The transfer of religious Themes And Allusions in the Turkish retranslations of The Waste Land

Abstract

This study investigates whether and how the countless religious allusions in The Waste Land, specifically to Christianity, which T. S. Eliot created through subtle religious imagery, and the themes, which he built upon the legendary religious symbols and motifs were transferred in the six translations of the poem into Turkish. Through my own translation of the poem, the study also offers a method as to how these foreign allusions and themes can be transferred into Turkish. In the analysis, the study explores and discusses which translational decisions were made and were not made while transferring an understanding of a superstructure, such as religion- which is a compound of values and knowledge understood and shared by the individuals of society- and its notions- which permeates through social life and common understanding by means of past folk stories and parables- into another cultural structure, in a literary form such as poetry, and through allusions. In addition to this, the motives to retranslate The Waste Land , the reasons for some specific translational decisions in the retranslations of the poem are questioned. The study presents findings and evidences as to whether the translation strategies in retranslations are correlated with time, institutions and changing linguistic and translational norms.