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I've had so many knives stuck into me, when they hand me a flower I can't quite make out what it is. It takes time.

Charles Bukowski, letter, in Screams from the Balcony

Literature

The story behind the card

The line comes from one of Bukowski's letters, collected in Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960–1970 (1993). In those years he worked as a filing clerk at the Los Angeles post office and wrote poems for small magazines; in 1969 the publisher John Martin offered to support him so that he could write full time, and novels such as Post Office (1971) and Factotum (1975) followed. Here, with his usual bluntness, he admits that after so much hurt even kindness takes him a while to recognise.

Türkçe oku
Bana o kadar çok bıçak saplandı ki biri elime bir çiçek verdiğinde ne olduğunu tam kestiremiyorum. Zaman alıyor.
Charles Bukowski, bir mektubundan (Screams from the Balcony)

Söz, Bukowski'nin bir mektubunda geçer. Mektup, 1960–1970 yılları arasındaki mektuplarını toplayan Screams from the Balcony (1993) adlı kitapta yer alır. Bukowski o yıllarda Los Angeles postanesinde dosya memuru olarak çalışıyor, küçük dergiler için şiir yazıyordu. 1969'da yayıncı John Martin, yalnızca yazıyla uğraşabilmesi için ona maddi destek önerdi; ardından Post Office (1971) ve Factotum (1975) gibi romanlar geldi. Bu mektupta her zamanki dobralığıyla, onca yara aldıktan sonra iyiliği bile hemen tanıyamadığını itiraf eder.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Charles Bukowski
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