Translation censored in Turkey
As translators, we know that the benefits of translation are manifold and too lengthy to comprehensively list; some of these benefits though, include the promotion of co-operation and understanding, an international dissemination of knowledge and culture and ultimately, the promotion of peaceful co-existence…it’s strange then that the authorities in a Southern Turkish prison have chosen to censor an inmate’s Kurdish translation of a Turkish literary work.
M. Nezir Gümüş is currently serving 36 years in a Turkish jail for being a member of a proscribed Kurdish organisation; however, he also happens to be a lover of literature who has in the past had stories and poems published in Turkish mainstream dailies and has even won second prize in a literature contest.
The offending translation in question was a copy of “Ayın Büyüttüğü Oğullar” (Sons Fostered by the Moon) by Turkish author B. Matur. Gümüş had apparently, just completed his translation and had posted it to B. Matur for approval; however, Matur only received the cover letter to the work (which was written in Turkish) and a note from the prison authorities to say that the corpus in Kurdish had been censored.
The Turkish authorities have issued a statement to say that rules dictate that any communication written in anything other that Turkish must be certified by an approved translator at the inmate’s expense. This is to ensure that no covert non-Turkish communication is being passed on and is not an attack on any particular language and that the rules concerning such matters were clearly laid down.
In view of the reason for B. Matur. Gümüş’s internment, I would have thought that an opportunity to promote the spread of culture and knowledge and peaceful co-existence through mutual understanding would be something to be propagated.
It reminds me of an old saying that says something like “rules are there for the guidance of the wise and the adherence of the stupid”.