Turkish PEN Centre

When I was young, in that earlier period of  my life, which now seems
so far away, I read a short story: "On Tuesday" (Bu Salı). The
writer was a young man who had spent the most exciting years of his youth
during the war.
"There is only one Tuesday in every week."
Fifty in every year.
And, many, during war-time."
Wolfang Borchert  died in 1947 when he was only twenty six. He had written
extraordinary short stories and had tried to protect them from the war.

"In the evening, Ulla was writing the following sentence in capital letters:

DURING THE WAR, EVERYONE'S FATHER IS A SOLDIER.
DURING THE WAR, EVERYONE'S FATHER IS A SOLDIER.

She wrote this sentence ten times.  In capital letters. And she wrote the
word 'war' as she would have written 'sugar'.'
 Kamuran Şipal, an unknown master, translated "Bu Salı" (On Tuesday) into
our own  language. It is a very good translation, as if  written
originally in Turkish. It is obvious that all  succesful short story
writers in every region of the world, are in fact sisters and brothers.
War, the worst and greatest chronic disease on earth,  will never succeed
in putting an end to this sisterhood and brotherhood.

Borchert, who never lost his trust in the superiority of human dignity,
while he was in prison during the war, is still protesting,
against this greatest,  most chronic disease that exists on the earth,
even today, now,at this very moment.

May all those who write about peace and all those who read the works of
those who write about peace have a happy World Short Story Day.

Selim İLERİ
(Translated into English by Aysu ERDEN with Beverly BARBEY)