The Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre National Széchényi Library (HNMPCC NSZL) held a professional conference and workshop in Ankara in the framework of the Turkish-Hungarian Cultural Year, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and in cooperation with the Nation's Library of the Presidency.
The event on 19 September 2024 aimed to share the professional experiences of Hungarian and Turkish literary translators and to raise interest in the field of literary translation.
The event was organised jointly with the Nation's Library of the Presidency, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the Embassy of Hungary in Ankara and the Hungarian Department of the University of Ankara.
Ayhan Tuğlu, Head of the Department of Presidential Administration, Dr. Péter Hoppál, Government Commissioner for the Turkish-Hungarian Cultural Year, Viktor Mátis, Ambassador of Hungary to Ankara and Judit Gerencsér, Deputy Director General of the HNMPCC NSZL welcomed the participants at the forum.
The event consisted of two main parts: a plenary session and a practical workshop. The presentations in the plenary session covered different aspects of translation. Our Hungarian speakers, translators and turkologists Edit Tasnádi and Balázs Szőllősy, and translator and interpreter Katalin Sipos, discussed the Turkish edition of Petőfi's poems and the reception of Turkish literature in Hungary.
Prof. Dr. Sevgi Can Yağci Aksel and Dr. Erdal Çoban, Associate Professor of the Hungarian Department of the Faculty of Linguistics, History and Geography of the University of Ankara, gave a presentation on the Turkish translation of Hungarian literature, while Dr. İsmail Doğan gave a presentation on the history of translation of Hungarian literature.
In the second half of the event, the participants took part in a translation workshop, where they discussed the Turkish translation of Balázs Szőllősy's poem "Our Life and Metro Two". A special feature of the workshop was that the participants worked directly with the author, analysing line by line the different solutions of the translation, thus deepening the acquisition of translation techniques and the understanding of the differences between the two languages.
The event was an important step in strengthening the relationship between the Hungarian and Turkish literary translation communities and deepening cultural dialogue.
The Turkish–Hungarian Cultural Year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
As part of the related series of events, the international conference "Who connects: İbrâhîm Müteferrika" was held on the work of Müteferrika, a Hungarian-born writer of Ottoman origin who connected the two countries.
On 21 May 2024, the first professional conference was organised jointly by the HNMPCC NSZL and the Nation's Library of the Presidency in Ankara, focusing on the oeuvre of İbrâhîm Müteferrika, Transylvanian diplomat and printing press founder. The conference was attended by some of the most prominent experts and scholars in the field, from both Hungary and Türkiye.
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Who connects: İbrâhîm Müteferrika – international conference organised by the NSZL in Ankara