The Old Woman and the Eagle / Ya¿l¿ Kad¿n ve Kartal

(Bilingual English-Turkish edition) In this amusing story, an old woman encounters an eagle for the first time. Perplexed by its unfamiliar appearance, she decides to change it to suit her own ideas of what a bird should look like. Her efforts mirror a common pattern of human thought: altering the unfamiliar to make it acceptable. This tale is specially presented for children by Afghan author Idries Shah, who, for more than 30 years, collected stories from the Sufi tradition and adapted them to contemporary Western culture. Told since ancient times throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, such tales are used to help foster greater mental flexibility and insight in people of all ages. The Old Woman and the Eagle is wonderfully illustrated by Natasha Delmar, who was taught to paint by her father, the celebrated classic Chinese painter Ng Yi-Ching.



(Ingilizce-Türkçe Iki Dilli Baski) Bu eglenceli hikâyede, yasli bir kadin hayatinda ilk kez bir kartalla karsilasir. Kartalin alisilmadik görünümü karsisinda bir kusun nasil görünmesi gerektigine dair kafasinda var olan fikirlerden yola çikarak kartali degistirmeye karar verir. Kadinin bu çabalari bazi insanlarda bulunan ortak bir düsünme modelini yansitiyor: Bilinmedik olani kabul edilebilir hâle gelecek sekilde degistirmek. Bu masal, 30 yili askin süredir yazili ve sözlü kaynaklardan hikâyeleri bir araya getiren Idris Sah tarafindan çocuklara özel olarak sunuluyor. Böyle hikâyeler Orta Asya ve Orta Dogu'da tüm yaslardan insanlarin zihinsel esneklik ve içgörülerini gelistirmeleri amaciyla çok eski zamanlardan beri anlatilir.