Translating culture: Translation of Ayşe Kulin’s novel Veda: Esir Şehirde Bir Konak as Fairwell: A Mansion in Occupied İstanbul

Cultural studies play an important role in translation studies, which has a nature suitable for interdisciplinary studies. Studies on the translation of cultural elements show the multifaceted nature of translation, increase awareness about culture and help us see the burden on translators. The aim of this study is to reveal the translation strategies used in the translation of cultural elements in Ayşe Kulin’s novel Veda as Farewell: A Mansion in Occupied Istanbul by Kenneth J. Dakan from Turkish into English. Cultural elements in the study are categorized as Ecology; Material Culture; Social Culture; Organizations, Customs, Ideas, Procedures, and Concepts; Gestures and Habits in accordance with Peter Newmark’s categorization of cultural elements. The category of Proverbs and Idioms were also added to the categorization. Three example sentences (except the heading Art) were chosen for each category. These examples were chosen as they represent their categories in the most clear and explanatory way. The translation of the chosen cultural elements were analysed within the framework of the following translation strategies: Literal translation; Translation of Meaning; Use of Cultural Element itself by Adding Explanation or Footnotes; Translation of the Meaning or Function without Translating the Cultural Element itself; Free Translation and Deletion. As a result of the descriptive and comparative analysis, it was found out that the translator did not use one single translation strategy. Instead, he used different translation studies during the translation process and this way overcame the difficulties risen due to cultural elements. Furthermore, the translator also used the strategy of not translating the cultural element, which was not put forth in the beginning of the study. It was also seen that the strategy 3.2 was the most common and the strategies 2.2. and 5.2. were the least common. It was also revealed that the translator did not benefit from the strategy 3.1 at all and sometimes preferred “no translation”, which was not one of the determined strategies in the beginning of the study