Internalization of the first eighteen couplets of Rumi’s Mesnevî through commentaries and translation In Turkish literature and culture

Abstract

In this study, the role of the activity of şerh (commentary) in the process of word and concept transferral from the source language to the target language by way of the practice of translation, and also its role in the establishment and internalization of those words and concepts in the target language is examined in detail. In the course of this examination, it is focused on the mesnevi form which is a genre that is adopted in Turkish literature from Persian, Mevlana’s work of art called Mesnevî that is the most commentated literary work, and particularly the first eighteen couplets of this work in question. Analyzing the significant words and concepts of the first eighteen couplets of Mesnevî, the source language of which is Persian, the way those words and concepts are used in Turkish, that is the target language, and how those are internalized by Turkish literature is intended to be explained with examples.