TURKISH LITERATURE TRANSLATED INTO GERMAN BETWEEN 1990 AND 2010

Transcription

1 Translating in the Mediterranean TURKISH LITERATURE TRANSLATED INTO GERMAN BETWEEN 1990 AND 2010 In the framework of the mapping of translation in the Mediterranean, coproduced by the Anna Lindh Foundation and Transeuropéennes in 2010 Data collection, analysis and write-up Hakan Özkan 1

2 Preamble The following study is conducted by Transeuropéennes in partnership with the Anna Lindh Foundation (Translating in the Mediterranean). It is a component of the first mapping of translation in the Mediterranean, led since 2010 by Transeuropéennes and the Anna Lindh Foundation (Euro-Mediterranean program for translation), in partnership with over fifteen organizations from all over the Union for the Mediterranean. Sharing a common and wider vision of translation, of the central role that it must play in Euro-Mediterranean relationships, in the enrichment of languages, in the development of societies, in the production and circulation of knowledge and imaginaries, the partners gathered around this project shall use this inventory as a basis to formulate and take long term actions. Introduction 1989) 1. Historical survey of Turkish translated books in Germany (until 2. Publishing 2.1 Published translations since Predominant themes in Social Sciences Predominant authors and themes in belles-lettres 3. Dissemination and availability 4. Media and critical reception 5. Funding and Support 6. Translators 7. Learning Turkish in Germany Bibliography 2

3 Introduction This study is a quantitative and qualitative survey of translated Turkish books published in Germany over 20 years ( ). In the first instance, it comprises a purely quantitative inventory of translated books sorted by year (see appendix). Secondly it tries to find trends in translation activity and reasons for these trends if any. Apart from these two main goals this study contains information about the following topics: publishers who publish Turkish books in translation, Turkish language teaching and translation instruction in Germany, status before law and remuneration of translators, funding possibilities of translations from Turkish, critical reception and dissemination. The works under study comprise the domains of literature and humanities (history, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy etc.). The term literature in this study shall be understood in a broader sense comprising all books and writings not only literature as art, belles-lettres. Some bilingual books are no translations in a narrow sense but coproductions of German and Turkish writers where writing and translating overlap or intertwine. In other cases bilingual books are written by Turks in Germany who are competent in both languages. These, too, are not the same type of translations like those made from Turkish books originating from Turkey of course. I had access to following sources during the research on this study: An interview with the publisher and translator, Beatrix Caner, an older study prepared by Yücel Sivri for Transeuropéennes, a comprehensive website on Turkish and Turkish-German literature with ample information of belles-lettres titles and its authors (Türkischdeutsche Literatur), 1 an article on the reception history of Turkish literature in Germany by Zafer Senocak, 2 and a study on Turkish-German literature by Karin E. Yesilada. 3 As far as statistics on the German book market are concerned the publicly accessible database of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek ( proved to be a convenient tool for research. For the bibliography of published titles (appendix of this study) I drew upon data from the databases of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and Unesco s Index Translationum. Furthermore I examined entries in the databases of online-bookstores such as and and cross-checked them with the entries that I had already compiled from the sources mentioned above. One last caveat: I did not count reprints or reeditions of listed titles

4 nor did I specially indicate if a translated title that has been published in the 1990s was a reprint of a translation that has been prepared before. 1. Historical survey of translated Turkish books in Germany (until 1989) Leaving aside the rather academic tradition of translating Turkish literature into German in the late 19 th and early 20 th century Turkish literature appeared on the German book market after the World War II. In divided Germany Turkish literature was perceived differently. While in the GDR poets such as Fazil Husnu Daglarca and Nazim Hikmet gained wider popularity in the Federal Republic it was chiefly Yasar Kemal s novels that have been masterly rendered by translators such as Cornelius Bischoff, Helga Dagyeli-Bohne and Yildirim Dagyeli. Most of these translations were published during the 1970s and 1980s. They did not represent the Turkish market neither in terms of popularity nor in terms of what was actually being focus of interest among critics. Realistic authors such as Yasar Kemal, and Orhan Kemal who wrote about backward life in rural Anatolia were given preference whereas authors that wrote about cosmopolitan Istanbul such as Sait Faik Abasiyanik did not appear on the German market until the early 1990s. A strand of literature that was typical for Germany only is the so-called migration literature which was represented by prose writers such as Habib Bektas, Fakir Baykurt, and poets such as Aras Ören or Yüksel Pazarkaya who not only wrote in Turkish but also in German. This migration literature has not been perceived on the same scale on the literary scene in Turkey as it has been in Germany of course. Referring to the evolution of translated Turkish literature in Germany Karin E. Yesilada notes that it were small publishers such as Literaturca (Frankfurt), Ararat (Stuttgart, Berlin), Express-Edition (Berlin), Dagyeli (Berlin), Rotbuch (Hamburg), and Verlag am Galgenberg (Hamburg) who shared the merit of promoting Turkish literature in the 1980s publishing works that are not well known in Germany even until today. Within only ten years they produced as much Turkish titles as have been translated until then, i.e. 130 titles since the 19 th century. 4 The nimbleness and productivity of these little publishers is to be deplored nowadays as a number of them closed down during the socalled Verlagssterben (death of publishers) in the 1990s. To sum up there is reason to claim that Turkish literature has not at all been considered in Germany as what it has been throughout the 20 th century as a diversified 4 Karin E. Yesilada, ibid. 4

