Resensi Buku "Madonna in a Fur Coat"

Penulis: Sabahattin Ali

Penerbit: Penguin Classics

Penerjemah: Maureen Freely dan Alexander Dawe

Bahasa: Inggris

....why is was not always through words that people sought each other out and came to understand each other, and why some poets went such lengths to seek out companions who could, like them, contemplate the beauties of nature in silence.

Thanks for breaking my heart Mr. Sabahattin Ali. HIKS.

One of my wishlist has been ticked off. Selain White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Madonna in a Fur Coat juga salah satu buku klasik yang ngehype banget di media sosial. So saya pun tertarik untuk membacanya. Akhirnya saya bisa meminjam bukunya di Foreword Library beberapa waktu lalu.

In the first few pages of this book, it took me to unstoppable sobbing. It really broke my heart into pieces. Why does this life is so miserable for this dying old man who is lying on his death bed?

Vibes buku ini agak mirip dengan White Nights, apalagi ketika Maria Puder dan Raif Efendi berjalan malam hari menyusuri sudut kota Berlin. Mengingatkan aku ketika tokoh utama di White Nights dan Nastenka berjalan menyusuri sudut-sudut kota Moskow.

Jadi buku ini mengisahkan tentang Raif Efendi, seorang pria asal Turki yang tinggal di Berlin, Jerman. Raif jatuh cinta sama seorang perempuan setelah melihat lukisan self-potrait perempuan bernama Maria Puder tersebut di pameran di sebuah galeri. Sejak saat itu, dia obsessed dengan perempuan tersebut dan berusaha mencari keberadaannya.

Kisah tersebut kemudian menjadi salah satu rahasia terbesar dalam hidup Raif Efendi yang tidak diketahui siapapun. Raif merasa seorang diri di dunia ini. Tidak ada satu orang pun yang menurut dia bisa dijadikan tempat bercerita without being judged or blamed. Setelah bertemu Maria di kehidupan nyata, dia merasa hanya Maria lah orang yang bisa memahami dia, tempat dia bisa membuka diri sepenuhnya dan satu-satunya orang yang dia percaya.

Pada suatu hari, Raif menerima Telegram dari Turki yang mengabarkan ayahnya meninggal. Dia pun harus kembali ke negaranya dan berpisah dengan Maria. Raif kehilangan arah kehidupan ketika tak lagi menerima kabar atau surat dari Maria. Dia seperti orang yang hidup tapi sudah mati sejak terakhir kali menerima surat Maria.

Meski dia sudah menikah, ingatan tentang Maria Puder tak pernah hilang dari benaknya.

Now I know these memories will never leave me...

Never before had I felt such happiness. I could feel my heart opening, as if for the first time. How was it that a person could bring such happiness to another without really doing anything at all?

All my life, I'd kept my heart closed. I had never known love. But now, all at once, the doors had flown open. My unspent passions had been released, to illuminate this one magnificent woman.

Maria Puder had taught me i had a soul. And now, overcoming a habit of a lifetime, I could see a soul in her...

Kenangan itu pun dia tuliskan dalam sebuah notebook yang dia simpan di loker kantornya tanpa ada seorang pun yang tahu. Tapi kemudian di detik-detik akhir hidupnya, dia meminta rekan sekantornya untuk mengambil barang-barang yang ada di lokernya. Tadinya Raif meminta agar notebook itu dibakar di perapian, tapi kemudian temannya meminta izin kepada Raif untuk membawa pulang notebook tersebut dan membacanya.

Dari sanalah kita tahu hubungan seperti apa yang dijalani Raif dan Maria sehingga bisa menimbulkan kesan sangat mendalam and devastating bagi Raif.

Let it be, madam, this is just how men are. What can we do but indulge them?

For the greatest betrayal, the greatest sin we can commig against the most blameless, is to abandon a loving heart, and for that I shall never be forgiven.

Buku ini dilengkapi kata pengantar oleh David Selim Sayers, yang mengasumsikan buku ini adalah otobiografi Sabahattin Ali. Buku ini pertama kali terbit pada tahun 1943, sebelumnya terbit di koran Hakikat dari Desember 1940-Februari 1941 sebagai serial atau cerita bersambung.

After all, this book is about yearning over someone who is no longer with you. I am wondering, is there any kind of this love on this world? It is beautiful but somehow it eats your soul. Hiks.

.. Love was not an absolute category. There were many kinds of love, just as there were many ways in which people could show their affection for one another. The name and the shape changed to fit the circumstances. In denying the love between a man and a woman its true name, we were deceiving ourselves.

Anyway, do not forget to read book, pals! Xoxo!

I definitely need to love a man, but a real man. . . a man who could sweep me off my feet without resorting to brute strength... without asking anything of me, without controlling me... (Maria Puder)

For me, love is something else entirely. It's beyond all logic and impossible to describe or define. It is one thing to like someone. To be consumed, body, and soul, by desire is quite another. That's what love is to me - desire that's all-consuming. Desire that is impossible to resist. (Maria Puder)