It has been officially announced that Turkey will be the Country of Honor at the 2014 Beijing Int’l Book Fair, as China was at the Istanbul In’tl Book Fair this year.
A dearth of Turkish-to-Chinese translators means Turkish works like this one are often translated from the English.
Which raises several questions:
- What contemporary works of fiction by Turkish authors are already available in Chinese?
- Which additional novels are to be published in time for the Beijing Book Fair in late August 2014?
- Who is going to translate them, and what language(s) will they be translated from?
My table below — which I believe is fairly comprehensive — helps to answer some of these questions, but it’s hard to believe that the Turkish publishing industry would be content with such a short list of works in Chinese.
For its part, Turkey’s government-sponsored TEDA, a program under the Ministry of Culture & Tourism that subsidizes translations and publications into many languages, has offered financial support to the translation and publication of 16 books into Chinese [Dec 28 update: 19], of which 10 have been published so far.
While that may sound like a decent effort, over the years TEDA has subsidized an incredible 1,333 titles, the top recipients being German (209), Bulgarian (169) and Iranian (66) (见表).
Surely Turkey’s government sees a bigger potential market in China than in . . . Bulgaria?
Regardless of who bankrolls the publication of Turkish works to be launched in time for the Beijing Book Fair, another pressing problem is their translation. There are reportedly only a handful of professional Chinese translators who can handle literary translation straight from the Turkish. Shen Zhixing, Xia Yongmin, Yin Tingting and Tang Jiankun do; several of the others listed in the table below can’t.
One solution—already widely used—is to translate into Chinese from an existing translation in English, or even German. Another approach would be to form translation teams that include native Turkish speakers with Chinese fluency who could generate draft translations, which could then be polished for publication by a native Chinese translator or monolingual editor; this would be faster, at least. But native Turkish speakers with excellent Chinese fluency are also reportedly in short supply.
Modern Turkish Fiction Available in Chinese
(as of March 2015)
(Your additions welcome)
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Turkish Author
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Chinese Title
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Translator |
Turkish Original/Other Languages |
Comments |
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Hande Altaylı
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Aşka Şeytan Karışır / Djalli Luan Me Dashurinë
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Oya Baydar |
Cao Deming |
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House (上海文艺出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Erguvan Kapısı / Das Judasbaum Tor
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Reha Çamuroğlu
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Bir Anlık Geçikme / Um Golpe de Sorte
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Canan Tan (桑恩) |
爱在伊斯坦布尔 |
贾雪 |
Published by People’s Publishing House (人民文学出版社). Likely translated from the English as Jia Xue holds a degree in English from Sichuan Int. Studies U. |
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Can Dündar (江敦达) |
<土耳其国父凯穆尔的最后岁月> |
吴兴东 (into Chinese)/ Urkhya Hajı (into Uyghur)
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Published by Ethnic Publishing House. Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA |
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Murat Gülsoy (穆拉特·居尔索伊 ) |
Istanbul’da Bir Merhamet Haftası/A Week of Kindness in Istanbul |
Published by China International Radio Press (中国国际广播出版社). |
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Turkish Author
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Chinese Title
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Chinese Translator |
Turkish Original/Other Languages |
Comments |
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Orhan Kemal (奥尔汗·凯马尔) |
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Published by China International Radio Press (中国国际广播出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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尹婷婷 |
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Published by China International Radio Press (中国国际广播出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde/On Fertile Land
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Published by China International Radio Press (中国国际广播出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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汤剑昆 |
Avare Yıllar/ Idle Years |
Published by China International Radio Press (中国国际广播出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Tuna Kiremitçi (克瑞米提奇) |
方凡, 谢国建 |
Dualar Kalıcıdır/ Prayers Stay the Same |
Published by Zhejiang University Press (浙江大学出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Ayşe Kulin (艾谢・库林) |
梁永安 |
Nefes Nefese/Last Train for Istanbul |
Published by Jiangsu People’s Publishing House (江苏人民出版社). |
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Mario Levi (马里奥・莱维)
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Karanlık Çökerken Neredeydiniz? / Wo wart ihr, als die Finsternis hereinbrach?
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Mario Levi (马里奥・莱维) |
<伊斯坦布尔是一个童话> | 陈清 |
Istanbul bir Masaldı / Istanbul era una favola / Istanbul was a Fairy Tale |
Published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Zülfü Livaneli (李凡纳利) |
Mutluluk/Bliss |
Published. Translated from the English. |
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Barış Müstecaplıoğlu (巴里希·穆斯)
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佩格传奇·第一部：懦夫与野兽 | 方凡、顾晔、 高莹、 谢国建 |
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Published by Zhejiang University Press (浙江大学出版社) |
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Feridun Oral
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Serdar Özkan (沙尔达•奥兹坎) |
裴卫芳 |
Kayıp Gül |
Published by Hunan Literature & Arts Publishing House (湖南文艺出版社). |
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Orhan Pamuk (奥尔罕·帕慕克) |
宗笑飞, 林边水 |
Öteki Renkler /Other Colors
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Published. Translated from the English. |
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Benim Adım Kırmızı /My Name is Red |
Published. |
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彭发胜 |
Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı /The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist
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Published. |
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何佩桦
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İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir /Istanbul: Memories and the City
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Published. |
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沈志兴, 张磊, 彭俊, 丁慧君 |
Kar /Snow
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Published. |
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陈竹冰 |
Masumiyet Müzesi/Museum of Innocence
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Published. Check out the museum here. |
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蔡鹃如 |
Yeni Hayat/The New Life
Sessiz Ev/Silent House
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Published. |
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李佳姗 |
Kara Kitap/The Black Book
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Published. |
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沈志兴
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Beyaz Kale/The White Castle |
Published. |
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Aslı E. Perker
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Emrah Polat
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Elif Şafak （埃利芙沙法克） |
程水英 |
Baba ve Piç/Bastard of Istanbul |
Newly launched in January 2015 in mainland China by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社). Available in HK/Taiwan as <伊斯坦布尔的私生子>. |
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Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (阿赫迈特·哈姆迪·唐帕纳尔) |
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Published by China Int’l Radio Press. Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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| Yin Yu |
To be published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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To be published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社) |
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Ayfer Tunç (艾费尔・通奇)
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<绿仙子之夜> | 杜博, 李凡 |
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Published by Shanghai Literature & Arts Publishing House (上海文艺出版社). Supported by grant from Turkey’s TEDA. |
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Ahmet Ümit (阿赫梅特·乌米特)
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<伊斯坦堡死亡紀事> | 張嘉文 |
İstanbul Hatırası/ A Memento for Istanbul |
Now available in Taiwan. To be published for mainland China by Shanghai Translation Publishing House (上海译文出版社) |
| <隐没与谎言> | 谢佳宜 |
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Published by Tianjin People’s Publishing House (天津人民出版社). | |
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Ece Vahapoğlu
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To be published by Sichuan People’s Publishing House (四川人民出版社) |
Bruce Humes 