5 and rich literature having its roots in Ottoman tradition and Western models alike. As a result most of the many landmarks of Turkish literature have been translated only recently or still await translation. 2. Publishing 2.1 Published translations since 1990 Held against the 260 publications that appeared since the first translations of Turkish books into German, 750 books have been translated from Turkish into German in the period between 1990 and Of these 750 titles 201 belong to Social Sciences and 549 to belles-lettres. In belles-lettres children literature is the largest group with 228 titles (41% of 549 titles) followed by novels with 216 titles (39%). In Social Sciences books on religion prevail (80 titles, 40% of 201 titles) followed by Sociology with 21 titles (10% of 201 titles). According to Beatrix Caner of Literaturca printruns of famous authors such as Elif Shafak run between 2,000 and 5,000 copies whereas unknown authors normally print 1,000 copies. 1990s: the factors that determined the evolutions of translations from Turkish in the last 20 years are multiple. In the second half of the1990s many small publishers had to close down shop because of financial reasons. As a result only 130 (17% of 750) titles have been published during the 1990s. 2000s: arguably the three most important factors that induced the publication of higher numbers of translated Turkish titles beginning with the second half of the 2000s are 1. The creation of the Turkish Translation Project (TEDA) which account for 162 (22% of 750) books translated into German since the year Orhan Pamuk s Nobel prize in Turkey being the guest of honour of the Frankfurt Book Fair in Looking at the number of published books from 2006 until 2010 we can see that the above presumption is true as 389 (52%) of the total 750 titles have been published between 2006 and Key year in which the highest number of Turkish titles have been published is 2008 (year when Turkey was guest of honour of the Frankfurt Book Fair) with 139 publications (19% of 750). There are however other reasons for the rise of translations from Turkish during the last 20 years: Since the end of the 1990s Turkey is an official candidate 5

6 member of the EU. The ties between the Turkey and Europe develop at the same speed and intensity as the contacts between the peoples multiply. Since the beginning 2000s the ERASMUS programme of the EU allows more and more students to study in Turkey and vice versa. Also, the German central government, the Länder, and NGOs more actively promoted Turkish-German collaborative projects involving society, public health, integration, youth, culture, art, education, binational relations and so forth. Hence, the larger number of works on Social Sciences in the 2000s (156 titles, 78% of all 201 titles on Social Sciences) against 45 titles in the 1990s. Harsh criticism of integration, intelligence and identity of Turkish migrants voiced by former National Bank board member Thilo Sarrazin during the last half of the 2000s furthered interest in themes concerning Turkish history, religion, and cultural matters. In literature translations from Turkish also saw a major spike because the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung provided funds for the creation of a series of milestones of Turkish literature in their Türkische Bibliothek since On behalf of the Robert- Bosch-Stiftung the publisher Unionsverlag in Zurich published 20 books that set standards of edition quality because they were all cross-read and checked by specialists of Turkish literature. Apart from that the same foundation together with other sponsors established a dual translation award (Tarabya Übersetzerpreis) that was first handed over in Interestingly, Beatrix Caner from Literaturca states that against expectations interest in Turkish literature after the key year 2008 stagnated rather than increased over the last four years ( ). Indicative for this negative trend is the following example: although publishers like Hanser bought the rights on all books of the Turkish classic Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, they did not publish more books by him since Another indicator of this recent decline in interest is the fact that some smaller publishing houses as for example Sardes were forced to cease activities after Predominant themes in Social Sciences In Social Sciences the predominant area by far is religion which represents 40% (80 out of a total of 201 books). Of these works which encompass primary religious works, practical religious guides, catechisms, and religious literature in general writings by the Fethullah Gülen movement are the most numerous. This orthodox 5 6

