A Turquia mais perto: a publicação de autores turcos pela Sá Editora
Texto preparado para exposição durante o Terceiro Simpósio Internacional de Tradutores e Editores de Literatura Turca realizado em Istambul, Universidade do Bósforo, entre 28 e 29 de maio de 2011.
Çevirmenleri ve Yayıncılarıyla Türk Edebiyatı III. Uluslararası Sempozyumu
Third International Symposium of Translators and Publishers of Turkish Literature
Düzenleyen Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı,
Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü ve Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Çeviribilim Bölümü
Organizado pelo Ministério da Cultura e do Turismo da República da Turquia , Departamento de Bibliotecas e Publicações e Universidade do Bósforo, pelo seu Departamento de Tradução e Interpretação, da Faculdade de Artes e Ciências.
Turkey closer to Brazil
by Eliana Sá/Sá Editora/São Paulo/Brazil
First of all, I’d like to thank the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Directorate of Libraries and Publications and the University for such a great opportunity. It’s in this kind of window for cultural exchange that lies the core of our work as publishers and cultural agents.
The fact that Pamuk won the Nobel prize in 2006 aroused the interest in Turkish literature in Brazil. And, besides that, the political and commercial exchanges are increasing between our two countries since 2009, when our president at that time, Lula da Silva, visited Istanbul.
Lula da Silva was the first Brazilian president to visit Turkey; before him the only head of state that came to Turkey was Peter, the Second, in 1875, our last emperor before the instauration of the Republic in 1889. Now, we have direct flights from Istanbul to São Paulo and many Brazilians are coming to visit Turkey, now a dear destination for the Brazilian upper classes. Though the number of Turkish people living in Brazil now is quite small, only around 200 people.
About 2 and a half years ago, I made my first contact with Kalem Agency, at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I was introduced to the agency catalogue, and we started to talk; Nermin sent me e-mails, cards, text books with samples. For one year; she also sent me recommendations, names, books translations, etc. And she introduced me to TEDA and the possibilities of partenership we could have.
When I first received the author’s list of Kalem’s agency, I was surprised at how many authors she managed and the quality of the works; the bios of so many qualified authors, showing the strength of a rich literature, almost unknown in Brazil.
The result is that since last year Sá Editora has published four titles of Turkish literature and we have another one on the way. Turkish books are now the basis of a new imprint of our publishing house, called Gesto literário/Literary Gesture that aims to publish titles out of the ‘mainstream’ in Brazil, offering new routes for the readers.
After the political approximation of our two governments, Turkey started to appear on the headlines of our newspapers at the same time I was starting my work with Kiremitçi and Baydar. “Turkey closer”, said the most important Brazilian newspaper, FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, on the cover of the Saturday Cultural pages. It’s a great pleasure to open new windows to my readers and, in this case, to show a culture so full of contrasts and a secular wisdom. Dualar Kalidicir /As preces são imutáveis was published in May 2009, with a good reception by the public and the media — it was the first modern novel translated directly from Turkish to Portuguese/Brazilian; our translator, a teacher of Arabian literature of the São Paulo University, Marco de Pinto, also worked in the translation of Kayıp Söz/Palavra perdida, by Oya Baydar.
Our intention was to publish translations directly from Turkish, but unfortunately, we found that we couldn’t continue that way and keep the necessary “industrial” schedule, as Brazil lacks in Turkish literature translators.
This problem is also felt by the publishing house, Companhia das Letras, which holds the rights to the translation of Pamuk’s works in Brazil. They have been translated indirectly, either from English or French. “We had bad experiences with translators of lesser known languages”, says Cia. Das Letras publisher, “we feel authorized to translate from the English because it’s Pamuk himself who does the revision in that language”. His last book, “Museum of Innocence” is due out in Brazil this month – also an indirect translation from the English.
I personally made all the final revision of the text, with an eye in Turkish culture and in the Brazilian “inculture” about Turkey.
We provide footnotes with references that help readers to understand the more specific Turkish subjects.
We have an interest to preserve the original writing, and keep doing the translations straight from Turkish, to maintain the quality and to keep it closer to the author’s intentions. As well as using this unique “product”, this merge of cultures, as a marketing strategy.
A curious story happened to me and Tuna’s novel: in a hurry to finish my revision of the Brazilian version, I’ve decided to bring all the proofs home, just read by two proofreaders, for a weekend “tour de force”; arriving home, closing the gate of my house, two guys held down the gate and stole my car with everything inside it… I was shocked. They took away the proofs, the only copies with all the marks of the proofreaders!
This kind of fact is common nowadays in São Paulo, one of the most violent cities in the world, it was the third time for me… but I had never lost work, which, at that time was more important than the money or my credit card they took with the car… I called the police immediately and half an hour later, they found my car in a desert street not so far away from my house, but with nothing inside it. The next day, the happy ending: a guy found my bag, got my phone number and called me: he had found the proofs, they were left away on the sidewalk near a poor neighborhood.
As Tuna Kiremitçi talks about a “language” lost and found, his work, in Brazil, has continued the history… Isn’t that Literature?
Brazil is a country of continental dimensions — it spreads across 50% of South America, with over a 190 million people. However, when it comes to bookstores, the country is woefully underserved, with just 3,000 providing books for the entire population and most of them are concentrated in urban centers. There are about 40 million children attending public schools and the government has developed important initiatives to increase literacy.
In 2009, publishers produced around 53,000 (fifty three thousand) titles. At that time, 400 million units were printed, of which 160 million were new editions. In all, there were about 370 million units sold.
Fewer titles (-12.3%) have been translated into Portuguese in recent years, with the biggest drop off being seen in titles translated from the Spanish (-42%). English is still the most translated language, with 3,700 titles appearing in 2009, followed by French (674), Spanish (616), Italian (399), German (204) and other languages (51).Brazilian publishers “translated” 164 titles from Portugal (European Portuguese differs quite a lot from Brazilian Portuguese).
Despite the reduction of the number of translated titles, many more units have been distributed to stores: the quantity of units printed rose from 20 million in 2008 to 28 million in 2009 — a 37% improvement.
There are some challenges that we must face: as to invest more in translation studies in Brazil. As a solution, we could maybe work with the Portuguese translators, as it seems to me that in Portugal we have more people studying Turkish and its translation; as well as making partnership with universities and foundations and invest in the learning of Turkish. To get a wider range of readers of Turkish literature in Brazil is to get a better recognition of Turkish culture. To achieve this goal, I believe that one of the keys is to promote Turkish culture not only through books, but through movies, cooking, history, music and dances too, creating many points of access for the books and the country itself.
Many cities in Brazil have their own literature festivals and book events. All of them with the same goal: to instill the pleasure of reading and — of course — sell books. Pamuck will come to Brazil in November… I hope next year we could have Kiremitçi, Baydar, Irepoglu sharing with the Brazilians readers their impressions.
I believe that literature can help to build a bridge between Brazil and Turkey; that literature can help to create bridges between human beings.
27-28 Mayıs, 2011 / 27th – 28th May, 2011
Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, BTS/ Boğaziçi University, Albert Long Hall









