Friday, January 14, 2011

Noirboiled Turkey



As a result of suffering through my first Lemmy Caution novel a few months back, I have developed a bemused interest in the career of British ersatz-hardboiled writer Peter Cheyney, such that I couldn’t resist the chance to purchase a Cheyney novel translated into Turkish. The title of the Turkish translation, Kanli Oyun, means Bloody Game, which bears no obvious connection to the original titles of any Peter Cheyney novels.

If you visit this series of cover galleries of Turkish translations of noirboiled novels, you will quickly discover that the standard practice of Turkish translators/publishers was to change titles. I am still trying to imagine which Mickey Spillane novels have been published in Turkey as Battle of the Giants, Murderer of the Full Moon, Guns Won’t Talk, The Revenge Claw, Teenager Hell, I’m Afraid of the Blondes, You’ll Spit Blood, Alive Target, Hands of Dark, and Murderer with Green Hand. I’m the Judge is obviously I, the Jury, but beyond this, I’m baffled.

So which Peter Cheyney novel do I have? This is the opening paragraph in Turkish:

Yasamak bazan ne kadar zevkli oluyor. Fakat ben su anda hayatin tadini alamayacak kadar efkârliydim. 1945 Martinda Pariste hemen bütün erkekler ekfârliydi. Bu efkârin da bir tek sebebi vardi: Yosmalar.

And this is the glorious translation that I get from Google Translate:

How much fun is going to live sometimes. But right now I get to enjoy life efkârliydim. Ekfârliydi in Paris in March 1945, almost all men. There was also the thoughts of a single reason: Yosmalar.

This may be gibberish, but it provides enough information for me to be sure that this is not a Peter Cheyney novel that I own. The Cheyney books I have eliminated are:

Can Ladies Kill?
Cocktails and the Killer
Dance Without Music
Dark Duet
Don’t Get Me Wrong
He Walked in Her Sleep
Poison Ivy
The Stars Are Dark
This Man Is Dangerous
Uneasy Terms
The Urgent Hangman
You Can Call It a Day
You Can’t Hit a Woman
You’d Be Surprised

Is there anybody out with the resources to eyeball a few more Peter Cheyney opening paragraphs? Any help figuring out which book this is will be much appreciated!

5 comments:

  1. Mystery solved: The novel in question is I'll Say She Does! Actual opening sentence: "Life can be goddam wonderful." And, for what it's worth, "yosmalar" appears to be the Turkish translation of "dames."

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  2. If you love those covers, have a look at the galleries on the Peter Chyeney website, petercheyney.co.uk

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  3. well it is actually not "dames" it is "sluts" :)

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  4. http://www.cinairoman.com/seriler.php?d=1,35,254&item=14075

    you can check other noir translations and their covers if you like.

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  5. Hi,

    This is oguz from cinairoman.

    There are dozens (if not hundreds) Mike Hammer books written by ghost Turkish authors, published under the name of Mickey Spillane .
    Please contact me through cinairoman@gmail.com if you need some more details.

    ReplyDelete