Problems faced when translating Atilla İlhan’s poetry: Case study of the poem ‘Döşeme’

The existence of poetry is nearly as old as the existence of language itself. Since the last millennia, with the inception of translation studies the relationship between poetry and translation has been a controversial issue. While translation facilitates linguistic and cultural transfer, poetry which can be described as subliminal power of language, embeds additional elements influencing the reader’s interpretation. Therefore, within the context of literary translation, the need to transform the cogitation that the poem offers to the reader makes poetry translation an even more challenging task for the translator. The aim of the present study is to examine the major problems faced when translating the prominent 20th century poet Atilla İlhan’s poem ‘Döşeme’ from Turkish into English. Metaphor is the first and foremost problem that İlhan’s poetry constitutes for the translator because metaphor is a prevalent and predominant feature of the poem under investigation. The second problematical area dealt with arises from the lexical items employed by İlhan, and the cultural constraints that these items bring to the translation process. The study also deals with the attempts to overcome the problems of metaphors and lexical items faced when translating İlhan. As this study indicates, translating the Atilla İlhan into English is a challenge.