Please take great care when you open the wall, usta. This house is a hundred and fifty years old.
1çocukken: “as a child” in one ending
In Lesson 4, Orhan Bey said Babam bu pencereyi istedi, “my father wanted this window”. Since when? Today the answer turns up inside a wall, and it sounds like this: çocukken, “as a child”, “when he was little”. One word, and the ending in it is -ken. It has plenty of jobs in this lesson — “when”, “while”, “on the way”, “since… anyway” — and they’re all -ken.
On a noun or an adjective, -ken goes straight on; after a vowel, it takes the buffer y:
çocuk → çocukken, genç → gençken— child → as a child, young → when young
öğrenci → öğrenciyken, hasta → hastayken— student → as a student, ill → when ill
And here’s the good news: -ken is always -ken. Vowel harmony leaves it alone — after a, ı, o or u it’s just as it is after e: çocukken, hastayken. Remember Course 1 Lesson 4’s -yor, which refused to play the harmony game? -ken is one of the same crowd. As for erken, “early”: it’s a word in its own right, straight from the dictionary, so don’t try to read a “when” into it.
With the locative you get “when I was somewhere”: evdeyken, “when I’m at home”; İzmir’deyken, “when in İzmir”. Who and when, the main verb tells you: -ken has no person ending and no tense of its own, just like Course 1 Lesson 19’s -ıp and the -arak of this course’s Lesson 3. The same İzmir’deyken can be “when I’m in İzmir” or “when I was in İzmir”:
İzmir’deyken her sabah denize girerim.— When I’m in İzmir, I swim in the sea every morning.
Geçen yaz İzmir’deyken her sabah denize girdim.— Last summer, when I was in İzmir, I swam in the sea every morning.
A few more — read them out loud:
Ben çocukken bu oda benim odamdı.— When I was little, this was my room.
Öğrenciyken çok az param vardı.— When I was a student, I had very little money.
Yorgunken iyi çizim yapamam.— When I’m tired, I can’t draw well.
Toplantıdayken telefonuma bakmam.— When I’m in a meeting, I don’t look at my phone.
var and yok take -ken the same way: varken, yokken. The one you’ll hear most is sen yokken, “while you were away”. And “when it isn’t” is değilken — often with a reproach in it:
Sen yokken çok şey oldu!— So much happened while you were away!
Zamanım varken bu kitabı okuyayım.— While I’ve got the time, let me read this book.
Hasta değilken neden işe gelmedin?— You weren’t ill — so why didn’t you come to work?
2okurken: while reading, on the way home
Now verbs. -ken goes after the aorist from Course 1’s Lesson 21: okur, okurken; yapar, yaparken; gelir, gelirken. So first you need the aorist itself — the thirteen one-syllable verbs that take -Ir included: alırken, gelirken, olurken.
You get “while”, and with verbs of going and coming, “on the way”:
Eve giderken ekmek aldım.— I bought some bread on my way home.
Kahvaltı yaparken müzik dinlerim.— I listen to music while I have breakfast.
If two different people are doing things, name them both:
Ben yemek yaparken sen bana bir şey anlat.— While I cook, you tell me something.
Usually -ken goes on the aorist, like okurken. But there’s -yorken too, on the present tense, for something going on right now:
Ben bir şey anlatıyorken sen telefona bakıyorsun!— I’m telling you something, and you’re looking at your phone!
The negative is -maz, from the same Lesson 21: okumaz, okumazken. And -ken can set two things side by side — two people, or “then” and “now”. In English that’s “whereas”, or just “and”:
Eskiden hiç kitap okumazken şimdi her akşam okuyorum.— I never used to read at all, and now I read every evening.
Herkes çalışırken sen neden oturuyorsun?— Everyone’s working — so why are you sitting down?
Babam sabah kahve içerken annem çay içer.— In the morning my father has coffee, whereas my mother has tea.
3çıkacakken and gelmişken: “just about to” and “since… anyway”
-ken also sits on Course 1’s future -acak, from Lesson 17, and on its -mış, from Lesson 18. These two pairs have meanings of their own, best learned whole.
çıkacakken is “was about to go out” — and usually didn’t: something got there first. tam, “just”, often comes with it:
Tam çıkacakken Zehra Hanım aradı.— I was just about to leave when Zehra Hanım rang.
Sana yazacakken senin mesajın geldi.— I was about to write to you, and then your message came.
And in a complaint, -acakken is “when he’s meant to be…”: one thing ought to be happening, and something else is:
Kerem çizim yapacakken telefonda penaltı izliyor!— Instead of drawing, Kerem’s watching penalties on his phone!
gelmişken is “since I’ve come anyway”: the thing’s already done, so why not something else while you’re at it. Unlike in Course 1’s Lesson 18, this -mış isn’t passing anything on; it just means “already”:
Ayağa kalkmışken bana da bir su getirir misin?— Since you’re up anyway, could you bring me some water too?
