by Candace Barrington
The first translator I interviewed for Global Chaucers was Nazmi Ağıl, Chaucer’s Turkish translator, in April 2013. Jonathan Hsy and I had launched our project only a few months earlier, and we were still trying to determine who was out there, what they were doing, and how we would approach them.
Early in developing Global Chaucers, I had downloaded the New Chaucer Society membership list and contacted anyone with an affiliation outside the Anglophone academic sphere. I asked for information about translations, adaptations, as well as courses that included Chaucer in their reading lists. Among the many who responded, we heard from a colleague in Turkey who pointed us to Nazmi and his translation, Canterbury Hikâkyelieri.
As it happened, I was scheduled to be in Istanbul for the opening of a close friend’s art exhibit. To make the most of the opportunity, I contacted Nazmi. We met for coffee at Taksim Meydanı, the large public square where, a month later, the Gezi protests were met with violence. But that day, the square was bustling and normal. And inside the coffee shop, Nazmi taught me how to ask translators questions. Later that week, we traveled up the Bosphorus, almost to the Black Sea, in order to visit Nazmi’s classes at Koç University and to meet his students and colleagues. In many ways, meeting Nazmi marks a shift in my understanding of the Global Chaucers project.
In subsequent years, we’ve met again in Istanbul and in Reykjavík (for NCS 2014 and the first iteration of the Polyglot Miller’s Tale!). We’ve even published together in a 2018 special issue of Literature Compass: Chaucer’s Global Compaignye.
Our most recent joint appearance has been in Medievalism and Reception, an essay collection edited by Ellie Crookes and Ika Willis. Published earlier this fall by D.S.Brewer in their Medievalism series, the volume closes with Nazmi’s absolutely gorgeous “Hosting Chaucer’s Pilgrims in Turkish.” If you want to read about translating Chaucer from one of his best translators, get your hands on Nazmi’s essay.
And if you’re curious about role of translators in ensuring Chaucer’s readership, note this: Canterbury Hikâyelieri is in its 9th edition!
