DOCUMENTARY
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by Seda Şen Alta

 

EZRA POUND IN TURKEY

A BIBLIOGRAPHY

1961-2016

           

The reception to Ezra Pound and his works in Turkey have been sparse, nevertheless they exist. Although translations of his poems and some of his articles were printed in journals on Turkish Literature in the 1960s and 1970s, they were usually not academic journals; Pound and his works, as the titles below indicate, were aimed at introducing the poet to the general reader. It is in these years that we see translations of his poems appear for the first time in print. Recently, in the past five years, some of these translations have been reprinted. At a glance, we can infer from this bibliography that Pound first appears in periodicals with “ABC of Reading,” followed by some of his short poems. The first poetry collection by Pound to be printed was Cathay, in 1963, and Selected Cantos in 1980s. The Cantos in their complete form have not been translated into Turkish yet. One of the most interesting entries in the bibliography belongs to Cemal Süreya; in his obituary for Pound, the prominent member of the movement Second New Generation in Turkish poetry describes him as the poet who was successfully able to use clear and straightforward diction, and further draws attention to how the Cantos make up Pound’s opus magnum, exemplifying at times his “didactic search for rhythm” by tracing centuries of poetry, resulting in his “violent, innovative aesthetic” in poetry that “resists the norms of civilization.” In the past twenty years, several articles on Pound appeared in scholarly journals, such as Jast and Frankofoni, and one MA thesis on Pound’s use of the ideogram has been completed. Yet studies on Pound appear to be a vast area to be explored in Turkish academia in the future.

 

Translations:

Pound, Ezra. Cathay. Trans. Ülkü Tamer. 1963. İstanbul: Jaguar Kitap. 2012. Print. (Cathay)

--. Konfüçyüz. Trans. Ahmet Yücel. İstanbul: Bürde Yayınları 1981. Print. (Confucius)

--. Seçilmiş Canto’lar. Trans. İlhan Berk. İstanbul: Adam Yayınları, 1995. Print. (Selected Cantos)

--. Seçme Kantolar. Trans. İlhan Berk. İstanbul: Yazko, 1983. Print. (Selected Cantos)

 

Translations of Sources on Pound

Ackroyd, Peter. Ezra Pound ve Dünyası. Trans. Nil Sakman. İstanbul, Edebi Şeyler. 2016. Print.

Marsh, Alec. Ezra Pound. Trans. Şahika Tokel. Ezra Pound. 2015. İstanbul, Yapı Kredi Yayınları. Print.

Clech, Guy Le. “Ezra Pound ile Düşsel Bir Konuşma.” Trans. Adli Moran. Yeditepe 117 (1966): 8-9. Print.  (“A Fantastic Talk with Ezra Pound”)

 

Turkish Books on Pound:

Taylan, Cem. Modernist İngiliz Şiiri: William Butler Yeats ve Ezra Pound. Korsan Yayınları, 1992. Print. (Modernist English Poetry: William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound)

 

Articles in Indexed Journals published in Turkey:

German, Ayça. "Ezra Pound, Arthur Rimbaud ve 'Öteki Gelenek'" Frankafoni 18 (2006): 465-476. Print. (Ezra Pound, Arthur Rimbaud and the 'Other Tradition')

Mihálka, Réka. “Ezra Pound’s Adaptation and Translation of the Japanese Nō.” JAST: Journal of American Studies of Turkey 32 (2010): 33-48. Print.

Nunes, João Paulo. “Writing Dialogues, Reading Myths: Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and the Publication of Kora in Hell.” JAST: Journal of American Studies of Turkey 11 (2000): 63-72. Print.

Selby, Nick. “Fascist Language in The Adams Cantos of Ezra Pound.” JAST: Journal of American Studies of Turkey 2 (1995): 73-80. Print.

 

Articles in the Turkish Periodical Türk Dili: Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi Archives

 

a. Archive Website:        Go to site 

 

b. Articles on Ezra Pound and his works

Arslanbenzer, Hakan. “Ezra Pound’dan Ne Öğrenebiliriz?” Ayraç 19 (2011): 16-18. Print. (What Can We Learn from Ezra Pound”)    

Halman, Talât Sait. “Ezra Pound, Gelenekçi Yenilikçi.” Varlık 785 (1973): 23-24. Print. (“Ezra Pound, Traditional Innovator”)

 Hemingway, Ernest. “İyi Niyet Elçisi Ezra Pound.” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. Trans. Güner Sümer. 28.259 (April 1973): 40-44. Print (“Goodwill Ambassador Ezra Pound” Obituary of Pound written by Hemingway, translated by Güner Sümer)

Köksal, Ahmet. “Pound`un Serüveni de Bitti.” Yeditepe 198 (1973): 8, 14. Print. (“Pound’s Adventure Is Over As Well”)

Memet Fuat, “Ezra Pound, Öğretmen,” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 11.125 (February 1962): 291-297. Print. (“Teacher,” ABC of Reading, Review)

n.a. “Ezra Pound (1885-..).” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 10.113 (February 1961): 358. Print. (Biography Entry for Foreign Writers, Ezra Pound)

n.a. “Ezra Pound (1885-..).” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 12.142 (July 1963): 730. Print. (Biography Entry for Foreign Critics, Ezra Pound. Criticism Special Issue)

Süreya, Cemal. “Yabancı Yayınlar: Ezra Pound Öldü.” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 27.255 (December 1972): 299-300. Print. (Obituary for Ezra Pound, by Turkish poet Cemal Süreya)

Şevki, Abdullah. “Ezra Pound ve ‘Kantolar’daki Felsefe.” Varlık 74.1193 (2007): 89-91. Print. (“Pound and the Philosophy Behind the Cantos”)

 

c. Translations of Pound’s Essays, Letters&Poems in Periodicals (Archive):

Pound, Ezra. “Amerika.” Trans. Zeynep Mertoğlu, Yasemin Çına. Doğu Batı 10.42. (2007): 167-192. Print.   

--. “Alman Şiiri: Göl Adası.” Trans. Ülkü Tamer. Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 10.113 (February 1961): 284 (Poetry Special Issue, “German Poetry, Lake Island,” poem)

--. “Ezra Pound'dan Dört Şiir: Alba; Bir metro istasyonunda; Mezar yazıtları; Coda,” trans. Memet Fuat. Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 11.128 (May 1962): 676. Print. (Translations of four poems: Alba, In A Station of the Metro, Epitaphs, Coda)

--. “James Joyce’a; Harriet Monroe’ya; Marianne Moore’a; Charles Henri Ford’a.” Trans. Akşit Göktürk, Güven Turan. Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. 30.274 (July 1974): 569-575. Print. (Letters Special Issue: “To James Joyce, to Harriet Monroe, to Marianne Moore, to Charles Henri Ford)

 --. “Okumanın ABC'si – I,” Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. Trans. Memet Fuat. 12.142 (July 1963): 676-677. Print. (Criticism Special Issue 1:“ABC of Reading, Part 1,” translation)  

--. “Okumanın ABC'si – II”, Türk Dili Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi. Trans. Memet Fuat, 13.148 (January 1964): 220-222. Print. (Criticism Special Issue 2: “ABC of Reading, Part 2,” translation)

 

Theses on Pound

Üstün, Berkay. “Ezra Pound and the Heritage in Ideogram.” MA Thesis. İstanbul Bilgi University. 2012. Print.