Resmi yeni pencerede aç
Semiha Cemal
Almost everybody who knows my sister Semiha Cemal asks me for her biography. The history of her pure and honorable life which was beyond human nature cannot fit into letters or words… She was so sublime, so great..
I still cannot believe this sublime child who was a soul encased in a human body had a life lived in this world among people.
Semiha Cemal passed away when she was thirty one. She went to Celebi Primary School, then Camlica High School and then graduated from the Philosophy division of the University in 1926.
For a short period she taught Philosophy and Psychology in Izmir High School for Girls. From 1929 to 1935 she worked successfully as a Psychology teacher in Istanbul Teachers Training School for Girls.
When she was a student all of her teachers spoke highly about her ambition, intelligence and reasoning.
University Professor Sekib, Yusuf Ziya, Professor Dr. Nurettin Ali and all of her acquaintances have intensely admired her exceptional talent. At that time Prof. Yusuf Ziya even sent me these words upon an article Semiha Cemal had sent to the magazine he was in charge of:
“The article your sister wrote this time is astonishing! I don’t know if you have read Davud’s Mezamir(suras of Zebur). Please read it once. You will see clearly that both have been inspired from the same source. As I read the article I said: If this girl came up to me and said “I am inspired by God, and these words are my proof”, I will certainly be the first believer. Her writing has made such an immense impact on me.”
Prof. Sekib has many admiring writings about her other than this. Semiha Cemal… A glowing talent appearing through the centuries’ bosom…
Semiha Cemal… A matured and absolute example of virtue…
Semiha Cemal… A superior talent that represents human senses with mature eloquence and clarity…
Semiha Cemal… A divine gift, a pure soul; a gift for humans from the unknown; a model of morality in a human body...
The human scale is unable to comprehend the overflowing power that this young body fit into her short life. Her life that was full of wisdom is like an astonishing miracle. A profound creation brought to body by embellished power which is amazing to human kind!
It is as if by creating her God wished to announce, to point out the characteristics belonging to Him and thus brought into being this magnificent monument…
Semiha Cemal… A genuine and complete person who never tired herself or engaged with any human greed, never lost time!
The energy in her being has never been divided with lust or inferior weaknesses; it has flown towards and reached only one goal with all its power and intensity through a single path. She has never been weak to anything other than that divine power. Her clean and flawless being does not know anything of miserable addictions.
Semiha Cemal sees not the individual value of any being, but the power and effect of the One that gave it its body.
Semiha Cemal...doesn’t know the concepts of good and bad. For her there is goodness in everything.She used to say “The one who is considered bad is just a cross-eyed person who does evil thinking it is good and deserves only mercy.” She knows to pardon every offender by going down to their point of view; she watches the stage of life from behind the curtain. She also knows the quality of the actors.
Semiha Cemal taught manners with absolute success in her professional life.
You can ask if one can speak in such praise for his sister, but the ones who know her know that this is not near enough. She has struggled to moderate the powerful and lyrical manifestation of her eternal works.
The addition of an outer effect or nature’s beauty to the talent of a painter, a sculpter, a poet or an artist should be helping the artist’s pleasure expand. However for Semiha Cemal, the source of inspiration is her soul in which she discovers some new and hidden corner with each breath.
In the Teachers Training School for Girls where she was a teacher, Yovakimi-on Rum High School for Girls and Italian High School for Girls there was nobody who didn’t like her and who didn’t cry after her passing away.
The day she was consigned to the Merciful’s (Al-Rahman) Compassion, among the words spoken by the teachers and students of The Teachers Training School for Girls, I write the words said in tears by Sabiha Orhan about her teacher considering them blessings:
Our beloved teacher, we were so happy thinking that we would see you in our chair soon, but what was this? What was the news we got yesterday? No, no we did not hear that, we could not, even if we did we would not believe such a thing. How could such a robust body, sensitive in spirit but sound as steel in matter, vanish in such a short time?
How can our minds comprehend this? But the grief of our other teachers which they couldn’t hide, the tears they couldn’t hold back, dealt a tremendous blow to our heads…Believe, believe that this is the painful truth. We still cannot believe, and this was taught to us by you. You used to say, “Kids: Spirit is immortal, matter is mortal.”
Here, we repeat your words to you our dear teacher. Your body has left us, death has finally taken you in its hands. Has it separated you from us as our nail from our finger is separated? No, you haven’t died, on the contrary, you have struck a spark in our hearts. This spark will get bigger and bigger and its flame will set our hearts on fire, and nothing, no earthly power will be able to put out this fire.
However, your soul which we have engraved in the deepest corners of our hearts, your personality, your harmonious name, your ever smiling and blushing face, your lips saying “You are mistaken kids, I haven’t died” will give us consolation. You will live in our hearts, minds and in our whole existence as long as we live. As for your works, they will never die.
Your kids who have been enlightened by you have also gotten the power to do so. You, only you, sleep comfortably in your bed, and sleep at ease.
Feel the sobs of the students you left behind; don’ t tell them to hold back their tears. Let them, let them cry to their hearts content, you blessed dead...”
Professor Doctor Ziya Cemal B. AKSOY