7 Islamic movement with Sufi leanings has a strong missionary statement. It seems that the Gülen movement intensified translations into German because Germany is home to a big community of German-speakers with Turkish background. In this respect it does not surprise that many of the works target the religious formation of children and teenagers with such a migrational background. Books of these types are sold via online bookstores like and different distribution channels than the usual network of German booksellers. Most of the translators who translated these works are German converts such as Achmed Schmiede and others. Apart from the Gülen movement the Turkish Ministry for Religious Affairs also publishes translated works on religion for young people in Germany (distributed via mosques linked to the Turkish Ministry for Religious Affairs or private Islamic organizations). Only few of the works on religion that take a critical or reformist stance towards Islam are translated into German such as the books of Yasar Nuri Öztürk. This is a deplorable fact as religion and its impact on everyday life is actively and critically discussed in Turkey. The second largest group of works concerns the life of people with Turkish background in German society. These sometimes bilingual books cover a wide variety of themes: practical guides for retired people, medical guides, books on everyday life in Germany, integration and social life of teenagers and adults, books on mixed identity (German and Turkish), generational conflicts between first generation migrants and 2 nd 3 rd generation children of migrants. Next to these two largest groups we find following themes: arts such as architecture, photography, paintings etc. (20 titles), politics (18 titles), travel (9 titles), history (8 titles), law (8 titles), literature (6 titles), economics (6 titles), education (6 titles), archeology of Turkey (5 titles), cooking (3 titles), health (3 titles), biography (2 titles), fashion (2 titles), philosophy (1 title), biology (1 title), culture (1 title). Some of the books in Social Sciences are bilingual. Especially those in the areas of binational collaboration, in economics, guides and written aids for Turkish migrants (i.e. for employment, social security, administration, retirement homs, health issues etc.) but also handbooks of art expositions and proceedings of conferences and symposia. Another type that is liable to be published in two languages are educational books or literature with comments and explanations in German for language teaching purposes. 7

8 2.1.2 Predominant authors and themes in belles-lettres Children literature is being published on a larger scale over the last twenty years mainly by the following publishers: Anadolu, Önel, Zwiebelzwerg, Talisa, Nord-Süd Verlag, Edition Orient. Beside monolingual Turkish schoolbooks and other educational material the two publishers, Önel and Anadolu Verlag, publish most of the children literature on the German market. Both of them now increasingly publish bilingual children literature targeting children of the large Turkish-German community (approx. 3 million) in Germany. Especially after the possibility of being granted funding from the Turkish translation project, TEDA, financed by the Turkish government, translated children literature increased steeply over the last 5 years (84% or 192 out of 228 titles). Other genres that are liable to be published in bilingual versions is poetry as for example Hasan Yilmaz Liebe fließt (Love Flows) and short story anthologies or selections of novels as for example the famous bilingual series published by the Deutsche Taschenbuchverlag (dtv): Hos Geldin: Die Türkei in kleinen Geschichten (Welcome: Turkey in Short Stories) etc. Novels are the next largest group with 216 of 549 titles (or 39%). As indicated above the most translated author is Yasar Kemal whose novels have been translated to the greater part into German in the 1970s and 1980s and saw several reprints, most of the last ones in the 1990s. Currently 24 works of Yasar Kemal are sold on the German market. Authors writing in Turkish who are more famous in Germany than in Turkey itself are Aras Ören, Habib Bektas, and Fakir Baykurt. Currently 25 books by Aras Ören, 13 books by Habib Bektas, and 8 books by Fakir Baykurt are available on the German book market. Some of these books are reprints of translations made in the 1980s. Orhan Pamuk is represented with 10 novels, most of them published by Hanser Publishing House in the second half of the 2000s. In the 2000s translated Turkish literature diversified as not only books by the above mentioned authors that are known in Germany for years are published but also books from different genres such as crime novels (Ahmet Ümit, Esmahan Aykol, Mehmet Murat Somer, Celil Oker), trash literature (Metin Kacan), and political or historic novels (Murat Uyurkulak). It is the merit of publishers specialized in Turkish literature such as Literaturca, Manzara and Dagyeli to introduce less famous authors to the German market. These authors however more truly depict the real literary landscape of Turkey where an author like Yasar Kemal never really reached the same heights of popularity as he reached outside of Turkey. This is even more conspicuous in poetry where Nazim 8

