Abstract:

This paper aims to analyse the translations rendered from Western literature by Tevfik of Selanico (Selanikli Tevfik), who is a prominent figure in our history of translated literature, with a focus on the prefaces/epilogues of the translations in the context of translation studies. Tevfik of Selonico was the fourth most productive translator (succeeding Ahmed İhsan, Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Mustafa Refik in the order of productivity) of his time who translated novels from Western languages into Ottoman Turkish between the Tanzimat Period (Ottoman Reformation) and the Period of Meşrutiyet II (Constitutional Monarchy). In this analysis, the general characteristics of the translations by Tevfik of Selonico will be examined with respect to the notions of translation and translator which dominated the literary and cultural polysystem of the relevant era on the basis of the relation between translation and interpretation. The paper will refer primarily to the relation between translation and hermeneutics as the theoretical framework and it will be based on Hans J. Vermeer's “skopos theory” which emphasizes “relativitiy” in translation in terms of interpretation. The basic motive which triggered this research is the fact that these very translations which were carried out into Ottoman Turkish have not hitherto been transcribed into Latin letters and thereby that what kind of a role both the afore-mentioned translator and translated texts played in the Ottoman/Turkish literary and cultural polysystem of the era in which they were published have not been been researched as well. There are namely sixteen novel translations made by Tevfik of Selonico between 1303/1886-1318/1901. He prefaced six novel translations out of sixteen and wrote an epilogue for only one single translation. Furthermore, he made two joint novel translations cooperatively with Abdullah Zühdü. Apart from this, all of his translations were made from the French language. In addition, the novels translated by him are from twelve different authors. The authors of the joint novel translations rendered in cooperation with Abdullah Zühdü are anonymous. He translated two novels from each of the authors who are Jules Marie, Jules Verne, Xavier de Montépin and one novel from each of the authors who are Louis Jacolliot, Edmond-Joseph-Louis Tarbé des Sablons, Victor Hugo, Louis Noir, Henri Chabrillat-Paul D’Ivol, Fortune du Boisgobey, Georges Ohnet, Pierre Zaccone. In this essay, the Latin transcriptions of the six prefaces and one epilogue written by Tevfik of Selonico for these sixteen novel translations will be presented and they will also be conveyed into contemporary Turkish language by means of intralingual translation.

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