Texts Migrate Too: A Descriptive Study of the English Translations of Karamanli Poetry

Özgür Bülent Erdoğan

Article Details

Texts Migrate Too: A Descriptive Study of the English Translations of Karamanli Poetry

Authors:

Özgür Bülent Erdoğan

Publisher:

Istanbul University

Main Topics:

Dil Çalışmaları (Diğer)

Journal:

İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi Issue 19, pp.142-152

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

12/2023

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001311046

pISSN:

2717-6959

Keywords:

Abstract:

 As a result of the population exchange agreement signed between Türkiye and Greece in 1924, approximately 1.5 million people had to relocate on both sides of the Aegean. The Karamanli, who used Greek letters as a written language but had for centuries produced works in Turkish, were also included in the exchange and expressed the difficulties they encountered in their new homeland in poems. A rare example of the Karamanli migrant literature, these poems were originally published in Karamanli Turkish between 1924-1927 in Athens. Twenty-five poems from this collection were republished in 2016 under the title Muhacirname The Poems of the Migrants in Istanbul. The English translation of these poems almost a century later facilitated their international circulation. This study analyzes the English translations of the book and its paratext i.e., preface, notes, articles, interviews with translators in terms of translation norms. The first stage of the analysis shows the classification of the poems in terms of translation categories to suggest that they are after all interlingual translations. The second phase uses the concept of translation norms Toury, 2004 to identify the explicit translator decisions regarding the challenges of poetry translation. These translations of Karamanli poems have capital importance in terms of providing historical information on the migration process of literary texts in nearby geographies as well as in terms of how the ethnolinguistic repertoire of Karamanli has been conserved across borders.

 As a result of the population exchange agreement signed between Türkiye and Greece in 1924, approximately 1.5 million people had to relocate on both sides of the Aegean. The Karamanli, who used Greek letters as a written language but had for centuries produced works in Turkish, were also included in the exchange and expressed the difficulties they encountered in their new homeland in poems. A rare example of the Karamanli migrant literature, these poems were originally published in Karamanli Turkish between 1924-1927 in Athens. Twenty-five poems from this collection were republished in 2016 under the title Muhacirname The Poems of the Migrants in Istanbul. The English translation of these poems almost a century later facilitated their international circulation. This study analyzes the English translations of the book and its paratext i.e., preface, notes, articles, interviews with translators in terms of translation norms. The first stage of the analysis shows the classification of the poems in terms of translation categories to suggest that they are after all interlingual translations. The second phase uses the concept of translation norms Toury, 2004 to identify the explicit translator decisions regarding the challenges of poetry translation. These translations of Karamanli poems have capital importance in terms of providing historical information on the migration process of literary texts in nearby geographies as well as in terms of how the ethnolinguistic repertoire of Karamanli has been conserved across borders.

 As a result of the population exchange agreement signed between Türkiye and Greece in 1924, approximately 1.5 million people had to relocate on both sides of the Aegean. The Karamanli, who used Greek letters as a written language but had for centuries produced works in Turkish, were also included in the exchange and expressed the difficulties they encountered in their new homeland in poems. A rare example of the Karamanli migrant literature, these poems were originally published in Karamanli Turkish between 1924-1927 in Athens. Twenty-five poems from this collection were republished in 2016 under the title Muhacirname The Poems of the Migrants in Istanbul. The English translation of these poems almost a century later facilitated their international circulation. This study analyzes the English translations of the book and its paratext i.e., preface, notes, articles, interviews with translators in terms of translation norms. The first stage of the analysis shows the classification of the poems in terms of translation categories to suggest that they are after all interlingual translations. The second phase uses the concept of translation norms Toury, 2004 to identify the explicit translator decisions regarding the challenges of poetry translation. These translations of Karamanli poems have capital importance in terms of providing historical information on the migration process of literary texts in nearby geographies as well as in terms of how the ethnolinguistic repertoire of Karamanli has been conserved across borders.

 1924te Türkiye ve Yunanistan arasında imzalanan nüfus mübadelesi antlaşması sonucunda yaklaşık 1,5 milyon insan Egenin iki yakasında yer değiştirmek zorunda kalmıştır. Yazı dili olarak Yunanca harfleri kullanan; ancak Türkçe konuşan ve yüzyıllardır Türkçe eserler vermiş Karamanlı Rumlar da mübadeleye dahil edilmişler ve hiç bilmedikleri topraklarda karşılaştıkları zorlukları şiirlerine aktarmıştırlar. Karamanlıca göç edebiyatının nadide örneklerinden olan, 1924-1927 yılları arasında Atinada yayımlanan şiirlerden derlenen 25 şiir, 2016 yılında Muhacirname başlıklı eserde Türkçe çeviri yazıları ve İngilizce çevirileriyle birlikte İstanbulda yayımlandı. Bu şiirlerin yaklaşık yüz yıl sonra İngilizceye çevrilmeleri metinlerin uluslararası dolaşıma girmelerini sağladı. Bu çalışmada Karamanlıca şiirlerin İngilizce çevirileri yan metinlerle önsöz, notlar, kitap hakkında gazetelerde çevirmenlerle yapılan söyleşiler birlikte çeviri normları açısından incelenmektedir. Gideon Tourynin kavramsallaştırdığı çeviri normları kavramı Toury, 2004 çevirmen kararlarını mercek altına alarak çeviri süreci başlamadan ve çeviri süreci başladıktan sonra çevirinin toplumsal bir çerçevede ele alınmasını sağlamaktadır. İlk aşamada şiirlerin hangi çeviri kategorilerine ait olduğuna dair yaptığımız analizde şiirlerin her şeyden önce dillerarası çeviri kategorisinde oldukları ortaya çıkmaktadır. Şiir çevirisinin zorlukları konusunda çevirmen kararlarının incelendiği analizin ikinci aşamasında Tourynin çeviri normları kavramından faydalanılmıştır. Karamanlıca şiir çevirileri edebi metinlerin yakın coğrafyalarda göç süreci hakkında tarihsel bilgiler vermeleri ve Karamanlıcanın etno-linguistik repertuvarının muhafaza edilmesi açısından önem taşımaktadır.

Article Details

Texts Migrate Too: A Descriptive Study of the English Translations of Karamanli Poetry

Authors:

Özgür Bülent Erdoğan

Publisher:

Istanbul University

Main Topics:

Dil Çalışmaları (Diğer)

Journal:

İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi Issue 19, pp.142-152

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

12/2023

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001311046

pISSN:

2717-6959

Greek-Turkish population exchange

Karamanli poetry

migration literature

Muhacirname

translation normsÇeviri normları

Göç edebiyatı

Karamanlıca şiirler

Muhacirname

Türkiye-Yunanistan nüfus mübadelesi

Issues

Article Details

Authors: Özgür Bülent Erdoğan

Publisher: Istanbul University

Main Topics: Dil Çalışmaları (Diğer)

Journal: İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi Issue 19, pp.142-152

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 12/2023

Document Language: Turkish

Document ID (Org No.): 2001311046

pISSN: 2717-6959

Issues

Authors:

Özgür Bülent Erdoğan

Publisher:

Istanbul University

Main Topics:

Dil Çalışmaları (Diğer)

Journal:

İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi Issue 19, pp.142-152

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

12/2023

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001311046

pISSN:

2717-6959