TE16 Turkish Delight

Needlefish (novel excerpt) by Hakan Günday Translated from Turkish by Zeynep Beler

They don’t look at one another. They only imitate what’s in front of them. They stand side by side and punch the air. Turning their wrists throughacrescent, they strikeaghost in thechest.Whereas most of their hands had been wandering over the coolest of female bodies up until a few hours ago, they now separate oxygen from nitrogen as if their bones were made of steel. Fourteen male voices. Fourteen lives lined up side by side. They step and shout simultaneously. Brief and resonant. They watch themselves on the wall of mirrors in front of them. They count the drops of sweat on their faces. A man stands facing them. He is the only one who knows the next move. A red giant. He is trying to teach the most woeful art of a very far East. But they pay no attention. Neither to the East, nor to how far it is. They are here to become familiar with the dialect of the street. Knowing that no one but themselves could protect what they possess, they waste no time with nuances. The philosophy behind the technique with which could draw blood from the ear of a regular pickpocket they come across in Kreuzberg, they have no interest in. They exhaust a thousand-year style just so they can curse fearlessly in a bar. The blows they repeat on bare feet inside the large hall need not have a philosophy. For them, the world need not have a philosophy. They live on its back and to them that’s more than enough. The Jeet Kune Do Akademie Berlin on Kastanienallee. The JAB for short. They are in thewhite hall in the basement. They are here to practice killing, not self-defense. Killing themselves or another. It makes no difference because this is the West…

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