Criticizing the Turkish translation of the English poems in The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur based on Dryden’s translation types

Year 2023, Issue: 35, 1605 - 1619, 21.08.2023

Gülşen Kocaevli-rezguı Ayşe Selmin Söylemez

https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1347324

Abstract

The Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, a child of an immigrant family, is a rising figure in contemporary poetry which particularly focuses on immigration and womanhood. The English poems in the “rooting” chapter of her book The Sun and Her Flowers (2017a) reflect what she has experienced as a first-generation female immigrant. To analyze this experience in the target culture, this study concentrates on the poems translated into Turkish in Güneş ve Onun Çiçekleri (2017b) by Gizem Aldoğan in the "rooting" chapter. The study follows an eclectic method. The theoretical framework is based on John Dryden's three translation types (1992): Metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation. For the data analysis, the original and the translated poems are classified in terms of Hewson's macro-micro-macro methodological design (2011). Interrater reliability is ensured with the participation of three field experts during the data analysis. The macro-level analysis represents the final agreement of the field experts on the overall type of the translated poems in the defined chapter. The micro-level analysis, on the other hand, aims at finding out any unusual lines within a specific poem that fits into a translation type different from its macro-level type. The findings of the study show that the Turkish translations of Kaur's poems hold 100% paraphrastic translation style on the macro-level while there is a slight deviation on the micro-level.

Keywords

Translation criticism, poetry translation, Dryden’s translation types, Rupi Kaur, The Sun and Her Flowers

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