Geçen hafta duyurusunu yaptığımız kitap çevirisinin çevirmen seçimi sonuçlanmıştır. Londra’da ikamet eden kitabın yazarı Alex Bey’den aldığım mektubu aşağıda bilginize sunuyorum:
Merhabalar Abdullah Bey,
Öncelikle yardımınız için çok teşekkürler.. Kitabımı çevirecek çevirmen Seniz Aksan hanımefendidir. Bana göndermiş olduğu denemeyi aşağıda görebilirsiniz. Bana deneme çevirilerini gönderen tüm çevirmen arkadaşlara çok teşekkür ediyorum. Gönderilen çeviriler arasında başta Emir Bozkırlı olmak üzere, ayrıca Bahadır Yiğit ve Gülşah Kader Etirli’yi başarılı çevirilerinden dolayı kutluyor, teşekkürlerimi ileterek çevirmenlik hayatlarında başarılar diliyorum.. Tekrar çok teşekkürler…
LETTER 1
My dearest Nergis, my love,
If I am calling out to you from here, from England, this is the victory of the deadly battle that I am fighting to reach the England goal that I believe will make our future livable. This battle has no hero. In fact, there is no need for one. I need you to be here beside me, together with me, within my hand’s reach my love, in order for this victory to be of any value. For that reason, I believe that the real struggle is yet to begin. My one and only, do not have any doubts that, I will start fighting the battle for us to get together once again as soon as possible, without getting elated with victory. I will strive for us to reunite, just as life has drawn the paths of fate and brought us together. This is not an obligation; but, by far it is my reason to live.
The calendars mark 27 June, 2001 and I am trying to write this letter to you in the dim light of the dorm for ten to twelve people of the refugee camp called Oakington. It has been over three months since I have left Turkey and set off for this long journey. I did not get to talk to you in detail my honey, during this time. It is only now that I finally was able to step on England soils after that long journey over Europe. By coincidence, there is another Turk here beside me: his name is Halil, from K.Maras. He was the first Turk that I met here. You can find people from many countries here: Pakistani, Afghan, Jamaican, Chinese, Iranian, etc., etc. as you can understand honey, it nearly is as if the whole world has gathered here. I had never seen those people so closely before. I had only had the chance to watch them on TV or see them in the newspapers. Now, I am sharing the same surroundings with them and speaking with them.
I was brought here around noon. After surrendering at the harbor, we were put on the bus with the other refugees and were transferred to this camp. The camp expands on a large piece of land and is made up of large, latitudinal, two-story buildings that are not too far from each other.
Everything runs in a precise and uniform way here; just as in the military. Everyone goes to bed and gets up on time, eats on time. So is taking a shower, going to the recreation room or taking a walk.. So to say, it is forbidden even to breathe at the wrong time. All of these were handed over to us in writing beforehand. They have prepared something like a handbook. In addition to the camp rules that must be abided by, everything that is to be done has been written minute by minute.
This place looks more like a prison than a camp, with the tall wire fences and the tight security measures. Anyway, let’s forget about these, my sweetheart; I will not be here for long anyhow. We ate dinner together with Halil at the mess hall. The mess hall is quite large, but still not large enough to allow for all refugees to be able to eat at the same time. Therefore, people eat as groups and in turns. The image in the mess hall appears so colorful to my eyes, that I realize I had never been together with such different people before. There are all sorts of people, from black, to white, to yellow, to slant-eyed, to dark skinned.


Şiir ve edebiyat çevirileri yaparken çevirmen en büyük ikilemi metne sadık kalıp kalmama konusunda yaşar.. Shakespeare’den birkaç satır çeviriyle örnek verelim.. (Hatırlatma: Bu mısralar, bir perinin oyundaki Puck adlı karakterin “Ne tarafa gidiyorsun?” sorusuna cevabıdır..)