9 Hikmet gets special exposure while other very good and popular Turkish poets are not at all known. The above mentioned publishers, however, have proved to be resilient enough to withstand the difficult period of the late 1990s and continue to publish works by rather unknown yet important authors such as Erendiz Atasu, Pinar Kür, Kücük Iskender, Asli Erdogan, Orhan Veli, Cemil Kavukcu, Bilge Karasu, and Namik Kemal. One of the bigger publishers that has a special section on Turkish literature and deserves special mention is the publisher of Yasar Kemal, the Unionsverlag, based in Zürich which published 20 books in their Türkische Bibliothek on behalf of the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung in their attempt to bring seminal works of 20 th century Turkish literature to the attention of the German readership. Apart from this series financed by the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung the same publisher also introduced unknown but authoritative authors to the German-speaking readership (for ex. Murat Uyurkulak s Tol). Covers vary from original artworks and paintings to photographs with Orientalist tendencies. Unionsverlag generally uses original paintings for its published works as for example the cover for Ahmet Ümit s crime novel Nacht und Nebel (The Night and the Fog): An overall trend to mention the coolest capital of Europe (Newsweek) is obvious in titles of many works. Even if the original title does not make mention of Istanbul or one of its other names it figures in the German title as is the case with Zülfü Livaneli s novel Der Eunuch von Konstantinopel (The Eunuch of Constantinople) which is Engeregin gözündeki kamasma (The Blinded Eye of the Viper) in Turkish or Esmahan Aykol s Goodbye Istanbul which is named Savurulanlar (The Scattered) in the Turkish original. However, both editions use the same cover image of a woman with scattered hair. Evidently, the publisher did not cede to the same reflex of mentioning Istanbul on the cover illustration: 9

10 Turkish: German: 3. Dissemination and availability Dissemination and availability of Turkish literature in bookstores on the street is very much bound to the popularity of the author. Books by Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak are shelved in the majority of bookstores in Germany. New titles by these authors get special exposure on promotional displays or they are exhibited in showcases. Titles by less popular authors are much more difficult to find on shelves directly. Yet, in Germany there are still a lot of small bookstores that have their own specialization as for example international literature in German translation. In these bookstores many unknown titles of Turkish literature may be found on the shelves directly. In all other cases Turkish books can be ordered by the bookstores from wholesalers. In a normal scenario bookstores look up titles online in a general index of deliverable books (VLB, Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher) on request by a customer. In this index the wholesalers such as KNV, Libri, and Umbreit indicate the availability and delivery terms of the book in question. As the VLB lists about 1.4 million books of the vast majority of major and minor publishers it can be said that Turkish literature is easily available. This of course leads us to the next question: In the cases described above where the small publisher ceased its activities it is possible that the bottleneck is not the distribution of books by wholesalers and sales networks but the publisher itself that cannot deliver the required books or reprint them anymore. Another possible bottleneck is the fact that small publishers do not print in large numbers. Books published with the support of TEDA for example often do not exceed 500 copies because TEDA has no minimum requirements as far as printruns are concerned. As a result publishers cannot deliver more because of limited stock. Only reprints could remedy the situation. Apart from bookstores on the street online book sales are becoming more and 10

11 more popular in Germany (13,8% of all booksales in 2010). 6 Books that are not available through the ordinary bookstores can be obtained in second-hand bookstores that are now linked to each other via online networks where all available titles are listed and can be ordered. The possible buyer can also find old titles online via or booksellers that list used books which are at times available at very reasonable prices. Public and university libraries offer Turkish literature in which many out-of-stock titles can be found. The German National Library ( provides tools for the selection of Turkish titles. Another useful search facility is the Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog 7 which enables the user to search databases of large university libraries, national libraries and commercial suppliers such as amazon.de, abebooks.de, libri.de etc. (500 million books in total). 4. Media and critical reception Like German books those translated from Turkish are liable to be reviewed by major daily newspapers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria: Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Züricher Zeitung to name a few. The probability of being reviewed, however, very much depends on the PR and marketing of the publisher. Accordingly a book published by rather significant publishers such as Hanser, Piper, or Unionsverlag are more likely to be reviewed than books published by the small niche publishers Literaturca or Dagyeli. The availability of such reviews, however, is good as the German bookmarket is covered with very good and easily accessible review databases such as perlentaucher.de where reviews of all major newspapers are gathered and summarized. Let us have a look at the review of the classic novel written by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar Das Uhrenstellinstitut (orig. title Saatler Ayarlama Enstitüsü): Perlentaucher.de gives summaries and links to the respective reviews in five newspapers (Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung). On the same page users are directed to websites where they can purchase the book either new at buecher.de or used and new at abebooks.de. 8 The bookseller buecher.de deserves special mention as it reproduces the complete reviews on the page where the book is advertised with all the details 6 accessed on 12 September Economic data by Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels. 7 accessed on 19 September accessed on 9 October

