Tracing the “multiple lives” of a national romantic female translator in the early Turkish Republican period: Seniha Sami Moralı

ABSTRACT

This article examines Seniha Sami Moralı, a notable yet underrepresented female translator in Turkish translation history. Employing archival methodology, the study conducts a comprehensive investigation of archival documents and related sources to construct a microhistory of Moralı. The aim of the study is to identify and describe her translatorial identity within the socio-cultural and political milieu in which she acted. To this end, the article first presents details about her family and life. It then presents a discussion of her early translation practices against the backdrop of the early Turkish Republican period, suggesting that she adopted a national romantic stance, which influenced her translation practices during the establishment of the new Turkish nation. Lastly, by establishing connections between her translatorial role and other professional positions, the study highlights the interconnectedness of her multiple roles in the pursuit of shaping and preserving what she saw as a unique Turkish identity, which constructs its future by drawing upon its historical foundations.

KEYWORDS:

• Archival methodology
• microhistory
• women translators
• national romanticism
• early Turkish Republican period

Acknowledgments

This article is based on the PhD dissertation of the first author written under the supervision of the second author in Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye. We would like to express our gratitude to TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) for awarding a PhD scholarship to the first author. We also would like to extend our thanks to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Seniha Sami Moralı Tarafından Neşredilen Eserlerden Bazıları [Some of the works published by Seniha Sami Moralı]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001636020019. Toros’ private archive contains numerous documents about Turkish cultural history and distinguished Turkish figures from different fields as well as his own notes. His archival note about Moralı is also housed in his private archive.

2. It was later discovered that Toros initially published this article in THY Skylife both in Turkish and English side by side. See, Toros (1994).

3. Moralı published some of her memoirs in Hayat Tarih in three parts (Sami Moralı 1978a, 1978b, 1978c). The researchers also found a document in the archive, seemingly a draft of her published memoirs and articles regarding her family. Upon examination, it became evident that some parts of her memoirs, which contain important details about her life, remained unpublished. Since the page numbers of the document are not in a sequence and some numbers are repeated several times, quotations from this document will not include page references.

4. A memoir based on her observations of the last years of the Ottoman Empire. The document also includes a Turkish version. The Turkish title is Son Halifenin Sarayı ve Istanbul’da Harem Hayatı. (see, Life in the Last Harems and the Harems of the Last Khalife. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001636016019). Some letters found in the archive reveal her correspondence with a researcher at the American Research Institute, Charlie Ehrmann. The letters show that they had a close friendship and exchanged information and ideas about the politics, culture and education in both countries. In one of her letters, Ehrmann tells Moralı that the publication of her memories of the Ottoman Empire would attract attention abroad (see, Ehrmann to Moralı, [April 23, 1975]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001570827009). Therefore, it is likely that it was Ehrmann who encouraged Moralı to write a memoir in English. Given the Turkish version, it is understood that she wanted to get it published in Türkiye, as well, but both versions remained unpublished.

5. Through the investigation in different libraries along with the Özyeğin University’s database (https://eresearch.ozyegin.edu.tr/xmlui/), some parts of the novel were located. However, as some issues of Türk Kadın Yolu have not been preserved, it was not possible to bring the complete novel together.

6. As Moralı translated and adapted the plays to be staged, they were not published.

7. Until the Republican period, the Arabic script was used in Ottoman Turkish. The Latin script was adopted on November 1, 1928 as a result of efforts to modernise and simplify the Turkish language. The researchers transliterated Moralı’s correspondence, official documents and works in the Arabic script into the Latin script in order to be able to both analyse and compare the works with those written in the Latin script. This process contributed to the research in several ways. For instance, following the transliteration of Moralı’s serial novel, Kırık Kafesler, (of those parts which were accessed) (see Note 5), the researchers noticed that it is very similar to her unpublished novel, Bu da Geçer, which was written in the Latin script and found in the Taha Toros Private Archive. The comparison revealed that Moralı only changed the title and some characters’ name as well as making some additions. This suggests that Moralı herself transliterated and rewrote Kırık Kafesler in an attempt to publish it in book form. Through the transliteration process, the researchers were also able to locate one of her earliest translations (see Note 10). Furthermore, as discussed in Section 3.3, ‘Moralı as a Translator’, the works published under her authorship in Hayat turned out to be te’lif, one of the Ottoman translation practices. This, in turn, enabled the researchers to analyse her translation practices from a broader perspective and examine her translator identity in depth.

8. In Davis’ book, Moralı shares interesting details about Ottoman women as well as her own life, which were not accessible in her personal papers and the archival documents. Davis dedicated the book to the memory of Seniha Sami Moralı, likely because it was published after Moralı’s death in 1982.

9. Nüfus Hüviyet Cüzdanı Sureti [The Copy of Birth Certificate]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001635997019.

