By Nefise Kahraman
Fatma Aliye’s Scenes of Life, which has been translated into English by the Translation Attached Translators Collective through weekly workshops over the course of a year, is full of vivid imagery, philosophical inquiry, and metaphorical richness – distinctive features of the late Ottoman literary style. Ottoman Turkish, a variant of the Turkish language employed in official and literary contexts from the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century, was replete with vocabulary, grammatical forms and morphological units borrowed from Arabic and Persian – languages that Aliye herself knew well. In the 19th century, French vocabulary also permeated literary works, including Aliye’s, reflecting both its role as the era’s lingua franca and the multilingual character of imperial Istanbul, where a host of other languages from Greek to Armenian were spoken. Aliye’s prose stands as a remarkable testament to the literary culture and linguistic plurality of late 19th-century Istanbul, as it also showcases the intricacies of late nineteenth-century literary language.
In translating this work, we strove to preserve the distinctive tone and style of Aliye’s writing, while ensuring that the text remains accessible and enjoyable for a modern English-speaking audience. As with every translation, there were particular challenges in translating a text over a century old – some particular to Fatma Aliye’s style, and others resulting from the narrative conventions of the late Ottoman literary tradition.
One significant challenge was the lack of standardized punctuation in the original text. In Aliye’s time, the absence of consistent rules governing punctuation led to frequent variations and inconsistencies. To address this, we applied modern punctuation and spelling conventions, adhering to contemporary norms in both Canadian English and modern Turkish.
Another challenge was the highly ornate and indirect writing style of the period, which Aliye adopted and which often posed interpretive difficulties. Collaborative translation proved invaluable in navigating these complexities, allowing us the time to discuss and reflect on potential meanings. We also often had to contend with an abundance of synonyms. Aliye employs numerous synonyms and near-synonyms derived from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish – words that would have been familiar to her readers – often listing them in succession. We usually adhered to her choices, but occasionally dropped one or two synonyms when the English version was sounding too repetitive. One cannot help but speculate that, while this extensive use of synonyms was a feature of the era’s literary style, Aliye’s reliance on them may have also been a deliberate effort to assert herself as a writer in a male-dominated field, demonstrating her command of language and literary skill.
For this project, we relied on the original manuscript in Ottoman Turkish, obtained from the Atatürk Library in Istanbul. While transliterating the text from the original abjad based on the Perso-Arabic script into the Latin alphabet, rather than adhering to a strict academic transliteration of the Ottoman Turkish text, I opted for a flexible approach that prioritizes readability. I avoided including diacritical marks that indicate subtle letter distinctions, as these could burden readers unfamiliar with transliteration conventions. Our English translation follows the Ottoman transliteration, as we sought to remain faithful to Aliye’s style. In particularly complex passages, we relied on my modern Turkish rendition.
The modern Turkish version of Scenes of Life reflects the evolution of the Turkish language over the past century, marked by major transformations such as the 1928 language reform, which replaced the Perso-Arabic abjad with the Latin alphabet and aimed to replace Persian and Arabic words with Turkish equivalents, creating new words from Turkish roots when necessary. In adapting the text to modern Turkish, I replaced many obsolete Ottoman words with newer, non-Ottoman alternatives that are in common use today, prioritizing language that contemporary readers are more likely to understand. However, I also aimed to retain the sense that readers are encountering a work from over a hundred years ago. Striking a balance between accessibility and historical authenticity was crucial in this modern adaptation. Previous transliterations and modern Turkish editions of Scenes of Life have been published in Turkey by Boğaziçi University Press and İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, prepared by Tülay Gençtürk Demircioğlu and Senem Timuroğlu, respectively. I occasionally compared my own work to these versions during the process of transliterating and rendering the text into modern Turkish. Readers who are interested in the process of transliteration may also be interested in these works.
Aliye’s text contains a few distinct words, such as alafranga, meaning “in a European style.” We preserved these words as they appear in Turkish to maintain their cultural and linguistic significance within the narrative. And while footnotes provide valuable context, we were mindful not to overload the text with them, aiming for a balance between scholarly detail and the reader’s enjoyment. We limited the number of footnotes and carefully selected which terms warranted further explanation.
You may wonder why this edition contains four different versions. One reason was to illustrate the material trajectory of the Turkish language from the original abjad to the modern Latin alphabet, showcasing how the language has evolved. Equally important was the desire to offer a resource for those interested in improving their Ottoman Turkish skills, with parallel texts available for comparative reading. A modern Turkish rendition accompanies the transliterated version, designed for readers who prefer to engage with the story without becoming immersed in the complexities of the 19th-century literary language. Our decision was also driven by the belief that one does not need to speak multiple languages to appreciate a multilingual edition. While reading in translation or in a foreign language can provide unique insights, such experiences often present language in isolation. In contrast, bilingual and multilingual editions highlight the dynamic interplay of languages, capturing their dialogue and mutual influence.
Among her many roles as a novelist, essayist, and women’s rights advocate, Fatma Aliye was also a translator. In fact, her first published work was a translation from French – Georges Ohnet’s novel Volonté (1888) – which appeared anonymously in 1889 under the pseudonym bir kadın (“by a woman”). For a time, she adopted the name Mütercime-i Meram (“the female translator of Volonté”).
Recognizing the many challenges she faced as a woman writer, we are delighted to bring one of Aliye’s fictional works into English for the very first time, with no pseudonym needed. We hope you enjoy reading!
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Scenes of Life is available for purchase via Amazon.
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