Buraya kadar gelmişken denize de bakalım.— Since we’ve come this far, let’s have a look at the sea too.
Başlamışken bitirelim.— Now that we’ve started, let’s finish.
4derken: “and then…”
The lesson’s last form comes from demek, “to say”: the aorist der plus -ken. derken is literally “while saying”, but it lives as a word of its own, and TDK’s dictionary gives it meanings of its own. You’ll need two of them.
The first is for telling a story, when one thing leads to the next: “and then”, “and before you knew it”:
Bir bardak çay, bir bardak daha, derken saat gece yarısı oldu.— One glass of tea, then another, and before we knew it, it was midnight.
Önce bir telefon, sonra bir e-posta, derken bütün gün geçti.— First a phone call, then an e-mail, and before I knew it the whole day was gone.
The second goes with Course 1 Lesson 10’s -ayım, when you meant well: yardım edeyim derken, “I meant to help, but…”:
Yardım edeyim derken her şeyi bozdum.— I meant to help, and I ruined everything.
Kısa konuşayım derken yirmi dakika konuştum.— I meant to keep it short, and I talked for twenty minutes.
Sound like Kerem? In Lesson 4 he wondered if he should have said less at the board: he’d talked for twenty minutes.
5Before, during, after — and how -ken differs from -arak
Course 1’s Lesson 24 gave you “before” and “after”: -madan önce and -dıktan sonra. Now you’ve got “during” too. Kerem’s morning in three steps:
Evden çıkmadan önce kahve içer.— Before he leaves the house, he has a coffee.
Büroya giderken müzik dinler.— On the way to the office he listens to music.
Büroya geldikten sonra e-postalarına bakar.— And once he’s at the office, he checks his e-mail.
Now a neighbour from this course’s Lesson 3: -arak. Both tell you how things went, but they tell you different things: -arak answers “how?”, and -ken answers “when?”. And -arak is nearly always about the same person as the main verb, while -ken can bring in a second one.
Büroya yürüyerek geldim.— I walked to the office.
Büroya yürürken Defne’yi gördüm.— On my way to the office I saw Defne.
In Lesson 3 you met Telefonla konuşarak araba kullanmamalısınız, “you mustn’t drive while talking on the phone”: it’s about how you drive. With -ken the same rule is about when:
Araba kullanırken telefonla konuşmamalısınız.— You mustn’t talk on the phone while you’re driving.
If you’re not sure, ask yourself: “how?” means -arak; “when?” means -ken.
6Türkiye up close: the old-book market
In this lesson’s dialogue a book turns up behind an old cupboard, and Defne’s first thought is a sahaf. That’s a second-hand bookseller — in TDK’s words, one who buys and sells mostly used and old books. And İstanbul’s booksellers have a market of their own: the Sahaflar Çarşısı, the booksellers’ bazaar.
For centuries they sat inside the Grand Bazaar, the Kapalıçarşı — the earliest records of booksellers there date from 1520. In 1894 İstanbul had an earthquake, and afterwards they were allowed to sell books in an open space beside the Beyazıt Mosque, each setting up a dolap there. Yes, the “cupboard” from Course 1’s Lesson 2: TDK’s dictionary gives dolap that meaning too — a shop in İstanbul’s covered market.
And there they stayed. In January 1950 a fire burned down fifteen of the shops, and the city built a new book market of twenty-three. In the middle of it stands a bust of İbrahim Müteferrika, who founded the first Turkish printing house in 1727. He wasn’t İstanbul’s first printer, though: Jewish, Armenian and Greek presses came before him, the first of them more than two centuries earlier, in 1493.
Find an old book at home, and that’s where to take it. Orhan Bey won’t be taking his, though. The dialogue will tell you why.
7Dialogue: a book behind the cupboard
June. The board said yes in Lesson 4, and work has started on Orhan Bey’s garden window. The usta, the craftsman, is opening up the wall where it’ll go, and Kerem is there to make sure a house a hundred and fifty years old takes it calmly.
Kerem:
Usta, duvarı açarken çok dikkat edin, lütfen. Bu ev yüz elli yaşında.
Usta:
Merak etmeyin, Kerem Bey. Eski bir evde çalışırken ben hiç acele etmem.
Don’t worry, Kerem Bey. When I’m working in an old house, I never rush.
Defne:
Günaydın! Büroya giderken bir uğrayayım dedim. Nasıl gidiyor?
Morning! I was on my way to the office and thought I’d drop by. How’s it going?
