The reading and conversation event "Translation World" brings poet and translator Monika Rinck and Istanbul poet and translator Efe Duyan together at the Goethe-Institut Library in Istanbul on Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.
At the event, which is free of charge, Rinck, who has been in Istanbul recently on a scholarship from Tarabya Culture Academy, and Duyan will read some of their poems and talk about the special reality of poetic language - what makes poetry beyond description and how to make poems speak in another language.
The poems Rinck will read were translated into Turkish by Efe Duyan for the special night.
Duyan's poems have been translated into German by author and poet Matthias Göritz, a scholarship holder at Tarabya Culture Academy.
Rinck lives in Berlin. She studied the science of religion, comparative literature and German philology at Bochum, Berlin and Yale University. Various works of hers have been published since 1989. She received the Peter-Huchel-Preis prize for her first book of poetry, "Honigprotokolle" (Honey Protocols), which was published by Kookbooks in 2012. In 2015, her ironic work "Risiko und Idiotie" (Risk and Idiocy) was also published by the same publishing house.
Rinck is a member of PEN International, the Berlin Art Academy and German Academy for Language and Poetry. She received the Kleist Prize in 2015 and Ernst Jandl Award in 2017. She curated the Poetica Festival in Cologne, Germany, this year. Rinck translates from Hungarian with Orsolya Kalasz, conducts collaborative work with musicians and composers and occasionally teaches at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her book "Kritik der Motorkraft" (Criticism of Engine Power) will be published soon by the Brüterich publishing house.
Duyan was born in 1981 in Istanbul. He worked as an editor for the Nikbinlik and Sanat Cephesi journals. His poems and writings have been published in many journals. He is on the broadcasting board of the journal Çevrimdışı İstanbul, which began in 2016. He studied in the Department of Architecture and Philosophy at Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) after graduating from the Istanbul German High School. He still works as an academic in the Architecture History Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
He was invited to many international events and workshops such as the Word-Express Project, Riga International Poetry Days, Edinburgh Book Festival, Malta Inizjamed Poetry Festival and Sibiu International Poetry Festival. Some of his poems have been translated and published in German, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese, Danish, Estonian, French, Serbo-Croatian, Welsh, Hebrew, English, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Macedonian, Romanian, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Greek. He translated Romanian poet Radu Vancu's book of poetry "Franghia inflorita."
His poems have been collected in the books "Takas" (Barter) and "Tek Şiirlik Aşklar" (Single Poetry Loves). His work "Nazım Hikmet Şiirinde Karakter İnşası" (Creation of Characters in Nazım Hikmet Poems) was published in 2008, and "Sıkça Sorulan Sorular" (Frequently Asked Questions) followed.