Gained in Translation: Remembering Ruth Christie (1923-2021)

An evening of Turkish poetry and prose in celebration of Ruth's work and contribution to Turkish literature  Readings in Turkish and English.

Scottish born acclaimed translator Ruth Christie first went to Turkey in the 1940s, where she lived in Istanbul with a Turkish family for two years and worked as a teacher in the English High School for Girls. She then went on to study Turkish at SOAS in London many years later in the 1970s. She translated several books of Turkish poetry and prose. Her publications include works by Selçuk Altun, Cevat Çapan, Feyyaz Kayacan Fergar, Nâzım Hikmet, Pınar Kür, Bejan Matur, Murathan Mungan, Oktay Rifat, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Tuğrul Tanyol, Latife Tekin and Güven Turan. Her most recent publication is ‘Five Cities’ (Beş Şehir), a translation of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s landmark collection of essays about Ankara, Erzurum, Konya, Bursa, and Istanbul. In a piece about working with Ruth, the poet Bejan Matur said,

 “iyi çevirmenler gizli şairler” (good translators are secret poets).

Registration

This event is free to attend and is open to the public.

For further information please email Yorgos Dedes (gd5@soas.ac.uk) and Husam Al-Mallak (ha10@soas.ac.uk)