Politics of translation

An all-time bestseller and a Children’s Classic, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s WW II-era chef-d’oeuvre has received undoubtable literary acclamation around the globe, just not so much in Turkey

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Book That Reached the World
An Astronomical Dispute
A Classic Expurgated (Thomas Bowdler’d be proud)
How to Borrow a Copy
Sources and Helpful Links

Book that reached the world

Whether they are giving a contemporary makeover to the narrative or adding a dozen annotations per page, new editions of a translated work are essential for maintaining the original’s readability. Concomitantly, the ever-changing nature of language intrinsically entails it so that the moment a translation is complete it also becomes obsolete, urging adaptation and adjustment.

The same need applies to literary classics, such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince. Arguably the defining work of World War II-era Children’s Literature, The Little Prince has almost eight decades of steadfast readership under its belt. Perhaps more impressively, it is also the second most translated book in the world, first being the Christian Bible.

Published in over 400 languages and dialects, Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 masterpiece continues to receive worldwide acclaim with each new translation — except the ones in Turkish. Instead, in Turkey, The Little Prince was a cause of considerable public furor and odium, especially in the 1990s. By the end of the millennium, the Turkish publishing houses had found themselves inundated with complaint letters. Readers threatened to sue; some did indeed.

At its peak, the controversy around The Little Prince reached such an extent that the Turkish government had one edition pulled off the shelves. Shortly after, the National Ministry of Education decided to expunge Saint-Exupery from the schools’ curricula altogether and removed the title from its 100 Foundational Literary Works recommendation list.

What was all the fuss about you may ask: Translation. Specifically, it was about translating a passage in Chapter IV, a total of six sentences, that raised all the ruckus. It still does.

An Astronomical Dispute

No-one takes issue with the first three chapters of The Little Prince; but then, there is the forth one.

In the opening paragraph Chapter IV, we learn that the Prince’s planet is roughly the size of a house. The narrator asserts that the name of this tiny planet is Asteroid B-612. Despite being discovered in 1909, he adds, Asteroid-B-612 was not officially recognized until 1920.

In the succeeding paragraph, we are succinctly told that the astronomer who first spotted Asteroid-B-612 was a Turk. The narrator points out that when the Turkish astronomer presented his findings at an international astronomy conference, not one of his fellow astronomers believed him because of his manner of dress [à cause de son costume]. However, Asteroid B-612 had luck because a Turkish dictator imposed European costume [s’habiller à l’Européenne] upon his subjects under pain of death, the narrator adds. So, eleven years later, the Turkish astronomer explained his theory once again, this time wearing a very elegant suit [un habit très élégant]. In this instance, as the passage concludes, everyone believed in the astronomer.

A set of there illustrations, drawn by Saint-Exupéry, accompanies the passage; saving the readers the trouble of imagining what “European sartorial elegance” looks like versus the wide-legged shalwar pants and the cone-shaped fez the Turkish astronomer had donned before putting on his whiteface (and red nose).

Clearly, the passage is intended to be a criticism of Eurocentrism, of discrimination, of othering. Yet, the author holds us, the readers, accountable for acquiescing in the very same things. In his brilliance, Saint-Exupéry hand-drew the astronomer to be directly facing us, the readers. We, too, become part of the audience who snubbed the astronomer and took him for a clown.

Still, for many readers, the parallels between the Turkish astronomers experience and historical events that took place in Turkey around the same timeline hit too close to home. Though Saint-Exupéry circumvented the real timeline of events, it is obvious that he was referring to the social reforms that took place in the early republican Turkey.

Beginning in 1923, the newly founded Republic of Turkey underwent a series of secularizing and Westernizing reforms that impacted each and every citizen from introducing women’s suffrage to switching the Turkish alphabet to Latin script. Collectively these changes are called Atatürk’s Reforms, after the republic’s founding-father Kemal Atatürk.

