At first it was the “name” or the “label” issue. Translation is part of literature, especially if it involves poetry books or classics. Even though they are doing a really valuable job, it is a fact that most literary translators earn very little money in Turkey.
However, currently there is another development for them in their literary translation lives.
Now, some of them are being sued because of the books that they have been translating or translated.
Everything started with Sel Publishing house of Turkey began publishing a new series, called “sexuality books” in Turkey. The aim was to translate the books which have sexual content.
Among those books, Along with Apollinaire’s “The Adventures of Young Don Juan,” two other books by foreign authors are the subject of obscenity investigations and of demands for them to be recalled from the market.
Both the publishing house and the translator are being sued for this. All three books involved in the case were published by the Sel Publishing House. The other books are Ben Mila’s “Perinin Sarkacı” (Pendulum of a Fairy) and a book titled “Görgülü ve Bilgili Bir Burjuva Kadınının Mektupları” (Letters of a Cultivated and Informed Bourgeois Woman) by a French author writing under the initials “P.V.” But Apollinaire is at the center of reactions against the case.
But they continued to translate. Another problem was in the judgment: the book by renowned 20th century French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was found to be with “no literary value and to be obscene.”
Meanwhile İsmail Yerguz, the translator of P.V’s and Apolllinaire’s books, are also involved in the case.
During the latest Frankfurt Book Fair, Sel Publishing received the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize from the International Publisher Association.
Even though they are shown to be exemplary for their courage to publish every book, banning or suing translators and publishing houses just for that is another very big problem for Turkey.
While everyone is talking about a more free country, the mere fact is forgotten: In order to be freer, a literary touch is a must.