English Translations of Birhan Keskin: A Metaphor-Based Approach to Poetry Translation
Göksenin Abdal, Büşra YamanFor several years, poetry translation has been one of the most debated fields of translation studies. It has posed numerous challenges for theoretical and practical discussions, which has paved the way for fruitful and inspiring studies to be conducted in translation studies. This article aims to examine poetry translation from a different point of view and theoretical background, which specifically focuses on the metaphors that poems are traditionally laden with. In doing so, the article attempts to present an integrated approach toward analysis of poetry translation by adopting the four concepts of the metaphor theory proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson—ontological metaphor, structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, and conceptual mapping—along with the concept of rewriting developed by Andre Lefevere. The results of the analysis indicate that translation as an act of metaphor-based rewriting bears the fingerprints of the translator and that the poems of Birhan Keskin have been recontextualized in the target language/ literature/culture by the translator’s decisions regarding metaphors.
İngilizcede Birhan Keskin: Şiir Çevirisine Metafor Odaklı Bir Yaklaşım
Göksenin Abdal, Büşra YamanÇeviribilimin en çok tartışılan alanlarından biri olan şiir çevirisi kuram ve uygulamaya dönük tartışmalar için birçok zorluk ortaya çıkarmaktadır; ancak aynı zamanda şiir çevirisini konu alan verimli çalışmaların yapılmasının önünü açmaya devam etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı da, şiirin varlığı gereği metaforla yüklü olduğu düşüncesinden hareketle şiir çevirisini farklı bir bakış açısı ve kuramsal arka planla ele almaktır. Bundan dolayı, Andre Lefevere tarafından geliştirilen yeniden yazma kavramıyla birlikte, George Lakoff ve Mark Johnson tarafından metafor kuramı kapsamında kullanılan ontolojik metafor, yapısal metafor, yönelimsel metafor ve kavramsal gösterim kavramlarna dayanan bütünleşik bir inceleme yaklaşımı sunulmaya çalışılmaktadır. Yapılan incelemede, metaphor odaklı bir yeniden yazma eylemi olarak çevirinin, çevirmenden izler taşımakla kalmadığı, aynı zamanda Birhan Keskin’in şiirlerinin, çevirmenin metaforlar bağlamında aldığı kararlar ekseninde erek dil/yazın/kültür dizgesinde yeniden bağlamsallaştırıldığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
This article aims to analyze the English translations of six selected poems of Birhan Keskin as a metaphor-based rewriting act, by using the concept of rewriting by Andre Lefevere and the metaphor theory by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. As a secondary aim, we attempt to explore the implications of the metaphor theory for translation studies along with the probable relations to be built with the concept of rewriting. The article comprises five sections. In the first section, the conceptual basis of the act of rewriting is discussed, along with the studies dealing with the relation between translation and the act of rewriting in translation studies since the 1980s. The second section presents the conceptual framework of translation analysis, with concepts adopted from the metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson. The poetic universe of Keskin and its distinctive features are discussed in the third section, with a special focus on analysis of the English translations of the selected poems. In the fourth section, the six selected poems of Keskin are analyzed using the following four concepts of metaphor theory —ontological metaphor, structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, and conceptual mapping. The final section concludes with remarks and observations on the corpus and poetry translation in general. Depending on the analysis of the six poems, each included in a separate book, it is argued that structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors play a significant role in the poetic style and constitute a difficulty for the act of translating. In this context, the translator recreates the source text in the target language by taking its structural, stylistic, contextual, discursive, and cultural elements into consideration and recontextualizing them in the target culture. This signifies that the translator acts as a rewriter who creates the target text as a result of subjective and individual translation decisions, benefiting from his subjective interpreting act and background as put forward by Lefevere within the concept of rewriting. Speficially, we could state that the translator has read the source text, analyzed it, and has resorted to several ways in order to create and/or appropriate the poetic reflections of the source text in the target language and culture. Throughout the analysis, structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors form an important part of the selected poems and the translator has likewise attempted to create these metaphors in the target language. This supports the idea that the translator has attempted to fulfill the actionality of recreating the metaphors of the source text in the target language and culture for the target readership. It is therefore expected and affirmed that the translator has (re) formulated the metaphors of the selected poems, which significantly rely on subjective interpretations. By doing so, the translator has tried to carry over Keskin’s voice together with his own in the poems in the target language, two of which are harmonized by (re)creating the structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors in the target language/literature/culture for the target readership. This inevitably enriches the possibilities of the target literature and language through metaphors peculiar to the source culture and/or Keskin entering into the target system, which leads to the concept of a metaphor-based rewriting act.
