Translation - Turkish-English - Yumuk yumuk ellerle başladım ben de hayata herkes...

Hi Çevirmen

Nice work
Is the Turkish text as cryptic as the English translation? It sounds rather philosophical

Some suggestions to make the English sound more natural; let me know if you agree:

I have started life* with closed hands like everybody else. A colon ( : ) you don't need the extra spaces - I just need them in this field or the colon will change into an emoticon was put on the life I was going to live** (or: the life I would be living). Days followed days, months passed into more months, months became years until time arrived to these days.


*I have started life - I was born, I came into this life; alternatively, I have started to live, meaning I used to live a certain way, but some time ago I have started to live this way - I think you meant to say the first one

** I don't understand this sentence. Do you know what it means?

Thanks!

Hi Lein,

I am still suspicous about you dont know Turkish=) You understand text better than me, just because it is really philosophical, at least the one who posts this tries to write..

*I did not know that meaning of I have started life. Yes , it is exactly same meaning with I was born. You can edit it.

**Dont try to understand that, since I still dont understand nor its Turkish or its English meaning because there is no meaning in it. Let me try to explain what I understood from that part of text, it is kind of my destiny is written to what I will live(or I was going to live).Because in the source text, the writer thinks as if he is baby.

Thanks for your priceless suggesstions.

I don't speak a word of Turkish
I'm just trying to read 'behind' or 'through' the bits I don't understand and try to interpret the meaning.

I have put your explanation in the remarks. Thanks again - it's lovely to work with you!

I have set a poll. As I don't think either of us completely understands this text, I would really like the opinion of some experts. The requester doesn't speak Turkish (according to her profile) so I don't think she will be able to help us


Experts, if this text makes more sense to you than it seems to do to us, any help would be much appreciated!

CC: Bilge Ertan kafetzou handyy Sunnybebek cheesecake

on the life...> in front of life
I was going to live...> the life I would be living.
months became years until time arrived to these days...> months became years and the time arrived until to todays.

It's looking pretty good at this point, but the first part has to be "I started life" in English (because it'

It's looking pretty good at this point, but the first part has to be "I started life" in English (because it's past and completed and can never be repeated). As for "closed hands", we don't say that in English - you could say "with my hands as fists", although I'm still not sure English speakers would understand this - if you want to be sure, you'd have to say "with my hands balled up like fists". As for the sentence with the colon, I would suggest this:

"The life I was to live was indicated with a colon." I would definitely leave Çevirmen's explanation in the comments field, though, as this would not necessarily make sense to an English speaker.

As for the last part, the translation is more or less correct, but the poetry of the original is lost. I don't know what çevirmen originally wrote, though. Here is my suggestion for the whole thing:

I too started life with my hands balled up like fists, just as everyone else does. The life I was to live was indicated with a colon.

Days followed days, months reached out to months, years tied the months together, and time arrived at the present.

What about this for the first two sentences?:

"I started life with my fists clenched just as everyone else does. A colon preceded the life I was to live"

Hi Lilian
I love your suggestion for the first sentence, but I don't think anyone would understand the second one. The word "colon" has two meanings - one of them is ":", but one of them is a body part, and I think people would naturally think of the body part unless some clue like "indicated" were in the sentence.

let me explain 'Yumuk yumuk eller' which is the most debated part of the translation.

'Yumuk yumuk eller' describes a baby's hands.
'Yumuk yumuk gözler' describes a baby's eyes
it goes on like this.

if there is such a word in English, let us know it.

Thanks.

I think 'clenched fists', combined with the reference to a baby (I started life) will get the image across Thank you both!

Çevirmen, do you agree with Kafetzou's suggestion? If so, I'll edit and accept; if not, let me know what you think!

Hi Lein,

I am late on answering some posts here since I had some exams.

clenched fists does not carry the meaning since yumuk does not mean yumruk whose english word is "clenched fist". let me explain the situation by the help of some pictures.

yumruk (clenched fists),
http://www.fotosearch.com/DGT081/cb101966/

yumuk
http://www.resimvadisi.com/resim-komik-bebek-resimleri-9510.htm

if clenched fists are used for the second link, you can edit it otherwise, closed hands give the best result in my opinion.

Thanks..

Ah - you're right - I got "yumuk" and "yumruk" mixed up, although the position of the fingers is similar. Maybe we should try this:

I too started life with my fingers curled, just like everyone else. The life I was to live was indicated with a colon.

Days followed days, months reached out to months, years tied the months together, and time arrived at the present.

Thanks kafetzou, this one is much better and professional than mine.

I couldn't have done it without you, Çevirmen. English is my native language, not Turkish.

Lein, I went ahead and edited and accepted this translation. I hope you don't mind.

Not at all! Thanks