title: "journey to the center of the earth”
form: radio program (Açık Radyo, Istanbul; 27 November 2000, 08:00 to 09:00 p.m) and the program script.
script of the program:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Edited by Gökhan Akçura
27 November 2000, Monday, 08:00 to 09:00 p.m.
subject: Mirror-themed songs.
Background music: "Nightporter" by Japan (0.00-0.45) from the album Gentlemen Take Polaroids.
"A young man enters a hall of mirrors one day
And notices his own reflection
Even the biggest stars
Notice themselves in the mirror
Sometimes he sees his own face,
Sometimes the face of a stranger
Even the biggest starts
Find their faces in the mirror
Sometimes he falls for his own reflection
And then sees himself twisted again
Even the biggest stars
Don’t like their image in the mirror
So he creates the person he wants to be
And assumes a new identity
Even the biggest stars
Change themselves in the mirror
The artist lives in the mirror
With his own echo
Even the biggest stars
Live their lives in the mirror
Even the biggest stars
Prepare in the mirror
Even the biggest stars
Live their lives in the mirror”
Now let’s listen to "Spiegelsaal", translating as “Hall of Mirrors”, by Kraftwerk:
1. "Spiegelsaal" by Kraftwerk, from the album Trans Europe Express.
27 November 2000. This is a live broadcasting. You’re listening to Journey to the Center of the Earth. Well, today’s theme is apparent: Mirrors! Speaking of mirrors, one can’t help reminiscing of the legend of Narcissus.
His name is spelled Narkissos in Greek, Narcissus in Latin. Before turning into a flower, he was the very beautiful, very handsome son of Kephisos, the god of river. So he was conceited, and made fun of those falling in love with him. Naturally, such pride will not be left unpunished. This handsome young man saw the reflection of his face in a spring, and fell in love with it. He couldn’t take his eyes off the spring. He detached from the world. So he turned into a flower called the narcissus, and his personality passed to it.
After telling this story, Haldun Taner comments as follows:
“Everybody has the narcissism complex in one way or another. Otherwise mirror-making wouldn’t have turned into an industry. The problem lies with its dose. If you are overdosed on it, it would be a pathological issue. The less the better, the more the worse.”
(Haldun Taner, "Nergislere Bakarken," Koyma Akıl, Oyma Akıl , Istanbul. 1985, p.159)
2. The second mirror-themed song is “The Mirror” by Poems For Laila, 5:01, from the album A Fillette Triste.
Narcissus’s falling in love with his own reflection in a spring
Probably gives the key of all love affairs to us.
Melih Cevdet Anday wrote the following poem for Narcissus watching his own reflection:
“Tell me, why are you struggling very hard
To catch an effervescent image
Your lover will disappear when you turn your head
What you see comes with you, goes with you
It is yourself who you chase.”
(Melih Cevdet Anday, "Nergis ile Yankı," Sözcükler, Istanbul 1978, p. 390)
Maybe we all look for ourselves in all of our love affairs
We all look for our mirrors in whom we love
We all promise our lovers to be their mirrors.
Lou Reed wrote the following lyrics years ago:
“I’ll be your mirror
I reflect what it is when you don’t know it,
I’ll be the wind, rain and sunset,
The light at your door, indicating you’re home.”
3. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” by Nico & The Velvet Underground, 2:08, from the album Nico & VU.
Taking the legend of Narcissus as his starting point, Octavia Paz deduces a theory:
“Relationships based on mutual trust cause the people to lose their honor,
such a relationship will be bad for both the trusting one and the trusted one”, and he continues as follows:
“Unlike Narcissus who fell in love with himself, we tend to disrupt the reflection in order not to drown in the pool where we see our own reflection.
(Octavia Paz, “Yalnızlık Dolambacı”, translated by Bozkurt Güvenç, Istanbul 1978, p. 43)
Mark Sandman, the singer with Morphine who died last year, was telling in his song “Like a Mirror” :
“Like a mirror, I’m nothing.
I’m nothing. I’m nothing until you look at me.”
4. “Like a Mirror” by Morphine, 5:26, from the album The Night.
Now Peter Murphy holds a mirror to his lover:
“You were right,
I wasn’t there
When you said the war started.
With a glance I was yours
The things you gave
The things you took
Do you see
That star in the sky?
