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Aretos yacni Sevdâ: The Nineteenth Century Ottoman Translation of the ‘Erotokritos’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
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- Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1992
References
1. Stylianos Alexiou, the editor of the critical edition, says that he had met as late as 1970 an old Turkocretan in Izmir who asked him to send him a copy of the ‘Erotokritos’ from Greece ( Alexiou, Stylianos [ed.], Vitsentsos Kornaros, Erotokritos. Kritikê Ekdosê, Eisagôgê, Sêmeiôseis, Glossario [Athens 1980] 103 Google Scholar). The Norwegian scholar Egil Danielsen (Oslo) wrote to me in a letter (5 August 1991): ‘I can just confirm that the Erotókritos is well known among Cretans in Turkey, and that the “political verse” which is its poetic form is extremely well known through the so called “mantinádes”, verses which they actually still produce in the Cretan dialect!’
2. Sava Pasha [Iôannês Savvas] was born in Yannina in 1832. He was trained in the Medical School (Mekteb-i Tibbiye) and accompanied in 1867 the grand vizier Aali Pasha (1815-1871) to Crete where he was appointed as mutasarrïf of Sphakia. He held various posts in the administration of justice and became also director of the famous lycée of Galatasaray (Galatasaray Mekteb-i Sultanisi). In 1877 he obtained the rank of a vizier and was consequently appointed Minister of Foreign affairs. In May 1885 he suceeded Photiades Pasha as Governor General of Crete. After his retirement he moved to Paris where he died in 1902 (see Cevâd, Mahmud, Maarif-i umumiye tarihçe-i teskilât ve icraatï [Istanbul 1338 (1922)], esp. 153).Google Scholar
3. Giannaris apparently did not make the best use of this money. Despite his extensive travel activity which led him among other places to London, Venice, Milan and Paris the promised edition was never published. Giannaris eventually died in 1909 while he was departing for the United States (Alexiou, 28f.).
4. Alexiou, op. cit., 103.
5. The Turkish literary historian Ismail Habib [Sevùk] (1892-1954) in his Avrupa Edebiyatì ve Biz. Garpten Terciimeler, 2 vols., Istanbul 1940-41, although listing a considerable number of translations from Ancient Greek, makes no reference to a Turkish version of the ‘Erotokritos’. (See the chapter ‘Yunan Edebiyatindan Terciimeler’, I, 62-81).
6. Arakel Kütübhanesi esami-i kütübü (Istanbul 1301 [1883-84]) 190.
7. Eski Harflerle Basïlmïs Türkçe Eserler Katalogu, 5 vols. (Istanbul 1971-79).
8. Özege, I, 67, Nr. 910.
9. Due to the ambiguity of the Arabic characters it may also be read as ‘Eratos’, ‘Eratus’, ‘Eretus’, &c. To make things more confusing, the same name is spelt Aretos (or Aretus, &c.) in the main text.
10. The Turkish word sevda ‘love and passion’ is derived from Arabic sawdâ’ ‘blackness’, ‘black bile’ (one of the four humours of ancient medicine) and then extended to ‘spleen, melancholy’. From Turkish this word entered most Balkanic languages (Modern Greek sevntds ‘unrequited love, passion’) as well as the derivative sevdalï (Greek sevntalis) ‘love-lorn, love-sick’.
11. See plate. The Imperial War Academy (also known as Mekteb-i Ulum-i Harbiye) in Istanbul was inaugurated 1 July 1835 by Sultan Mahmud II (1809-39) on the premises of the army barracks in Maçka. The school was reformed several times. (On its history see Ergin, Osman ‘Harbiye Mektebi’, Aylïk Ansiklopedi I, (Istanbul 1945) 175–78.Google Scholar
12. ‘nesîm-i me’al-i rikkat-i$timali… iklim-i iz’an-ï Osmaniyânda vezân edememesi’ (p.3.)