12 on book, author, publisher, flap text etc. 9 The quality of the German language and style is sometimes assessed by the reviewer. Apart from these reviews by daily newspapers that concern mostly belles-lettres translations there are also reviews written by specialized institutions for other segments of literature. For instance the Union for Education and Science reviewed Turkish-German bilingual children literature in their journal Julim in Funding and Support Within the framework of the Ernst Reuter Initiative for Intercultural Dialogue the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Turkish Ministry for Culture and Tourism, the Goethe Cultural Institute, the S.Fischer-Stiftung, and the Robert-Bosch- Stiftung award two prizes for outstanding translations from Turkish into German in a joint project: A main prize which is set at 7.500, and a newcomer prize which is set at Since 2005 the Turkish Translation Project, TEDA, funded by the Turkish Ministry for Tourism and Culture subsidises translations of works from Turkish into other languages. Translations into German represent the largest part of these books (162) followed by Bulgarian (108), and Arabic (79 in total). Translations from Turkish into German are furthermore eligible for funding by the EU Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency. 6. Translators In Germany where the status of translators is far better secured by specific laws and jurisdiction publishers are very creative in eschewing or outright refusing the fees that are fixed by the German Federal High court (BGH) rulings, thus breaching binding law. Although the VdÜ (German Translators Association) filed several lawsuits against these practices they have not been successful in acquiring the rights that they deserve on a an overall level. Seen from the perspective of the translator it is no surprise that contrary to the claims of publishers (Literaturca for example claims that there are not enough good 9 /products_products/content/prod_id/ /, accessed on 12 October

13 translators) the biggest problem is the rising supply of translators who mar the basis of equitable remuneration. One of the major issues of unprofessional behaviour among publishers is the absence of editors that can actually assess the quality of the translation when the language of origin is a minor one. Often they simply rely on individually set aesthetic criteria for the target language. 7. Learning Turkish in Germany Germany is perhaps the country with the most diversified programmes in instruction of Turkish. Two universities in Germany (Bonn and Mainz) offer dedicated Master s degrees for translators from Turkish into German while no university in any other country offers a similar program. 11 The Master s degree of the University of Mainz which was introduced in 2008/2009 is arguably the most complete one. Currently three universities offer primary and secondary teaching degrees for Turkish language and literature: Essen, Hamburg, and Munich University. Apart from these specialized programs all universities with a department for Oriental Studies offer degrees in Turkish or courses in Turkish (Johannes-Guttenberg-Universität Mainz, Universität Hamburg, Johann-Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Freie Universität Berlin, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Georg-August- Universität Göttingen, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Universität Wien). The ERASMUS programme of the EU ensures that thousands of students from abroad come to Turkey to study here and to learn Turkish. The effect of ERASMUS should not be underestimated on a long-term perspective but it does not necessarily produce a direct effect on translations. On the level of primary and secondary education Turkish is taught as a complement to the native language acquisition (Muttersprachlicher Ergänzungsunterricht) to children of Turkish migrants in most parts of Germany. In some Länder Turkish has been granted the status of a regular second foreign language (like Spanish, Italian, or Portugese). 12 In February 2008 after Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced demands for Turkish schools in Germany a 11 Mainz University: and Bonn University: accessed on 11 October accessed on 11 October

14 German member of parliament proposed the introduction of Turkish as a regular foreign language designed not only for Turkish but also for German native speakers. In Germany some specialized government certification institutions (Staatliches Prüfungsamt) based in every Bundesland offer exams for translators of Turkish. Municipal and private institutions offer Turkish courses on all levels open to everyone in Germany. 14

15 Bibliography Zafer Senocak Accessed on 13 September 2011 Karin E. Yesilada (2011) Accessed on 14 September