Kerem:
İyi. Usta önce şu eski dolabı sökecek. Pencere tam onun yerinde olacak.
Fine. First the usta’s taking out this old cupboard. The window goes exactly where it is.
Defne:
Duvardaki dolap mı? Çok güzelmiş. Keşke onu da saklasak.
The cupboard in the wall? Oh, it’s lovely. If only we could keep it too.
Usta:
Saklarız, Defne Hanım. Sökerken kırmayacağız, sonra başka bir duvara koyarız.
We’ll keep it, Defne Hanım. We won’t break it taking it out; we’ll put it on another wall afterwards.
Usta:
Kerem Bey! Dolabın arkasında bir şey var… Bir kitap! Dolabı kaldırırken yere düştü.
Kerem Bey! There’s something behind the cupboard… A book! It fell on the floor as I lifted the cupboard.
Defne:
Kitap mı? Duvarın içinde mi?
A book? Inside the wall?
Kerem:
Çok eski bir kitap. Kapağında “Nasreddin Hoca” yazıyor. Orhan Bey’e gösterelim.
A very old book. It says “Nasreddin Hoca” on the cover. Let’s show Orhan Bey.
Defne:
Orhan Bey! Bir dakika gelir misiniz?
Orhan Bey! Could you come here a minute?
Orhan Bey:
Geliyorum! Tam pazara çıkacakken sesinizi duydum. Ne oldu?
Coming! I was just about to go out to the market when I heard you. What’s happened?
Usta:
Dolabın arkasından bu kitap çıktı, Orhan Bey.
This book came out from behind the cupboard, Orhan Bey.
Orhan Bey:
Bakayım… İlk sayfada bir isim var: “Nuri, 1952.” Bu babamın adı!
Let me see… There’s a name on the first page: “Nuri, 1952.” That’s my father’s name!
Defne:
Babanızın mı?
Your father’s?
Orhan Bey:
Evet. Babam o yıl dokuz yaşındaydı. Çocukken bu oda onun odasıydı.
Yes. My father was nine that year. When he was a boy, this was his room.
Kerem:
Yani kitap yetmiş dört yıl bu duvarın içinde bekledi!
So the book has waited in this wall for seventy-four years!
Orhan Bey:
Ben çocukken babam bana bu fıkraları anlattı. Ama kitabı hiç görmedim.
When I was little, my father told me these stories. But I never once saw the book.
Defne:
Acaba bir sahafa göstersek mi? Belki çok değerli.
Maybe we should show it to a bookseller? It might be very valuable.
Orhan Bey:
Değerli, Defne Hanım, çok değerli. Ama satmak için değil! Bu akşam okurken babamı düşüneceğim.
Valuable, Defne Hanım, very valuable. But not for selling! Tonight I’ll read it and think of my father.
Kerem:
Usta, işe dönelim mi?
Shall we get back to work, usta?
Orhan Bey:
Önce çay! Bu evde çay içmeden kimse çalışmaz.
Tea first! Nobody in this house works before they’ve had their tea.
Defne:
Ben de gelmişken bir çay içeyim o zaman!
Well, since I’m here, I’ll have a glass too!
Kerem:
Duvar yetmiş dört yıl bekledi. Biz çay içerken biraz daha bekler.
The wall’s waited seventy-four years. It can wait a bit longer while we have our tea.
Count the -kens: açarken, çalışırken, giderken, sökerken, kaldırırken, okurken and içerken on verbs; çocukken on a noun; çıkacakken, “just about to”; gelmişken, “since I’m here”. bir uğrayayım dedim, “I thought I’d drop by”, is Course 1 Lesson 10’s -ayım with dedim — how Turkish says you made up your mind on the spot. And keşke … saklasak and acaba … göstersek mi? are last lesson’s.
8Reading
A week later a letter came to the office — a real one, on paper. Orhan Bey had read the book to the end. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck.
Dolabın arkasındaki kitap
Orhan Bey’s letter to the office.
Sevgili Zehra Hanım, Kerem Bey, Defne Hanım,
Dear Zehra Hanım, Kerem Bey and Defne Hanım,
Bu mektubu eski kitabın yanında oturarak yazıyorum.
I’m writing this letter sitting beside the old book.
O akşam siz gittikten sonra kitabı açtım ve okumaya başladım.
That evening, after you’d gone, I opened the book and started to read.
Kitaptaki ilk fıkra “Ye kürküm ye!”
The first story in the book is “Eat, my fur coat, eat!”
Babam bu fıkrayı bana belki yüz kere anlattı.
My father must have told me that one a hundred times.
Bir fıkra, bir fıkra daha, derken son sayfaya geldim.
One story, then another, and before I knew it I’d reached the last page.
Son sayfada bir resim var.
On the last page there’s a drawing.
