Poetry Translation and Translation Criticism in Translation Journals of the Republican Period

With a linguistic point of view, this article investigates the various aspects of poetry translation in Turkish Literature within the Republican Period. Our aim is to discuss the various manifestations of poetry translation in terms of the translation criticism and our discussion is based on the data taken from the three journals of translation published in the Republican era: Tercüme (1940-1966), Yazko Çeviri (1982-1984) and Metis Çeviri (1989-1992). Our findings indicate that literary clerk put a great emphasis on the poetry translation and express their views on translation via these journals. Accordingly, the poetry translation requires a distinct semiotic mechanism in order to transfer the linguistic material which is a combination of semantic, pragmatic, stylistic and rhetoric features from the source text into the target text. Our findings also show that the main point of discussion in the journals in terms of translation criticism is the (lack of) equivalence between the source text and target text, the specific linguistic devices to be used in the translation and the translation of stylistic features. It is evident from the discussions that the translation criticism in this period has limited contribution to the field due to fact that it approaches to the translation not as a linguistic process but an end product. Key words Translation, translation criticism, poetry translation, Tercüme, Yazko Çeviri, Metis Çevir

The beloved unveiled: Continuity and change in modern Turkish love poetry (1923-1980).

The thesis explores the ideological aspect of modern Turkish love poetry by focusing on the works of major poets and movements between 1923 and 1980. The approach to the theme of love was metaphorical and mystical in classical Ottoman poetry. During the period of modernisation (1839-1923), poets either rejected the theme of love altogether or abandoned Islamic aesthetics and adopted a Parnassian approach arguing that love was the expression of desire for physical beauty. A great variety of discourses on love developed during the republican period. Yahya Kemal sets the theme of love in Ottoman Istanbul and mourns the end of the relationship with the beloved who incarnates his conservative vision of national identity. The Five Syllabists contrast treacherous and sensual love in the city with pure and simple love in the Anatolian countryside, thus reflecting the Anatolianism of the nationalist intelligentsia. Nazim Hikmet approaches the theme from a variety of angles. He explores the links between love and human solidarity and humanises the beloved by writing about her in a realistic context. The Bizarre movement discusses the theme of love in the framework of its subjective realism and focuses more on the effects of love on the individual than on love itself Socialist poets do not approach the theme uniformly but all of them advocate a socially engaged realism and are opposed to the individualism of Bizarre. The movement of the Second Renewal equates love with sexuality and explores its impact on human relationships. Islamist poets too adopt a realist stance. They abandon the idealised gardens of the divan tradition and go on a mystical quest in the harshness of everyday reality. The ideological convictions of all these movements and poets are mainly expressed in the choice of setting of the relationship, in the image of the beloved and in the definition of love

The development of the Turkish drama as a vehicle for social and political comment in the post-revolutionary period, (1924 to the present

The modem Turkish dramatist has two traditions of theatre on which to draw: the folk play called 'orta oyunu' and the classical theatre of Western Europe. These have been known in Turkey for at least a hundred and fifty years. When writing comedy, he has found 'orta oyunu' traditions of most use; when writing on social or political themes, the traditions of Western European theatre, as first employed by Namik Kemal, have served him best. Since 1924, he has concentrated on plots which presented characters learning to live with the profound social changes demanded by the Constitution of that year. Criticism has entered his work either by contrasting individuals at variance with the norm as represented by Republican society, or conversely, society's short-comings with some exemplary individual dedicated to Revolutionary concepts. Because of a traditionally oppressive censorship, he has not been in the habit of being outspoken in his criticism and he has become very adept at cloaking his comment in mythical, legendary and historical plot. When the censorship was relaxed as a direct result of the 1960 Revolution, all at once he was free to voice opinions he had masked since the foundation of the Republic and these burst forth with an adolescent enthusiasm wherein the criticism was forth right but not always reasonable or accurate. It is foreseen that the next stage in his evolution will be to distance himself from his subjects and present his opinions in a more mature argument. It is noted that his critical work has been understandably more honest and less cryptic since the relaxing of the censorship, especially since 1965. Fine Turkish plays have been written in this period but no form of expression essentially Turkish in inspiration has yet evolved