The Contrary Woman
Long ago, beside an old forest of cool streams, there lived a patient man named Hüseyin. The wife of Hüseyin, named Karaca, was an unusual woman known across the lands for her contrary nature, who had made a habit of turning every word upside down. If he said the sun rose in the east, Karaca claimed that it set in the west; if he said the soup had too much salt, the woman added another handful. Poor Hüseyin had endured these stubborn manners of Karaca for years, and in order to get along with her he had learned to say every word backwards. The villagers could not make sense of this, and the enormous contrary nature of the woman was spoken of with amazement in every gathering. On a hot summer day, the husband and the wife decided to walk on the steep path beside the river.
When Hüseyin saw the wild river of deep waters, he wanted to warn his wife. "Careful, Karaca, do not go too close to the water, the current is very strong!" he called out. Karaca, with contrariness running in her veins, stepped toward the most dangerous spot of the river as soon as she heard the warning of her husband. "Am I going to ask you where to step, I am far more careful than you!" she said, and set her foot on a slippery stone. Losing her balance at that moment, the unlucky woman tumbled with a bitter scream into the middle of the wild waters. Hüseyin shouted in despair and struggled along the river to save his wife.
But the wild waves had swallowed Karaca, and the foamy waters had carried her away in the blink of an eye. The villagers who heard what happened ran to help at once and began to run down the river, toward the direction of the current. Hüseyin, unlike everyone else, began to walk toward the mountain where the river was born, that is, against the current. Seeing this, the villagers shouted with astonishment: "Hey Hüseyin, the current goes down, why are you walking up?" Hüseyin answered with a deep sigh: "You never knew my wife at all!" "All her life she did the opposite of everything; even if the current carried her away, she has surely gone upward!" A person who resists reason all his life leaves behind only stories full of astonishment and lesson. What a man is at seven, he is also at seventy.