J.D. Salinger in Turkish

Now that J.D. Salinger (b. January 1, 1919 – d. January 27, 2010) is gone I can revisit The Catcher in the Rye. I will spare you the impact the book had on me or why my young mind adopted most of Holden Caulfield’s traits that still defines me today.

Enough on that front. I want to change the subject to his famous book in Turkish and to my pet peeves of dismal Turkish translations.

The first translation by Adnan Benk (Paris, 14.02.1922 - İstanbul, 19.01.1998 ) was published by Can Yayinlari in 1967 as Gönülçelen ( Kalp Hirsizi/Heart Thief). Most probably a translation of the French version "L'attrape-coeurs"
which gives the sense of the catcher theme "heart-trapper" . The Turkish word çelmek means to win someone's love interest in this context. Gönül is a more complex word and can be best expressed with the German equivalent Gemüt
and is more spiritual in nature.

If you really want to use a different name, the Italian edition correctly sees the Bildungsroman nature of the book a la Werther and calls it "Il Giovane Holden" (The Young Holden). In its finer details such as its use as ‘giovane di bottega / apprentice’ the word carries a Candide like innocence of not knowing the full meaning of life.

The Spanish edition "El guardián entre el centeno" (Watcher/Guardian Enters the Rye) probably comes closest to the role Holden sees himself in.

The German Edition as "Der Fänger im Roggen" preserves the hunter /trapper nature of catcher. However the second edition in Turkish, the YKY published Coşkun Yerli (1950-2007) translation Çavdar Tarlasında Çocuklar (Children in the Rye) not only gives up this aspect but in one edition places a baseball and a catcher's mitt for the cover art. A complete misreading of the title and the catcher symbol.[1]

The poet and translator Coşkun Yerli (1950-2007) was associated with other Salinger works such as Dokuz Öykü (Nine Stories 1953) Yükseltin Tavan Kirişini Ustalar ve Seymour Bir Giriş (Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction), the combined 1963 edition rather than the earlier "Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters" (1955) and "Seymour: An Introduction" (1959). Coşkun Yerli did not differentiate between tavan (ceiling) and cati (roof–beam) and finds no harm in using usta (master builder) for (carpenter/ marangoz, dülger [2]) and Dokuz Öykü was straightforward enough.

After all this argument my suggestions would be: Dari Tarlasinin Koruyucusu or Dari Tarlasi Gozcusu (The Catcher in the Rye) / Hey, Cati Kirisini Yuksek Tutun Dülgerler (Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters).

(Waiting for other suggestions MAM)

[1] As the source of the book’s title, this symbol merits close inspection. It first appears in Chapter 16, when a kid Holden admires for walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk is singing the Robert Burns song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye.” In Chapter 22, when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he replies with his image, from the song, of a “catcher in the rye.” Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by “catching” them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He thinks the line is “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.”

The song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don’t plan to have a commitment to one another. It is highly ironic that the word “meet” refers to an encounter that leads to recreational sex, because the word that Holden substitutes—“catch”—takes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world, including knowledge of sex.

[2] Sait Faik Abasıyanık short-story Dülger Balığının Ölümü (Death of the Carpenter Fish) makes the connection to Christ as carpenter.