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Turkish-English translation of selected poems of Yunus Emre, the famous Sufi mystical poet. A remarkable achievement in translation. Erse remains as true as possible to the actual Turkish meaning of words, selecting each one with the care that only a truly bilingual person, and one very well-schooled in Sufism, could ever achieve. As an example, there is another translation reading Hold on to the hand of a striding hero , which Erse instead translates to the much closer actual words of Hold on to the skirt of an attained one . This totally changes the meaning, encouraging the reader to find a true Sheikh and hold fast to his teachings. Erse strove to give English-speakers as close to the same experience, in English, as Yunus delivers in Turkish. For example, Yunus sometimes makes up words, adding endings like ingly (see poem #9), and Erse is faithful to that; this is most obvious in poem #24, Crazy Dervish . Without Erse unveiling that for us, we English-speakers would never know Yunus’ playful aspect with words (unique to this translation). Where he could do so without sacrificing accuracy, the poems still rhyme. Erse has judiciously omitted articles such as the or a to make each line the exact same number of syllables as in the Yunus Turkish spoken version. At first this may give the reader the experience that the poems use strange English, but you’ll soon become accustomed to the poetic value and see the true beauty of Yunus’ work.
