The Secret Hand is my first novel. My friend Sedat Simavî, who was preparing to publish a daily newspaper named Dersaadet in the first year of the armistice, asked me for a novel. At that time, I was dealing with theater plays and never thought of writing novels.
“I can’t,” I said. “You do,” he said, “novel and theater are sister arts anyway.” At that time profiteering and influence trading was a matter of the day. It seemed that some people who could not afford to cross the bridge were selling wagons one day and suddenly became war-rich. There was such a subject in my mind that I could not make it into a theater shape and it was doubtful that it would be played even if I was soks.
Against Sedat’s insistence, I said, “Let’s see an experience,” and started working. To my mind this was going to be a satirical novel. But the incident took him into another shape altogether.
The first morning I saw the serialized columns of Dersaadet empty and white. At the beginning was only a headline called the Secret Hand, and at the end “there is a maad” [more]. In addition, there is an announcement that “our novel division was postponed [postponed] censorship”.
This was a settlement for a first work. I immediately ran to the newspaper: Sedat, who knew journalism very well as a child at the time, was not in my opinion. “Not Settlement, luck,” he said, almost pleased, “what a advertisement for a first novel! Sansür Şemsi Efendi is a very good person. Now we will go see him with you. He said that it could be allowed with minor changes. “
After all, the unchanged text did not seem to exist at that time. Then I did not think that I was ghostwriting a novel whose pearls were poured with small or even large changes. We went with Sedat.
“I went to see the Minister today to discuss a wood issue,” the novel began. Şemsi Efendi said, “It cannot be wood. We’ll replace it with something else, ”he said.
Well, what shall we put in?
Sooo much. For example opium…
Well, just below, the Minister says: “There are men like wood among my officers… I said wood, it came to my mind”. This wood simile is an excuse made up by the Minister to open up the wood issue. “
Şemsi Efendi thinks by mixing his lovely black beard, then “Most of my officers seem to have swallowed opium. They dream where they sit, ”he says.
I gladly accept as I like the invention of censorship more than mine.
It turned out that the Damat Ferit government had a wood settlement at that time. That was the reason!
“Then the word Nazir is not allowed. He will also be replaced, you say the director is the general [general manager] filân. Then the words Nişantaşı and Bebek will change… As you know, Bebek is close to Damat Pasha’s mansion in Baltalimam. Nişantaşı is the district of vükelâ [ministers, attorneys]… ”
With some other similar changes, we were saving the first division. But on the second day, other difficulties arose. Seeing that the work will take longer, Şemsi Efendi said: “Tell me about the subject of this novel,” he said. I told him: “Is it okay, my child… Do they make the man say such things at this time? Let’s give up this job, ”he said.
I took a wide breath where I sat. Şemsi Efendi thought again, scratching his beard:
“Can’t you change this whole thing?”
Now I couldn’t hold back and started laughing. Sedat and Şemsi Efendi did not laugh. Şemsi Efendi said: “My dear novel means love and relevance,” he said. “What do you leave them and deal with such accidental things… You turn that statesman and profiteer’s secret hand in the dark into a beautiful woman’s hand. We also read sweetly. “
This time I went out, flushing seriously. But on the way and at the printing house, Sedat deceived me again. I slowly softened rather than myself to save him from a difficult situation. There was a little love affair in the novel that was growing, devouring and melting away the main theme. Thus, the secret hand in the novel became the hand of a woman who secretly protected her husband as Şemsi Efendi came to mind for the first time, or Şemsi Efendi’s own hand. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that I wrote my first novel with him.
This time I went out, flushing seriously. But on the way and at the printing house, Sedat deceived me again. I slowly softened rather than myself to save him from a difficult situation. There was a little love affair in the novel that was growing, devouring and melting away the main theme. Thus, the secret hand in the novel became the hand of a woman who secretly protected her husband as Şemsi Efendi came to mind for the first time, or Şemsi Efendi’s own hand. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that I wrote my first novel with him.