It is a mirror to my woman
Let me burn in its fire
In the mirror to my woman’s mind.”
(Peter Murphy)
5. “Mirror To My Woman’s Mind” by Peter Murphy, 5:34, from the album Cascade .
And one day we shall have to confront the mirrors.
Who is that in the mirror? Is it really us?
Today is the birthday of my brother Hakan... Let’s give our regards to him and quote a poem by him:
“Our reflection does not look like us, we all know,
In the mirror of a half table, never!”
(Hakan Akçura, Aksak Kuş, Istanbul 1996, p.67)
Now comes a song written by Peter Hammil:
“If I am a mirror and you are its image,
Then where the mystery between them,
Those “me” and “you” can be so much?
The images in this mirror
Will not stay, the images in this mirror
Are lost, the images in this mirror
Do not work. There is no mystery at all
In my images in this mirror.”
6. “Mirror Images” by Van Der Graaf Generator, 5:47 from the album Van Der Graaf Live
When it comes to mirrors, there are a plenty of poems! Including Asaf Halet Çelebi, A. H. Tanpınar. But I shouldn’t skip Ayna Şiirleri (Mirror Poems) by Hilmi Yavuz. He dedicated a whole book to the mirror:
"and black...mirror falls! Together with it everything is shattered!
What remains of the mirror, tell me, what remains of it?
What remains is, alas, just loneliness?
Mirrors pretending to be mirrors!..
We are their glaze, will the mirrors get lost?"
(Hilmi Yavuz, "Siyah Sonnet" Ayna Şiirleri, Istanbul 1992, p.16)
Joy Division sings the following lyrics in their song about something must break:
“Getting worn and choosing which way to go,
Please make a decision for me, please let me know
I looked at the mirror
And saw that I am at fault
I wish I could go back – where I belong.”
7. “Something Must Break” by Joy Division, 2:40, from the album Still.
Enis Batur tells how can we not live without mirrors:
"It greets us in the bathroom first: we review our image while washing our faces, brushing our teeth; that sleepy and puffy face should be prepared for the day. Then the ceremony of getting dressed begins: the face and body are adjusted to each other between the bathroom and wardrobe mirrors. Before leaving the house, the last retouches are made in front of the wardrobe mirror. Mirrors follows us wherever we go, preventing us from losing our balance. We find them even in the elevator. At the bathroom of our office, on the wall of that small restaurant we visit at the lunch break, their glazed world makes us remember ourselves.
It so made us get accustomed to its presence that we can even create it in the absence of it: the rear view mirror of a taxi, the reflecting sides of shop windows all relax us. Here we are, still exist.”
Quote from “Mirror Man” by Talk Talk:
"Today we hit the streets
For strutting
We are very fashionable
And he laughs, because our appearances
are the same and we followed the rules
Every moment of my time
I check my attire
I shall get to know myself without losing time
Mirror man”
8. “Mirror Man” by Talk Talk, 3:23, from the album The Party's Over. The issue goes back to that old question of "Mirror Mirror ".
Let’s look at the lyrics of “Mirror Mirror” by Violent Femmes:
“I see a damsel
in danger and distress
I see she’s beautiful
I see a damsel
She wears a dirty dress
I see she’s beautiful
Mirror, the mirror on the wall
Tell me which one is nicer
I see a fat lady
Her hair disheveled
I see she’s beautiful
I see a proud girl
I think she is pregnant
I see she’s beautiful
Mirror, the mirror on the wall
Tell me which one is nicer
9. “Mirror Mirror (I See a Damsel)” by Violent Femmes, 4:30, from the album New Times.
10. “The Judgment is the Mirror” by Dali's Car (Peter Murphy, Mick Karn), 1984, 4:38, from the album The Waking Hour.
Last song of the program. By Dali's Car. “The Judgement is the mirror”.
And the final word is over to John Berger:
“What are left behind are
our eyes left in the mirror and panes
our footprints on the carpet by the bed
our backs left on the wall plaster,
the doors swinging on their thresholds.
The door is closed behind us
And rolls the train’s wheels”
(John Berger, "Ayrılık," Ve Yüzlerimiz, Kalbim, Fotoğraflar Kadar Kısa Ömürlü, Istanbul 1988 (2.B.) p. 88)
