara with you. I still remember the delicious maracuja desert you made:)
I hope you're very well in health. If you let me, I'd like to put your articel on my web site.
Love and hugs,
Muammer