Talat Sait Halman Award presented at ceremony

The second Talat Sait Halman Translation Award, which is given by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) in honor of Talat Sait Halman to support outstanding translations of literary works, was presented on Dec. 20 at a ceremony at the Nejat Eczacıbaşı building. 

The Talat Sait Halman Translation Award of 15,000 Turkish Liras was presented to Ahmet Arpad for his outstanding translation of Anna Seghers' "Transit." The award is the first prize awarded by İKSV in the field of literature.

The award ceremony started with İKSV General Director Görgün Taner's presentation and was followed by a commemoration of author and translator Bertan Onaran, who died last week. Onaran translated Cervantes, Émile Zola, Jules Verne and many other authors into Turkish.

"Through the Talat Sait Halman Translation Award, we hope to support translators who are producing outstanding translations of world literature into Turkish and to encourage new works of this kind and caliber. Talât Sait Halman was Turkey's first culture minister and first ambassador for cultural affairs. In 2008, he became chairman of İKSV's Board of Trustees, a position he held until his death in December 2014. Throughout his life, Halman also dedicated great effort to the art of translation," said Eczacıbaşı. 

"Even the most certain shelters and situations can only be a short break for the people of this novel," said Doğan Hızlan, the head of the selection committee. "Ahmet Arpad succeeded in bringing the identity losses caused by the exposure to such situations in the style of Seghers. On the other hand, the environment that surrounds 'Transit' is a 'Kafkaesque' environment in real terms because, when looked closely, it cannot be explained or grounded by any non-war logic...