Sabahattin Eyüboğlu (1908 – January 13, 1973) was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, pla ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal an ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

and film producer.

Biography

Sabahatttin Eyüboğlu was born in 1908 on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

coast town of

Akçaabat Akçaabat is a town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is located to the west of the city of Trabzon. It covers an area of and the elevation is . The town has an estimated population of 48,315 (2007). Akçaabat ...

near

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

. His father Mehmet Rahmi was governor of Trabzon and was chosen by

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Rep ...

as a member of parliament. Sabahattin graduated from the Trabzon Lyceum and was sent to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, in order to study French in

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earl ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. Upon his return to Turkey, he was appointed as associate professor at the

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

and assistant to Professor Spitzer and Auerbach. In 1939 the Minister of Education,

Hasan Ali Yücel Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...

appointed him to the Ministry of Education, where he worked till 1947. He was also appointed as associate director of the Translation Office, a newly established department, responsible for the translation of the masterpieces of world literature. During the same period of time, he was a very strong supporter of the Village Institutes and himself taught at Hasanoğlan Village Institute near

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...

. With the fall of minister Hasan Ali Yücel, he lost his position and left for Paris as an inspector of Turkish students in France. Back in Istanbul, he returned to his position at the university until 1960. His name was among the 147 professors fired in 1960 by the university, he was found not guilty and was asked to return to his position, which he refused. He taught history of art at the

Istanbul Technical University Istanbul Technical University ( tr, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, commonly referred to as ITU or The Technical University) is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical universit ...

and did translation work. He died of a heart attack on January 13, 1973, and was laid to rest at the

Merkezefendi Cemetery The Merkezefendi Cemetery ( tr, Merkezefendi Mezarlığı) is a burial ground situated in Merkezefendi neighborhood of Zeytinburnu district on the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. The neighborhood and the cemetery are named after Merkez Efendi, ...

in Istanbul.

Career

Sabahattin Eyüboğlu is a well-known writer, art critic, an excellent translator and also one of the first documentary film producers in his country. Among the films one can find: ''The Hitite Sun'', winner of the "Silver Bear" award at the 1956

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

. ''Black Pen'', ''Book of Festivities'', ''Colors in Darkness'', ''Roman mosaics in Anatolia'', ''The Roads of Anatolia'', ''The Gods of Nemrud'', ''The Waters of ancient Antalya'', ''The Mother Goddess'', ''The World of Karagöz'', ''To Live'', ''Colored Walls'', ''

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...

'', ''Forty Fountains'', ''Tülü''. His contribution as a

is considerable and unsurpassed. His translation of Michel de Montaigne,

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Eur ...

Ivan Goncharov Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (, also ; rus, Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, r=Iván Aleksándrovich Goncharóv, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof; – ) was a Russian novelist best known for his ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature The 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the French writer Alb ...

, François Rabelais,

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mu ...

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialist, existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter ...

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...

Omar Khayyám Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, ...

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' (19 ...

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

François-Noël Babeuf François-Noël Babeuf (; 23 November 1760 – 27 May 1797), also known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper ''Le tribun du peuple'' (''The Tribune o ...

etc. One should remember also that following the reform of the language by Atatürk, his work at the translation office allowed him to hold an important place in the implementation of the new Turkish language cleaned of Arabic and Persian words. In 1945, answering the call of

Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı (17 April 1890 – 13 October 1973; born Musa Cevat Şakir; pen-name "The Fisherman of Halicarnassus", tr, Halikarnas Balıkçısı) was a Cretan Turkish writer of novels, short-stories and essays, as well as a k ...

(''alias "

The Fisherman of Halicarnassus ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

"''), he took part with his brother Bedri Rahmi and a few writers in a trip along the

coasts The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans an ...

and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

, in search of the Anatolian civilizations and, was the one, who named this cruise "the Blue Cruise" ("

Mavi Yolculuk A Blue Cruise, also known as a ''Blue Voyage'' () or ''Blue Tour'' (), is a term used for recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, on Turkey's southwestern coast along the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. The cruise is typically a week- ...

" in Turkish).

Azra Erhat '') , notable_works = Turkish translations of Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' in collaboration with A. Kadir ( tr); Turkish translations of Hesiod's ''Theogony'' and ''Works and Days'' as well as works of Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, and Sapp ...

wrote a book on the trip, which became a classic and a reference.

References

External links

Shakespeare in Turkish
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080325092236/http://www.eyubogluailesi.org/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20071008052556/http://www.eyubogullari.org/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20071031004426/http://www.eyubogullari.org/eb * http://www.bedrirahmi.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyuboglu, Sabahattin 1908 births 1973 deaths Turkish writers Turkish translators Translators from English Translators from French Translators to Turkish People from Akçaabat Burials at Merkezefendi Cemetery Academic staff of Istanbul University Academic staff of Istanbul Technical University Turkish civil servants Sabahattin 20th-century translators