For instance, the Hat Law of 1925 famously outlawed the wearing of the fez and required all male citizens, except clergy, to wear Western-style hats in public places. In Chapter IV told us that the Turkish astronomer chose between a Western makeover and the death penalty, as imposed by a Turkish dictator. There is no doubt here that Saint-Exupéry is adverting to the new laws that gradually and compulsorily Westernized “traditional” men’s clothes in Turkey; and whom he is calling a dictator.

To this day, these secularizing and Westernizing reforms are still very sensitive and controversial topics to bring up in Turkey. By that logic, it is easy to see why the Turkish translators had drastically different approaches to Chapter IV. But before we delve into the Turkish translations, let us first take a look at other languages to establish the norm for translating this much-contested passage. Despite the passage’s grave theme, all of the Little Prince translations I read, other than Turkish, were either verbatim or very close to the original wording.

Below, you may find the aforementioned passage in nine different languages. Each one of the translations represents a different decade: starting with the original 1943 text and the latest one being published in 2015.

In each one, I emboldened the parts that were politically loaded or orientalist in their expression. Even if you don’t read some of these languages, words such as “dictator” translate almost literatim to countless languages; so you should be able to pick up on the worldwide standard used for translating this passage.

French, 1943

Original text

Cet astéroïde n’a été aperçu qu’une fois au télescope, en 1909, par un astronome turc. Il avait fait alors une grande démonstration de sa découverte à un Congrès International d’Astronomie. Mais personne ne l’avait cru à cause de son costume. Les grandes personnes sont comme ça. Heureusement pour la réputation de l’astéroïde B 612 un dictateur turc imposa à son peuple, sous peine de mort, de s’habiller à l’Européenne. L’astronome refit sa démonstration en 1920, dans un habit très élégant. Et cette fois-ci tout le monde fut de son avis.

English, 1943

Katherine Woods' translation

This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909. On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said. Grown-ups are like that . . . Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.

German, 1956

Mal im Jahre 1909 von einem türkischen Astronomen im Fernrohr gesehen worden. Er hatte damals beim internationalen Astronomenkongreß einen großen Vortrag über seine Entdeckung gehalten. Aber niemand hatte ihm geglaubt, und zwar ganz einfach seines Anzuges wegen. Die großen Leute sind so. Zum Glück für den Ruf des Planeten B 612 befahl ein türkischer Diktator seinem Volk bei Todesstrafe, nur noch europäische Kleider zu tragen. Der Astronom wiederholte seinen Vortrag im Jahre 1920 in einem sehr eleganten Anzug. Und diesmal gaben sie ihm alle recht.

Esperanto, 1961

Tui asteroido estis vidita per lorno nur unufoje, en 1909, de turka astronomo. Li tiam faris če iu internacia astronomia kongreso grandan demonstracion eri sia eltrovo. Sed pro lia kostumo nenue kredi lin. Tiaj estas la granuloj. Feliče por la reputacio de la asteroido B-612, iu turka diktatoro devigis sian popolon sub mortpuno vesti sin eūropane. En tre eleganta vesto la astronomo refaris sian demonstracion en 1920. Kaj čifoje čiuj samopiniis kun li.

Spanish, 1968

Este asteroide ha sido visto sólo una vez con el telescopio en 1909, por un astrónomo turco. Este astrónomo hizo una gran demostración de su descubrimiento en un congreso Internacional de Astronomía. Pero nadie le creyó a causa de su manera de vestir. Las personas mayores son así. Felizmente para la reputación del asteroide B 612, un dictador turco impuso a su pueblo, bajo pena de muerte, el vestido a la europea. Entonces el astrónomo volvió a dar cuenta de su descubrimiento en 1920 y como lucía un traje muy elegante, todo el mundo aceptó su demostración.

