The total number of translations funded by the ministry since the project began in 2005 reached 985 by the end of 2011, according to official figures released this week by the ministry. The 985 translations were made in 40 different languages, and published in 51 countries, according to figures announced on the project’s website, www.tedaproject.com.
German language translations top the list; 172 titles have been translated into German. Second on the list was Bulgarian, with 119 titles. The third language was Arabic, with 79 titles translated, the Anatoila news agency reported Tuesday.
The project also funded translations into Albanian, Bosnian, Greek, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Georgian, Urdu, Chinese, Korean, Tamil, Hebrew, Japanese, Armenian, Finnish and Malay, the report said.
The long-running literary translation subvention project has become the biggest instrument by which Turkish literature has gained renown outside Turkey’s borders, since it was launched in 2005.
In addition to publishing houses, universities and nongovernmental organizations are also eligible to apply for funding to translate Turkish literary works into foreign languages of their choosing.
The project supports the translation of Turkish literary classics, and also works by contemporary authors, ranging from Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar to Orhan Pamuk and from Halide Edip Adıvar to Elif Şafak. Books by Aziz Nesin, Can Dündar, Sabahattin Ali and Zülfü Livaneli have also been translated.