10. Hatırat [Memoirs]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001550265007. (Hereafter referred to as Hatırat, Taha Toros Private Archive). Despite the meticulous investigation of the library archives, the novels she translated were not identified. However, a footnote in one of her te’lîf texts later revealed that one was Henrietta Temple by Benjamin Disraeli, published as a serial novel in the newspaper İleri (Sami 1928e, 129). Yet, as most of the issues of the newspaper are lost, those containing her translation were not found.

11. Sicil Cüzdanı Nüshası [The Copy of The Ministry of National Education Personnel File]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001636003019.

12. An official position which requires the translation of documents as well as writing documents in foreign languages.

13. Hilâl-i Ahmer Cemiyeti Şehadetnamesi Nüshası [The Copy of Nursing Certificate]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number:001636445019.

14. Hatırat, Taha Toros Private Archive.

15. Moralı’s first translations, serialised in newspapers, have not been analysed due to the reasons stated in Note 10. Therefore, those published in Hayat currently provide the earliest examples of her translation activities.

16. Translation practices in the Ottoman context were referred to as terceme (lit. translation), which as a cultural-bound concept, served as an umbrella term encompassing various transfer practices (Paker 2014, 42–43, 67).

17. Following the transliteration of Moralı’s writings published under her authorship, the researchers proceeded to the analysis stage and noticed that she employed foreign sources to detail the literary subjects and figures she examined. For instance, in those writings, she not only explicated the historical contexts of literary events and literary concepts, but also incorporated quotations from literary figures and their correspondences, without attribution to the sources. At the same time, she interwove her own commentary, establishing connections with her own socio-cultural and political context. A statement she made in one of these writings, ‘İngiltere’de Romantik Şairler II. İhtilalciler ve Keats’ [The Romantic Poets in England. Part II. The Second Generation and Keats], which is also an example of te’lif, supports the researchers’ finding. Here, she explains, ‘[h]aving previously shared an article about Byron in these pages, I am currently translating another one about Shelley’s biography from Monsieur Maurois’ (Sami 1928d, 207, emphasis added). (All translations are ours unless stated otherwise in the references). Although the translation did not, for some reason, appear in Hayat, it was later located in another periodical, Muhit, where it was presented not as a translation, but as an article written by Seniha Sami (Sami 1930). Further analysis of this revealed a similar synthesis of translation and the translator’s contributions. As for ‘the article about Byron’ in Hayat, it also exhibits the characteristics of te’lif and likewise, Seniha Sami appears as the author. Her mention of ‘Monsieur Maurois’ [André Maurois] in her statement, prompted a search through his works and the discovery of his biographies of romantic literary figures, notably Ariel, ou La vie de Shelley [Ariel or the Life of Shelley] (Maurois 1923) and Lord Byron et le démon de la tendresse [Lord Byron and the Devil of Tenderness] (Maurois 1925). While other sources in Moralı’s writings remain unidentified, based on her aforementioned statement, it is likely that one of the sources she drew on in ‘Cihan Edebiyatının Meşhur Simalarından Lord Byron’ [A Famous Figure of the World Literature: Lord Byron] (Sami 1928b) was Lord Byron et le démon de la tendresse. On the other hand, it is clear that the primary source of ‘Romantizmin Meşhur Simalarından Shelley – Şeli’ [A Famous Figure of Romanticism: Shelley] (Sami 1930) is Ariel, ou La vie de Shelley. Overall, the researchers’ analysis, coupled with Moralı’s own statement, reveals that her writings published under her authorship in Hayat are specific instances of te’lif, exemplifying Ottoman translation practices as defined by Paker.

18. The original Turkish: ‘Milli seciyelerini, hususiyetlerini, ananelerini ihmal ederek yalnız taklitçiliğe özenenler için muvaffakiyetsizlik pek tabidir’.

19. Namık Kemal (1840–1888), known as the Vatan Şairi [Homeland Poet], is a prominent romantic figure in Turkish culture. He was exposed to the influence of romantic French literature and Enlightenment political philosophy through his work at the Translation Chamber of the foreign ministry. He popularised key terms like hürriyet [liberty] and vatan [homeland] in the Turkish political vocabulary, infusing them with modern connotations. His romantic writings contributed to the development of Turkish national consciousness (Ersoy 2017, 95–7).

20. Discours prononce a la Salle Brea, a Nice [Speech Delivered at Salle Brea, Nice]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001636441019.

21. Hatırat, Taha Toros Private Archive.

22. Moralı to Selekler [June 16, 1975]. Marmara University, Taha Toros Private Archive, Document Number: 001570818009.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Safiye Gül Avcı Solmaz

Safiye Gül Avcı Solmaz is a lecturer at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies (English) at Siirt University. She is also a PhD candidate in Interlingual and Intercultural Translation Studies PhD program at Yıldız Technical University. Her research interests lie in translator studies, women translators, translation history, women’s history and gender studies.

Ayşe Banu Karadağ

Ayşe Banu Karadağ is a Professor of the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies (French) at Yıldız Technical University. Her research interests lie in power and ideology in translation, translation theory, translation history, translator studies and women translators.