Greek, 1988

Takis Kounelis' Translation

Ο αστεροειδής αυτός εμφανίστηκε μονάχα μια φορά, το 1909, και τον είδε με το τηλεσκόπιο ένας τούρκος αστρονόμος. Έκανε λοιπόν μια σπουδαία ανακοίνωση της ανακά λυψης του σε κάποιο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Αστρονομίας. Κανένας όμως δεν τον πίστεψε, εξαιτίας της φορεσιάς του. Έτσι είναι οι μεγάλοι. Ευτυχώς για τη φήμη του αστεροειδή Β 612, ένας τούρκος δικτάτορας υποχρέωσε τους υπηκόους του, επί ποινή θανάτου, να ντύνονται ευρωπαϊκά. Ο αστρονόμος ξανάκανε την ανακοίνωση του το 1920, φορώντας ένα πολύ κομψό κοστουμάκι. Και τη φορά αυτή όλοι συμφώνησαν με την άποψη του.

Azerbaijani, 2003

Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), 2010

Rashi Script; Transliterated below*

Este asteroide fue apersevido solo una vez kon el teleskopio en 1909, por un astronomo turko. Este astronomo izo una gran demostrasion de su deskuvrimiento en un kongreso internasional de astronomia. Ma ninguno lo kreyo a kava de su manera de vestir. Las personas mayores son ansi. Orozamente para la reputasion del asteroide B 612, un diktator turko ovligo a su puevlo, basho pena de muerte, de vestirse a la franka. Entonses, el astronomo torno a dar cuenta de su deskuvrimiento en 1920 en un vestido muy elegante, i esta vez todo el mundo aksepto su demostrasion.

*Lynn’s note: If you are interested, I have a few guides that can help you read Hebrew in Rashi Script form (K’tav Rashi), practice Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and expand your vocabulary; and learn about the various Ladino Dialects.

Brazilian Portuguese, 2015

Esse asteróide só foi visto uma vez ao telescópio, em 1909, por um astrônomo turco. Ele fizera na época uma grande demonstração da sua descoberta num Congresso Internacional de Astronomia. Mas ninguém lhe dera crédito, por causa das roupas que usava. As pessoas grandes são assim. Felizmente para a reputação do asteróide B 612, um ditador turco obrigou o povo, sob pena de morte, a vestir-se à moda européia. O astrônomo repetiu sua demonstração em 1920, numa elegante casaca. Então, dessa vez, todo o mundo se convenceu.

A Classic Expurgated

The first Turkish version of The Little Prince arrived in 1953; translated by none other than the renowned Ottoman-Turkish poet Ahmet Muhip Dranas. This fact is little known, and so was The Little Prince in Turkey because Dranas’ translation only appeared in a Child Protective Services periodical sold for charity.

Not everyone would find mentioning autocracy and death penalty pertinent to Children’s literature, especially so if the author is drawing his inspiration from real events in history. Fittingly enough, printed copies of The Little Prince were unusually delayed by more than two decades as all but two publishing houses persistently eschewed Saint-Exupery’s chef-d’oeuvre.

This changed in 1965 when two established figures in Turkish literature, Cemal Süreya and Tomris Uyar, took on the project and came up with a joint-effort translation called “Küçük Prens” (The Little Prince). Let us examine their take on Chapter 4:

Hover Over for the Original Turkish Text

Süreya & Uyar (1965)

“This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909. On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But nobody believed what he said because he had a fez on his head and he was wearing shalwar-trousers. Grown-ups are like that. Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish leader made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should dress like Europeans. So in 1920, the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, this time in very elegant clothes. And this time everybody accepted his report.”

Süreya & Uyar (1965)

“Bu gezegeni bir zamanlar teleskopla ilk kez gören biri olmuş: 1909’da bir Türk gökbilimcisi. Bu konuda hazırladığı raporu Uluslararası Gökbilimciler Kurultayı’na sunmuş. Ama başında fes, ayağında şalvar var diye sözüne kulak asan olmamış. Büyükler böyledir işte. Bereket versin, Asteroid B-612’nin onurunu kurtarmak için dediği dedik bir Türk önderi tutmuş, bir yasa koymuş: Herkes bundan böyle Avrupalılar gibi giyinecek, uymayanlar ölüm cezasına çarptırılacak. 1920 yılında aynı gökbilimci bu kez çok şık giysiler içinde Kurultay’a gelmiş. Tabii bütün üyeler görüşüne katılmışlar.”

