Graffiti grammar

I happened to notice the words in the photograph below, written on a sidewalk box near the Özel Fransız Lape Hastanesi (the private Hôpital de la Paix), which has apparently been run by the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul since 1858. These must be the Sisters whom I occasionally see on the street.

It seems Gomidas was a patient at the Peace Hospital after his breakdown: a breakdown resulting from his deportation from Istanbul with other Armenian intellectuals in 1915. Gomidas was saved in body, not in spirit. Such is the history of the streets I walk daily.

Are the clouds descending on us?

DSC01607

The words in the photo:

Buraya Gri Boya Gelecek → Geliyor → Gelemedi

To here grey color will come → is coming → could not come

It could only come so far!

One Trackback

  1. […] In “proper” Turkish, gidici should be gidicisiniz, with the second-person plural ending; the need for the ending is not done away with by use of the second person plural pronoun siz, any more than the the need for the first person plural ending on geziciyiz is done away with by use of the first person plural pronoun biz. For consistency, the slogan could have been Geziciyiz gidicisiniz or (in “crude,” kaba Turkish) Biz gezici siz gidici (like “Me Tarzan You Jane”—Turkish does have the word Tarzanca, “Tarzanish,” for crude speech). However, actual speakers are not obliged to follow rules laid down by grammarians. See also the brief 2014 post, “Graffiti Grammar.” […]

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