Writer Buğra Giritlioğlu helps Turkish contemporary poetry reach new audiences with his anthology The Pulse of Contemporary Turkish- Poems from the New Millennium (Syracuse University Press). The anthology combines established voices and emerging poets.
Though difficult, he and his co-translator friend Daniel Scher were inspired: “We had early successes, publishing some of our translations in various journals. That only whetted our appetites. We wanted to do more—either by translating additional work by the same poets or expanding our reach to touch more lives. The latter felt more exciting and meant focusing on living poets. I consulted the few poets I knew, who then recommended their peers. Over time, my list grew from a handful of names to sixty-one poets. Within a few years, I had pored over 167 books and translated 215 poems. Of those, I have selected 172 for this volume.”
Giritlioğlu chose poems that reflect on universal themes like life, death, love, time, and nature: “Poetry is where we seek companionship and answers to ease our existential pain. Translating poetry presents many challenges associated with enjambment, wordplay, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and tone, but poems often offer ways to recreate the poet’s intended effect, if not in the same spot, then elsewhere. I hope readers find as much pleasure in these poems—whether lyrical, experimental, abstract, or concrete—as I have.” Giritlioğlu dedicated the book to the late Chilton Watrous and his beloved Philip Esposito, as well as his RC 89 classmates.