As you see, in the Süreya-Uyar translation the couple mitigated the author’s tone for a Turkish audience; by switching the word “dictator” with “leader”. Their translation remains the most popular to this day; meaning that most Turkish readers have known “the dictator part” to be “the leader part” for over two generations. Unlike any other language that The Little Prince has been translated into, the standard for the Turkish translations since 1965 is to replace “dictator” with “leader” and not go anywhere near mentioning the death penalty. That’s why so many were appalled when, in the 1990s, some translators opted for Saint-Exupéry’s original phrasing.

You might not have thought of translating children’s literature as tricky business, but it was. The Turkish media lambasted the “new” 1990s translations for turning a children’s book into an ideological fighting ground [See the source list]. What the journalists and many readers failed to realize was that these translators were simply staying faithful to the French original and not self-censoring the way their compeers had done before for three decades.

Once the tumult over the number of The Little Prince gained the public’s attention, the number of translated editions skyrocketed. Translation studies scholar Necdet Neydim pointed out that, by 2006, there were over 15 different Turkish versions of the book on the market. What made the situation so outré was not the sudden glut of new “translations” hitting the publishing market, but how contrastingly different of a story they told.

In order to avoid getting politically labeled and perhaps to keep their jobs, some translators blue-penciled the problematic parts altogether. For instance, Filiz Borak’s 1992 translation skipped the sentence about the clothing reforms and abridged the paragraph as:

Filiz Borak (1992)

“[Nobody listened to the astronomer because of his clothes] ... However, once the same astronomer dressed like a European and presented his thesis again in 1920, everybody believed him.”

Filiz Borak (1992)

“... Ama 1920 yılında aynı gökbilimci Avrupalı gibi giyinmiş olarak tezini tekrar ileri sürdüğü vakit, herkes kendisine inanmıştı.”

While some steered clear of the infamous paragraph, others cherished the opportunity to advocate their own political orientation. Emel Tanver not only added Kemal Atatürk’s name to the text but also sang his praises. Furthermore, in her 1994 translation, Tanver completely bowdlerized the part about the death penalty.

Emel Tanver (1994)

“Anyway, as a very fortunate coincidence, august and venerable commander Atatürk made sure all Turks dressed like Europeans. Hence, the Turkish astronomer dressed like the Europeans later on; repeated his thoughts and everybody agreed that the asteroid B 612 is real.”

Emel Tanver (1994)

“Her ne ise çok iyi bir rastlantı olarak büyük ve değerli kumandan Atatürk bütün Türklerin Avrupalılar gibi giyinmelerini sağladı. Böylelikle, daha sonraları Türk Astronomu Avrupalılar gibi giyindi ve düşüncesini tekrarladı ve B 612 asteroidinin gerçek olduğu kabul edildi.”

Not everyone was as welcoming as Atatürk’s Reforms as Tanver was; and two years later, another translation appeared on the other end of the ideological spectrum. A printing house called Nehir published their version of The Little Prince by an anonymous translator (though it is usually ascribed to Muharrem Ekisçeli). Take a look at this edition oozing with anti-Kemalist and anti-Western sentiment:

Anonymous (1996)

“A terrible autocrat with an iron fist took became the head of the Turks. By the force of law, he obliged the public to dress like the Westerners (Europeans and Americans). He had those who resist him murdered. He had people tortured for not putting on a fedora hat. He got students expelled from schools and government employees fired from office for not wearing a tie. By the hand of the police and the gendarme, he made women take off their headscarves on the street, regardless of their age. After all this, they all accepted that the dearest little B-612 was discovered by Turks. In 1920, they clapped for the same speech the Turkish astronomer had given before, only this time he was wearing trouser pants, a tuxedo jacket, a bowtie around his neck, with his hair gel remaining only above his ears and he wrote his documents using the Westerners’ alphabet and not his own one…That is what grown-ups (Westerners and their wannabes) are like.”