Bir çocuk resmi: bizim bahçe, gül ağacı ve duvarda büyük bir pencere.
A child’s drawing: our garden, the rose bush, and a big window in the wall.
Altında, bir çocuğun yazısıyla, tek bir cümle:
And under it, in a child’s handwriting, a single sentence:
“Keşke burada bir pencere olsa!”
“If only there were a window here!”
Kurulun kararını beklerken size çok söyledim: “Babam bu pencereyi istedi.”
While we waited for the board’s decision, I kept telling you: “My father wanted this window.”
Şimdi biliyorum: babam bu pencereyi dokuz yaşındayken istedi ve ilk resmini de o çizdi.
Now I know: my father wanted this window when he was nine, and he was the first to draw it, too.
Keşke o da bu pencereyi görseydi.
I wish he could have seen this window too.
Kerem Bey, siz o gün “Duvar yetmiş dört yıl bekledi” dediniz.
Kerem Bey, that day you said, “The wall’s waited seventy-four years.”
Pencere de yetmiş dört yıl bekledi.
So did the window.
Bu yaz hazır olacak.
This summer it’ll be ready.
Kitabı pencerenin önüne koyacağım.
I’ll put the book by the window.
Babam çocukken bu pencereyi istedi; şimdi onun kitabı bu pencereden bahçeye bakacak.
As a boy my father wanted this window; now his book will look out of it at the garden.
Pencere bittikten sonra hepinizi çaya bekliyorum.
Once the window’s finished, I’m expecting you all for tea.
Gelirken acele etmeyin: çay hep hazır, fıkralar da.
Don’t rush on the way: the tea’s always ready, and so are the stories.
Saygılarımla, Orhan
Kind regards, Orhan
Not: Kerem Bey, penaltıyı da o gün anlatırım. Bu kere anlarsınız!
P.S. Kerem Bey, I’ll explain the penalty that day too. This time you’ll get it!
sayfa is “page”, kapak “cover”, and yazı is both “writing” and “handwriting”. oturarak is Lesson 3’s, gittikten sonra Course 1 Lesson 24’s, olsa and görseydi Lesson 4’s. And Ye kürküm ye! is the story from Course 1’s Lesson 26: the Hoca came to a wedding in his best fur coat and held out its sleeve to the dish.
1What did Orhan Bey find on the last page?
2How old was his father when he wanted the window?
3What will Orhan Bey do with the book?
9The lesson’s new words
These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time. The -ken forms of words you already know aren’t here; derken, which lives as a word of its own, is.
New words
- eskidenformerly, in the old days
- ayağa kalkmakto stand up, to get up
- derkenand then; meaning to…
- sahafsecond-hand bookseller
- uğramakto drop in, to call by
- sökmekto take apart, to take out
- düşmekto fall
- kapakcover, lid
- sayfapage
- değerlivaluable
- resimpicture, drawing
10Say it yourself
Out loud first, then the answer. Each one needs -ken in one of its jobs. Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.
as a student I lived in Ankara
Öğrenciyken Ankara’da yaşadım.
while you’re here, let’s have some tea
Sen buradayken bir çay içelim.
I listen to music on the way to work
İşe giderken müzik dinlerim.
I was just about to ring you, and you rang me
Tam seni arayacakken sen aradın.
since you’re up anyway, close the window too
Kalkmışken pencereyi de kapat.
I meant to buy one book, and I bought five
Bir kitap alayım derken beş kitap aldım.
11Check yourself
Six items. A miss shows you the right answer straight away, and why.
1Match each picture to its word.
2Fill in the right word: “Ring me while you’re in İstanbul!”
Sen ? beni ara!
3Tam çıkacakken telefon çaldı means…
4Fill in the right form: “Since we’ve come here, let’s have some tea.”
Buraya ? bir çay içelim.
5How do you say “On my way home I saw Defne”?
6Bir bardak çay, bir bardak daha, derken saat on iki oldu. What does derken mean here?
12Homework
Two to say aloud, three to write. Write by hand or in your phone’s notes, then read it aloud: the ear finds what the eye let through.
- Say these about yourself out loud and finish each one: ben çocukken…, öğrenciyken…, evdeyken…, yorgunken…, sen yokken…
- Your morning out loud, in three steps, like Kerem’s: -madan önce, -ken, -dıktan sonra.
- A memory from your childhood, five or six sentences: where you lived, what you loved, something that happened once. Start with ben çocukken, and use at least two -kens on verbs (okurken, giderken…).
- A find: an old photo, a letter, a book — something you once came across. Where, while doing what (… -ken), and what you thought then. If you can, one derken.
- Three sentences with -acakken — what you were just about to do when… — and two with -mışken, “since… anyway”.