Critical Reception From The Turks
In response to Pierre Loti's support for the Turkish War of Independence, the Council of Ministers sent him a message of gratitude. In spite of his orientalist views, he received a positive critical reception from Turkish intellectuals. According to the famous poet Nazım Hikmet, Loti's apparent criticism of Turkish society was actually an expression of his pity for the sorry state of the backward Ottoman Empire. In a 1925 poem named Şarlatan Piyer Loti (Charlatan Pierre Loti) Hikmet wrote:
Hatta sen (Even you)
- sen Pier Loti! (You Pierre Loti!)
- Sarı muşamba derilerimizden (From our yellow skins)
- birbirimize (ourselves)
- geçen (passing from)
- tifüsün biti (the typhous lice )
- senden daha yakındır bize (is closer than you)
- Fransız zabiti! (French officer!)
- As for you
- you Pierre Loti!
- Via our tarpaulin hides
- among us
- the traveling
- typhous louse
- is closer to us than you
- French officer!
In prose: "As for you, you Pierre Loti! The typhous louse passing among us via our tarpaulin hides is closer to us than you, French officer."
Read more about this topic: Pierre Loti
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