I could hear the rhythmic & repetitive tread of the prisoners in the yard in the cadence of the lines of the poems. Moving. Especially enhanced by the pictures in the edition I read, by Latimer J. Wilson.

And you know how titles are often drawn from poetry, the Bible, etc.? Why has nobody written a novel titled "The Blue Tent of Sky" after the line "that little tent of blue. Which prisoners call the sky...?"

Oscar Wilde, işlediği bir suçtan dolayı iki yıl hapse mahkum edilerek Reading Hapishanesine gönderilir. Mahkumiyetinin ikinci yılına yaklaşırken hapishaneye yeni bir suçlu getirilir. Karısı tarafından terk edilen ve bunu kabullenemeyen adam, karısını katletmiş ve idama mahkum edilmiştir. İşlediği cinayetten üç hafta sonra idam edilecektir. Oscar Wilde, şiirinde işte bu adamı anlatır. Hapishane duvarlarını, geceleri, gündüzleri, sesleri, sessizliği ve ölüme giden bir adamın yüz çizgilerini, adımlarını..

Kaliteli bir yayıncılık. Şiirin sonuna kitabın basım süreçlerinde Oscar Wilde ve yayımcısı arasındaki mektuplaşmalar eklenmiş. Ayrıca sözü geçen mahkumun idam tutanağı da kitabın sonunda yer alıyor.

Şiir, vurucu. Çünkü hakikat.

Şiiri okurken yer yer Necip Fazıl şiirlerini anımsadım. Wilde'dan etkilenmiş olabilir zira çok da tesadüf denmeyecek benzerlikler yakaladım.

Şiirin son sayfası bütün hikayeyi özetliyor. İncelemeyi onunla bitirelim:

"No need to waste the foolish tear,
Or heave the windy sigh:
The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

"Lüzumu yok gözyaşı dökmenin,
Ya da beyhude serzenişlerin:
Bu adam sevdiğini öldürmüştü,
Ve bu yüzden de ölmüştü.

Ve herkes öldürür sevdiğini,
Bunu böyle bilin,
Kimi hazin bir bakışla öldürür,
Kimi latif bir sözle,
Korkaklar öperek öldürür,
Yürekliler kılıç darbeleriyle!"

Not: Ezel'in Dayı'sının sesi hemen gelip kulağınıza yerleşmiştir. Kendi yazılış hikayesiyle senaryoya bu kadar uygun bir şiir seçtikleri için de bir kez daha senaristleri tebrik etmek isterim.

for Yin

Baby did a bad bad thing
Baby did a bad bad thing
Baby did a bad bad thing
Baby did a bad bad thing
You ever love someone so much you thought your little heart was gonna break in two?
I really think so
You ever tried with all your heart and soul to get your lover back to you?
I wanna hope so
You ever pray with all your heart and soul just to watch her walk away?
Baby did a bad bad thing
Baby did a bad bad thing
Baby did a bad bad thing
Feel like crying.....feel like crying

You take your knife with wistful eye you're looking at the one you love
What are you thinking?
She lies asleep but up you creep and soon the deed is done
Her life blood leaking
It hurts so bad when you finally know just how low, low, low, low, low,
You'll go

Baby did a bad bad thing
Now for her the bell doth ring
And I am gonna have to swing
Feel like crying
My darlin's dying
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, the cops are prying....the warder's spying
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, there's no denying....the time is flying

(guitar solo)

(fading...)
Gaol broth is oh so thin
A patch of blue spied from within
A stinking cell, a cup of tin
The good and bad are all mixed in
Who is man to judge his kith and kin?
How will we face death's leer grin?
Who of us is free of sin?

I feel like crying

The end of Oscar Wilde’s life is tragic to contemplate. This poem that he wrote, this last offering is terribly sad, but provides a certain balm. I can only hope writing it helped him a little.

I loved the tone of the poem. As the story plods along, you see from his eyes and feel what it must have been like to be imprisoned. What I most appreciated was how he handled the theme of hypocrisy. He seems to be saying if we are all guilty, if “each man kills the thing he loves,” and if the God the society professes to worship is so forgiving, why are these men treated this way?

“This too I know—and wise it were
If each could know the same—
That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.”