Anonymous (1996)

“Astığı astık, kestiği kestik korkunç bir önder geçmiş Türklerin başına. Halkı yasa zoruyla Batılılar (Avrupalı ve Amerikalı) gibi giyinmeye mecbur etmiş. Buna karşı çıkanları öldürtmüş. Fötr şapka giymeyenlere işkence ettirmiş. Kravat takmayan öğrencileri okuldan, memurları dairelerden attırmış. Sokağa başını örterek çıkan kadınların örtülerini, genç ihtiyar demeden polis ve jandarma eliyle açtırmış. Bütün bunlardan sonra B-612’ciğin Türkler tarafından keşfedildiği kabul edilmiş. Türk gökbilimcinin 1920 yılında, ayağında pantolonu, sırtında smokini, sadece kulaklarının üst kısmında kalmış briyantinli saçları ve boynunda papyonuyla bir Batılı gibi giyinmiş olarak yaptığı aynı konuşma ve kendinin değil, Batılıların harfleriyle hazırladığı belgeler, alkışlarla karşılanmış… İşte (Batılı ve onlara benzemeye çalışan) büyükler böyledir.”

This anonymous 1996 translation was the last draw for the Turkish government who had enough of the controversy about The Little Prince translations. The government had the Nehir Publishing-House’s pontificated editions pulled off the shelves. Until the matters could be solved, the National Ministry of Education ousted Saint-Exupery from all curricula and removed the title from its 100 Foundational Literary Works recommendation list.

Still, from my understanding, the matter is both solved and unsolved. Since the media, and thus all of us, have moved on from The Little Prince, any translation seems acceptable in today’s publishing market as long as the translators do not add or omit parts of the text. Following the former norm, the majority of the newer Turkish translations still use the word “leader”; however, there are some who remain true to the original text’s “dictator”.

Oh well, who else but The Little Prince could make the literary enthusiasts, nationalists, and anti-revolutionaries learn to coexist!

Borrow one for yourself

Whether you have never read it or you would like to take a literary trip to the Sahara Desert of your childhood perusals, you can get a copy of The Little Prince online for free from the Internet Archive on a 14-day-loan. They have tens of different editions in multiple languages. To save you the trouble, here are the links to Katherine Woods‘ (1971) and Richard Howard‘s (2000) beloved translations in English.

Funnily enough, the only English copy of The Little Prince I own [pictured above] is part of a large children’s classics collection; ergo the translator’s name goes unmentioned.

Excerpt from Chapter 4, pages 16-17 in:

The Collector’s Edition: Little Prince and Other Stories, Wordsworth Library Collection (London, 2010).

Also See:

Saint-Exupery’s Original Drawings: acquired by the Morgan Library, New York, in 1968.

Words without Borders: on The Miracle of the Little Prince (2018) and endangered languages.

London Review of Books: Kaya Genç on the Little Prince’s relationship with the Turkish Publishing Market.

Hürriyet Daily News: the Little Prince in its post-copyright era and Book in the Publishing in Turkey.

Politics of translation

Book that reached the world

An Astronomical Dispute

French, 1943

Original text

English, 1943

Katherine Woods' translation

German, 1956

Esperanto, 1961

Spanish, 1968

Greek, 1988

Takis Kounelis' Translation

Azerbaijani, 2003

Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), 2010

Rashi Script; Transliterated below*

Brazilian Portuguese, 2015

A Classic Expurgated

Süreya & Uyar (1965)

Süreya & Uyar (1965)

Filiz Borak (1992)

Filiz Borak (1992)

Emel Tanver (1994)

Emel Tanver (1994)

Anonymous (1996)

Anonymous (1996)

Borrow one for yourself

Also See:

Other helpful links (non-Englihs):