An East-West conversation: Gürpınar's A Marriage under the Comet and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

The Turkish writer Huseyin Rahmi Gurpnar's 1922 novel A Marriage under the Comet shows similarities with The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale from Chaucer's fourteenth-century The Canterbury Tales in terms of its subject and its characters. In the first part of the novel, Irfan, like Nicholas, makes fun of the uneducated people, frightening them with his astrological explanations and predictions. The second part of the novel, like The Wife of Bath's Tale, ends with a speech on an ideal marriage. Here too, it is advised that when choosing his/her spouse, one must value inner beauty more than appearance and that if they want a happy marriage, husbands should submit their will to their wives. The enormous interest shown the Turkish version of The Canterbury Tales, since it was translated in 1994 for the first time, might be attributed to these similarities. In the tales above, Chaucer satirizes the religious, sexual, and class culture of the English society of his age unsparingly. It is possible that Gurpnar's well-loved novel, which adapts similar stories from a different culture and time to the local context, might have played a role in preparing the relatively more conservative Turkish readers for Chaucer's work, which they would meet eighty years later. Turk yazar Huseyin Rahmi Gurpnar'n 1912'de yaynlanan Kuyruklu Yldz Altnda Bir izdivac adl roman, Chaucer'n Canterbury Hikayeleri'ned Deirmenci ve Bath'l Kadn'n anlattklar hikayelere konu ve karakter acsndan benzerlikler gosterir. Soyle ki, romann birinci bolumundeki irfan karaketri Nicholas gibi astrolojik acklamalaryla cahil insanlar korkutark elenir. ikinci bolum ise, Bath'l Kadn'n anlats gibi, ideal evlilik uzerine bir soylevle biter ve yine e seciminde karakter guzelliine baklmas, mutlu beraberlik icin kocalarn iradelerini elerine teslim etmesi tavsiye edilir. 1994 ylnda eksiksiz olarak Turkceye cevrilen Canterbury Hikayeleri'nin bunca yldr gorduu buyuk ilgi soz konusu benzerlikler uzerinden acklanabilir. Buna gore, farkl bir kulturde din, cinsiye ve snf gibi konulardaki yanllar serbest bir dille hicveden hakayeleri yerel kulture uygun balam ve uslupla yeniden anlatan Gurpnar'n bu cok sevilen roman, gorece muhafazakar yeni okur kitlesini yakla 80 yl sonra tanacaklar Canterbury Hikayeleri icin hazrlamada rol oynam olmaldr.