Poet, short-story & song writer, essayist, drama critic, translator and photographer, Dr. Yusuf Eradam graduated from Darüşşafaka (İstanbul) and received his BA, MA, PhD from the Department of English Language and Literature of Hacettepe University, Ankara. (Dissertation: The Haunted Individual in David Mercer’s Stage Plays). One of the seven founders of ASAT (American Studies Association of Turkey), and ÇEVBİR (Translators’ Union), Eradam received a British Council scholarship and studied in Moray House College of Education, in Edinburgh, Scotland for an M.A. in TESOL with his dissertation Literature in Language Teaching (1988-89).
He worked as an instructor of English at Hacettepe University (1977-85). He taught comparative literature and film at UNLV (1994) and at SVSU of Michigan (1999). He taught American literature and translation at the Department of American Culture and Literature of Ankara University for 20 years (1985-2004) and retired as the Chair.
Eradam, with many awards in creative activities, is the author of 13 books (poetry, short-stories, essays. He is also known for his translations of two Paul Auster novels, Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel poems and Gabards’ Psychiatry and the Cinema. He has contributed to and edited many more. He has held five photography exhibitions, one in Michigan, USA. He represented Turkey at the 1999 Cambridge writers and translators gathering of the British Council, 25th Anniversary, and at the first Conference of Waltic writers and translators in 2008.
Yusuf Eradam lives and writes in Cihangir, Beyoğlu, Istanbul, working as an Independent Scholar after 44 years of Higher Education experience. After having received the “2021 Honorary Award” from the Association of Translation in Turkey, he is currently translating Emily Dickinson’s poetry, writing his first novel, and working on projects for ecological ecesis, his theory for a peaceful planetarian existence.
Official Website: www.yusuferadam.com
Mail: yeradam@gmail.comERADAM’S BOOKS:
- Gül Kanadı Dudağım. (My Lips Bled Roses) İstanbul: E, 1994. (Poetry)
- Ben’den Önce Tufan: Sylvia Plath ve Şiiri. (The Deluge Before the Self: Sylvia Plath and Her Poetry), Ankara: Imge, 1997. (Eradam’s Associate Professorship Dissertation)
- Aşk Bir Şiddet Eylemidir: Latifeli Yazılar. (Love is an Act of Violence: Enigmatic Texts) Istanbul, E, 1999. (Essays, memoirs, letters)
- Kirli Kırlent: Latifeli Öyküler. (Dirty Cushion Cover: Enigmatic Stories). Istanbul: E, 1999. (Short Stories)
- Ahkam Vakti Tohumları (The Seeds of Revelation Times). Istanbul: Okuyan-Us, 2002. (Poetry)
- Yamyamın Yemek Kitabı (Cookbook for Cannibals), Istanbul: Okuyan-Us, 2002. (Satire)
- Zıvanasız Denemeler (Unleashed Essays). İstanbul: Alkım, 2003 (Essays)
- Vanilyalı İdeoloji (Vanilla Ideology: Essays on Global Memory), İstanbul: Aykırı, 2004.
- Cihangir Vampiri (The Vampire of Cihangir). İstanbul: Aykırı, 2005. ( Short Stories)
- Susma Cesareti (The Courage of Shutting-Up), 2006 (Essays)
- Plinth Dwellers of Cihangir. Istanbul: Kirmizi Korsan, 2008 (A book of his latest photography exhibition and his bilingual haikus for life accompanying the photos)
- Aşk: Faili Meçhul Cani (Love: The Criminal, Maker-Anonymous), Izmir: Şenocak Yayınları, 2008.
- Thespis’in Delileri: Tiyatroda Tek Etki (The Madmen of Thespis: Totality in Effect in Theatre), Ankara: Elif Yayınları, 2010.
Eradam’s Translations into Turkish:
- Paul Auster, Cam Kent. (City of Glass), 1994.
- Paul Auster, Kilitli Oda (The Locked Room), 1994.
- Okot p’Bitek, Lawino’nun Türküsü. (Lawino’s Song) (Trans. with G. Siper), 1996.
- Sylvia Plath, Ariel, 1997.
- Herman Melville, Katip Bartleby (Bartleby, the Scrivener), 2000.
- Krin&Glen Gabard, Psikiyatri ve Sinema (Psychiatry and the Cinema) (Trans. with H. Satılmışoğlu), 2003.
- Anthony Storr, Birbaşına (Solitude) (with Misbah Şengül; to be published in 2010.)
- Herman Melville, Katip Bartleby (Bartleby, the Scrivener), Istanbul: Apollon Yayınevi, 2009. (bilingual edition).
Translations into Turkish Edited by Eradam and some of his contributions to other books and anthologies:
- Samuel Huntington, Medeniyetler Çatışıyor (The Clash of Civilizations), 2002.
- John Gray, Alexandre Tekniği Rehberiniz (Your Guide to Alexandrian Technique). Ankara: Imge, 1996.
- Vineland Sagaları (Vineland: Sagas of the Vikings). Ankara: Imge, 1996.
- Francine de Plessix Gray, Aşıklar ve Zorbalar (Lovers and Tyrants), Ankara: Imge, 1996.
- Maya Angelou, Kadın Kalbi (The Heart of a Woman), Ankara: Imge, 1995.
- This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World, Naomi Shihab Nye (ed). 1988.
- The Space Between Our Steps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East, Naomi Shihab Nye (ed). 1992.
- Sei Şonagon, Yastıkname. Ed. Tuncay Birkan. İstanbul: Metis, 2006. (a novel 83 translators of the Book Translators Association contributed)
- Che in Verse. Ed. Gavin O’Toole and Georgina Jiménez. London: Aflame Books, 2007.
- Side by Side: Poetry for Art from Around the World. Ed. Jan Greenberg. New York: Abrams, 2008.
We two were in love with the same woman of the wind
You married her knowing my presence and her coffee
And put up with the nameless cats she endlessly kissed.
Being friends for ages, she always wanted to have breakfast
with me, no, she sometimes wanted me to see her see, like Emily,
when you had to watch a weekend-football-game on TV,
Only then was I chosen to be a mate for coffee by the sea.
All throughout the twelve years of love’s grinding labor
She once asked me to knead her shoulders near you
And whispered to thank me for my healing hands.
I seemed not to hear the red in your stray dog looks
You heard her cypress tree murmur me my long lost thrush
And I couldn’t see the jinns loitering in your coffee berry
We two were coronated sister and brother for sure
We two were Mary Anne’s Tom and Maggie in eternity.
And there she was lying in her snow-ridden early death-bed
She asked nobody in the hospital room, quietly, nobody else
but me to rub off the pain in her slowly purpling ankles
and the feet that took her beyond the blossoming city hills
and the feet that passed by endless shops and island palaces
and the feet that defied gravity in some Holly Golightly rush
and the feet that never braked when I was singing freely.
We three took our sacks of wheat to the mill of Istanbul love
You got the woman, I got to name the two cats after her and tea.
April 20, 2020, Ankara
For other contributions by Yusuf Eradam, please follow the link below:
Poetry in this post: © Yusuf Eradam
Published with the permission of Yusuf Eradam