Talk:İstiklâl Marşı
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[edit] Translation
I would like to offer my translation of the first two verses for consideration as a way of capturing the gist of the lyrics while attempting to match the syllable count, maintain a rhyme scheme, and have the translation be singable. I am not Turkish but I hope this does justice to the original.
Fear not ye this crimson flag in the winds shall never cease to soar / Last of the endlessly blazing hearths above my motherland / That is my nation’s very own brightly shining beacon-star / That is mine, that is unmistakably my motherland’s.
Spite not, coy crescent, thy face—a sacrifice let me be / Smile on my lineage of heroes—why this anger, why this pride? / For would not the blood we shed be undeserving of thee / Freedom is my God-exalting nation’s fundamental right.
Woohoo!
- I am giving you the best Vandal of the week award! What does "Woohoo!" mean! When I see vandals like you, I don't erase your "interesting" writings. I let people to see the finest examples of the vandalism. With respect, the son of the nomadic warriors, Deliogul 16:12, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
- I'm disappointed to see that the English translation does not match the Turkish verses precisely and often adds some words (i.e. where is the word "proudly" on the first line of the original?) and misinterprets others ("Ulusun! Korkma." is translated to: "Recognize your innate strength, my friend" rather than the more accurate "Let it howl. Do not be afraid."). I still appreciate the effort of the translator, however, so rather than editing this translation I would like to add my own -- more accurate -- translation to the page soon. This way English readers can read Mehmet Akif purely without the interpretations of a translator. Thanks. RingOfGyges 22:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
I would be happy to see any alternative translations and especially ones that try to take into account the original religious context within which the author was operating. But are you saying that it is impossible to capture that religiosity using modern translation-equivalents? If so, does that not render the set of religious connotations inaccessible to a secular audience, thus only sharpening the divide between secular and religious audiences? For example, in Islam one is supposed to refer to God as Allah. But the word "Allah" which means "the [one and only] God" predated the appearance of Islam in the history of the Arabic language. In fact the word is related to "ilah" which means "a/any god" which suggests that before the advent of Islam, "allah" could simply be taken to mean the god (in response to which one could ask, "well, which one are you talking about?"). Hence by insisting on one particular interpretation of the word, one ignores the rich history of the word and the myriad ways in which it has been understood over time. It seems that the person who wrote the comment below would object to such a selective forgetting of history.
[edit] The translation can be worked on but a commendable effort
I was disapointed with the translation because I feel it does not take into account the history of the writer of the poem, Mehmet Akif Ersoy.
We musn't forget he was a religious poet. He was known in the Muslim world as a poet who used to write poems that encouraged people. His poems were very zealious and this one is nothing short.
When reading the poem in Turkish we must remember that it was written in a time when the Turkish language was slightly different to the form it is in now. It was influenced by Arabic and Persian a lot more than it is now. Once again if we look at the history of the poet we must imagine the context he wrote it and not the context that we may understand the poem now. Turkey is a country that is very influenced by nationalism. Where as the poem was written at a time and by a guy that was very religious.
When reading the translations of the Quran which is Arabic the translator often adds commentary in brackets which was not in the original language. This is because the context of the language may be mis-intepreted with translation. The same must be done in the translation of the poem.
When readers of the poem translate this we must ask how familiar they are with the language and how familiar they are with the language of the time it was written as well as how familiar they are with the language of the Quran. I say this because a lot of people who are Turkish may translate this with their secular goggles on forgetting it was written by an Islamist.
I will add my version of the translation above the former version in hope that we can benifit from both. Of course I am only human and there may also be errors with mine. Id like to hear from people if there are. may Allah accept our efforts as noble. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kibrisli7 (talk • contribs) 15:32, 2 September 2006.
[edit] Only two verses?
All the vocal recordings I could find on the net cover only the first two verses of the Anthem. Is there a vocal version of the entire anthem out there, or are only the first two verses considered the Anthem? Inkan1969 04:54, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
