This poem by Karin Karakaşlı is deceptively simple, and we started by taking a little overview of the whole thing, to see if this would help us clarify our journey through the poem line by line. Much of the initial conversation mulled over the various ideas in the poem: the different cultural notions of destiny, and how the poem wishes instead for some small element of personal agency.
The poem’s tone combines a childlike naivety – invoking dreams, wishes and a fairytale sensibility, in place of more religious overtones – with a little cynical, wry twist, which we tried to maintain. The guide translation used the word “destiny” several times, which we replaced with “fate”, hoping to tone down the unavoidably high-fantasy register that “destiny” can connote in English – a register that is not present at all in the Turkish, where destiny is a commonly used and functional noun.
For example, we changed the title from “Stone of Destiny” to “Fate’s Stone” – this was after a very impassioned debate, in which I would say the final title was ultimately tolerated rather than wholeheartedly agreed upon. Fundamentally though, the concept of destiny cannot be experienced in the English language in the same kind of habitual or commonplace way that it can be in Turkish. It’s a great example of something that is almost impossible to translate directly into English without triggering some unintentional tonal baggage of our own creation. Perhaps, with a little more time, we might have found a different solution.
There were three Turkish speakers in the group, including the translator Canan Marasligil who has translated many of Karin’s poems over the years, which helped draw out the various tonal and cultural idioms and signifiers. This was a really fun and boisterously informal session, with many different pitches given and torn apart for various lines and concepts, showing just how much discussion can be drawn out of nine short lines.
-Poet-facilitator Chrissy Williams