ANTİK DÜNYADAN ÇAĞDAŞ DÜNYAYA: MICHAEL LONGLEY’NİN HOMEROS DESTANLARINDAN YAPTIĞI ÇEVİRİLERDE ŞİDDET GERÇEĞİ

Abstract

Kuzey İrlanda’nın önde gelen şairlerinden Michael Longley, Homeros’un İlyada ve Odysseia destanlarından yaptığı çeviriler ile hem kendi yazın yolculuğuna hem de ülkesinde yaşanan politik karmaşaya ışık tutar. Bu çeviri şiirlerde, özgün anlatıları parçalayarak ve bölerek ya da yeniden birleştirerek adeta yeni metinler yaratır. Sözü edilen metinler iki boyutta değerlendirilebilir. Birincisinde, Longley, Homeros ile kendisini karşılaştırarak dil ve sanat üzerinden onunla bir yarışa girer; ustasını yüceltirken kendisini de büyütür. İkincisi, şiddetin insanlık tarihi kadar eski olduğu gerçeğine ilişkindir. Şair bu gerçeği vurgulamak için Homeros metinlerindeki şiddet ve savaş sahnelerini, XX. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında Kuzey İrlanda’da yaşanan karmaşayı anlatmada kullanır. Böylece geçen onca zamana karşın insanoğlunun uygarlaşamadığına, şiddetin fırsat bulduğu her yerde ve zamanda ortaya çıkan evrensel bir sorun olduğuna işaret eder. Longley, Odysseus ve Hektor üzerinden kini ve öç almayı dizelerine taşırken, Troya Savaşı sırasında Priamos ve Akhilleus arasında varılan ateşkes üzerinden İrlanda Sorunu’na ilişkin kendi çözümünü sunar: Yaşananları unutmadan ve geçmişe takılıp kalmadan bir uzlaşı kültürü oluşturmak, bağışlayıcılığı öne çıkarıp başkalarıyla duygudaşlık geliştirmek ve sorunun çözümüne yönelik kararlı adımlar atmak

Keywords

• Michael Longley, Kuzey İrlanda şiiri, İrlanda Sorunu, politik şiddet, Homeros, İlyada ve Odysseia çevirileri

From Antiquity to the Contemporary World: The Reality of Violence in Michael Longley’s Translations from Homeric Epics

Abstract

Michael Longley, one of Northern Ireland’s foremost poets, sheds light both on his literary journey and the political chaos in his country through his translations from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. In these translated poems, he creates almost new texts by breaking and dividing the original narratives or interweaving them. These texts can be evaluated in two dimensions. In the first, comparing himself with Homer, Longley vies with him through language and art; when he glorifies his master he aggrandises himself as well. The second pertains to the reality that violence is as old as the history of humanity. To emphasise this reality, the poet uses the scenes of violence and war in Homer’s texts to tell the chaos in the second half of the 20th century in Northern Ireland, thus pointing out that the man cannot civilise himself in spite of the time elapsed and that the violence is a universal problem which emerges at any time and place when and where it finds an opportunity. While conveying hatred and revenge to his lines through Odysseus and Hector, Longley proffers his own solution to end the Irish Troubles through the ceasefire between Achilles and Priam during the Trojan War: To establish a reconciliation culture by neither forgetting nor living in the past, to develop empathy with the others by highlighting forgiveness and to take resolute steps for the solution of the problem.

Keywords

• Michael Longley, Northern Irish Poetry, Irish Troubles, political violence, Homer, Translations of Iliad and Odyssey

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