Interviews
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “The Road Offers Us a Life Experience Full of Uncertainties”
A conversation with Eray Sarıçam on being on the road, travel and translation as journeys to the other, the road in al-Mutanabbi and Mahmoud Darwish, the limits of the translator’s intervention, and the cities that shaped him.
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2024 Turjuman Translation Award Goes to Mehmet Hakkı Suçin
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on the Turjuman Award, The Ring of the Dove, Arabic literature, and literary translation.
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “Good Texts Do Not Age”
“Good texts are anti-ageing and resist oblivion.” In Al-Nashir al-Usbu‘i’s cover interview on the Turjuman Award, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin talks about The Ring of the Dove, translating al-Mutanabbi, Arabic literature’s place in the world and Arabic studies in Türkiye.
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On Poetry and Translation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin
In this World Poetry Day interview with the translator Sabri Gürses, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin discusses the bond between poetry and translation, translating al-Mutanabbi into Turkish for the first time, the power of translation to reshape literary canons, and the poetry translator in the age of AI.
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al-Mutanabbi in Turkish
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on translating al-Mutanabbi into Turkish and recreating classical Arabic poetry within another literary tradition.
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “I Wanted to Present al-Mutanabbi as a Great World Poet”
Turks are reading al-Mutanabbi in their own language for the first time: an interview on The Song of Man, al-Mutanabbi’s echo in Ottoman poetry, translating Palestinian literature, Adonis, Yahya Haqqi, Gibran and the teaching of Arabic in Turkey.
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Writer and Translator Mehmet Hakkı Suçin Builds Bridges Between Arab and Turkish Cultures
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on Turkish–Arab cultural relations and translation as a bridge between the two cultures.
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What Place Does Arabic Literature Hold for Turkish Readers?
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on Arabic literature in Türkiye, translation, and Turkish–Arabic literary relations.
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “I Am the Ambassador of Arabic Literature in Turkey”
An interview on choosing what to translate, the complementary poetics of Adonis and Mahmoud Darwish, restoring the standing of Arabic poetry in Turkish, the challenges of translating classical verse, and the al-Mutanabbi project.
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “The Translator Takes the Reader on a Journey Through the Texts of the Other”
An interview on first encounters with Arabic, the damage done by poor translations, translation as second-degree creation and crisis management, recreating rhythm in classical poetry, teaching Arabic in Turkey and Turkish literature today.
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Experiences in Community Interpreting Training
As a guest of the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Manisa Celal Bayar University, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin spoke about the community interpreting training he has given and the problems encountered in the field.
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Sezai Karakoç’s Translations of Poetry from Arabic Literature
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin’s paper “An Assessment of Sezai Karakoç’s Translations of Poetry from Arabic Literature”, presented at the Sezai Karakoç Symposium held at the Zeytinburnu Cultural Centre on 18–19 November 2022.
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The Translator Says: Mehmet Hakkı Suçin
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on his translations during the pandemic — Mahmoud Darwish, the Muʿallaqat, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan and Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail — and on his forthcoming projects, from Ghassan Kanafani to a Yunus Emre selection in Arabic.
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Reference Frameworks and the Teaching of Arabic to Non-Native Speakers
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on the CEFR, teaching Arabic as a foreign language, and curriculum development.
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin, Guest of “Çeviri Notları” (Translation Notes)
On the TRT programme “Çeviri Notları” (Translation Notes), producer Kurtuluş Özyazıcı talked with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin about his journey as a translator, starting from several of the works he has translated.
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Ask the Translator: Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on Minor Detail
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on translating Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail into Turkish: how he came to the book, its two contrasting parts, the difficulties of Arabic–Turkish syntax, and Shibli’s style.
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Turkish Literature in Other Languages
TRT producer Kurtuluş Özyazıcı talked with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin about the journey of Turkish literature into other languages, in a programme broadcast on TRT Radio 1 on 22 October 2021.
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Qur’an Translation from a Translation Studies Perspective
In a seminar organised by İSLAMER, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin discussed research areas in Qur’an translation, the textual features of the Qur’an and translation studies approaches, and made proposals for the translation process.
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The City in Modern Arabic Literature
Moderated by the writer Ömer Asan, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin discusses images of the city in the modern Arabic novel and poetry at the 5th Roman Kahramanları Istanbul Literature Festival.
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Translating Classical Arabic Poetry
In his lecture “Translating Classical Arabic Poetry”, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin discusses the questions of poetry translation, drawing on his translations of the Seven Suspended Odes.
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Culture and History Conversations: Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry
As the guest of the 191st episode of Kültür ve Tarih Sohbetleri, presented by Cengiz Özdemir and Ozan Sağsöz, Mehmet Hakkı Suçin talked about pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and the Seven Suspended Odes.
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Charbel Dagher Talks About His Poetic Experience
A poetry evening and literary conversation with the poet and critic Dr. Charbel Dagher at Gazi University in Ankara, moderated by Dr. Mehmet Hakkı Suçin, professor and translator of Arabic language and literature. Dr. Dagher reads some of his poems with their Turkish translations, then talks about his relationship with Turkish literature, his poetic experience…
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Mehmet Hakkı Suçin: “Everything We Write and Read Is Translation”
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on words, the books that shaped him, the translator as an envoy and a “ghost writer”, the difficulties of Arabic–Turkish translation, and translating the Muʿallaqat during lockdown.
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Translation Between Arabic and Turkish
A conversation with Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on translation between Arabic and Turkish and literary and cultural exchange between the two languages.