13. This procedure was fairly common in translations from Western languages printed in Egypt under Muhammad cAli Pasha.
14. A term used by Ali Muzaffer in his treatise Tercüme nümuneleri (‘Specimens of Translations’) (Istanbul 1318 [1900]).
15. Translations into Turkish from Western languages printed in Armenian characters had been published already some decades earlier. See Kut, A. Turgut, ‘Ermeni harfli Tùrkçe te’lif ve tercùme konulari I’, Besinci Milletier Arasï Türkoloji Kongresi. Tebliglerll. Turk Edebiyatï (Istanbul 1985) 195–214.Google Scholar
16. On Turkish translations during this period see Saliha Paker, ‘The Age of Translation and Adaptation, 1850-1914. Ostle, Turkey’, Robin (ed.), Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East, 1850-1970 (London-New York 1991) 17–44.Google Scholar
17. In the same year (1873) another Turkish version of a classical story of love and adventure was published in Istanbul, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, translated from the French by Mehmed Kâmil (Dafni ile Kloe’nin hikâye-i tacassuklarï). Between 1862-1872 only approximately a dozen translations had come forth. Among these were Ottoman versions of Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (tr. Ahmed Lutfi; 1864); some of Molière’s plays adapted by Ahmed Vefik Pasha; a Turkish version of Bernardin de Saint Pierre’s ‘Paul et Virginie’ (tr. Emin Siddik; 1870); of Châteaubriand’s ‘Atala’ (tr. Recaidzade Mahmud Ekrem; 1870); of Lamartine’s ‘Graziella’ (tr. Ali; 1871): Dumas Père’s ‘Comte de Monte Cristo’ (Teodor Kasap; 1871), and of Swift’s •Gulliver’s Travels’ (tr. Mahmud Nedim; 1872).
18. On the development of Turkish prose-writing see Flemming, Barbara, ‘Bemerkungen zur turkischen Prosa vor der Tanzimat-Zeit’, Der Islam 50 (1973) 157–67.Google Scholar
19. See Deny, Jean, Grammaire de la langue turque (Dialecte osmanli) (Paris 1921) 669 ffGoogle Scholar. catf-i tefsir was originally meant to fix more precisely the meaning, but in most cases it is a purely stylistical device, characteristical for the insa-style.
20. In his preface to the Terciime-i Telemak he described his method of translation as ‘summarising, i.e. summing up the content’ ( cala vechi l-icmal ycfni hulasatu l-me’al suretde).
21. John Mavrogordato says in his The Erotokritos (London 1929) 2 n. 2 that ‘the Erotokritos held a prominent place in the street literature of Constantinople before the War’. The katharevousa version of Vincenzo Kornaro’s work by Dionysios Photeinos (1769-1821), Neos Erotokritos, first published in Vienna 1818, had been reprinted in Istanbul in 1845.
22. I have not found any other works translated by these authors.
23. Ahmed Cevat Emre was born in 1876 in the Kadiri-tekke near Rethymno. Like our translators he was later a student of the Mekteb-i Harbiye. Apart from his linguistical works, he is also known as the translator of Homer’s Odyssey (2 vols., 1941-2), Iliad (1957) and Aeschylos’ Agamemnon (1945) into Turkish. He died in 1961.
24. Emre, Ahmet Cevat, Iki neslin tarihi (Istanbul 1960) 12 Google Scholar. Ahmed Cevat’s mother was very moved by this story, the same as some women and girls from the neighbourhood.
25. ‘… medh ede ede göklere cïkarageldikleri eser’.
26. Istikbal, Nr. 132 (9 February 1326 [1911]) 3. On this paper see my ‘The Cretan Muslims and their struggle for Ottomanism: Some evidence from the periodical press’ (Sadâ-yï Girid, Istikbal), V. Milletlerarasi Türkiye Sosyal ve Iktisat Tarihi Kongresi. Tebliğler (Ankara 1990) 55-56.
page 201 note 1. The Mongol ruler and conqueror of Baghdad is considered as a symbol of cruelty in Islamic tradition.