tc dokuz eylül university institute of social sciences translation and ...

Another unique character in the story is the Mock Turtle, who keeps
speaking non sense and mocks at everything.
The symbolism of the mock turtle and gryphon or griffin is
an illustration of fancy catching or advertising genius of the
first order. What child has not wondered what sort of beast a
mock turtle would be? In his puns the mock turtle is
incorrigible, and an excellent intelligence test is provided in
the curriculum of the underseas school by timing some
unsuspecting soul in the translation of the terms back into
their common school originals. The pun is the lowest form of
humor and in consequence can be said to be the foundation of
all wit From soup to classical mythology is a leap of fancy
that any child or highly evolved soul would love for the sheer
breadth of it and be perfectly at home and safe on the
foundation of the soup (Maata, 1997).
The most preferred equivalence of this name is Yalancı Kaplumbağa
(Çakmakçı, Erzik, Yeğinobalı, Uyar, Mater, Burian, Andaç, Erten), which literally
means turtle the liar or the false turtle. The four others translated it similarly: Sözde
Kaplumbağa- the so called turtle (Oral, Civelekoğlu), Taklid Kaplumbağa- the
imitation turtle (Suveren), Kaplumbağa bozuntusu- a poor excuse for a turtle
(Asımgil), Soytarı kaplumbağa- the clownish turtle (Olta, Soydaş). Although none of
them implied that it is a mocking animal, they all gave the impression that there is
something wrong with this turtle. However, two other translations are very different
from the others in terms of describing the ‘turtle’, one of which is Dana başlı
Kaplumbağa- turtle with a calf’s head (Özbay, Ardıç) and the other Deniz
Kaplumbağası Mok (Beşli). Dana başlı Kaplumbağa might be chosen because the
mock turtle is the name for the soup made from calf’s head. This information is
found on a footnote in Burian’s translation (See Burian, 1990; 108). Or else, it was
maybe only translated according to the picture given in the source text; the picture of
the mock turtle looks like a standing turtle with a calf-head. And Deniz
Kaplumbağası Mok is the borrowing of the English word ‘mock’ that is explained on
a footnote that ‘mok’ means yalancı kaplumbağa. These two lean away from being
the equivalent of the name wordplay.
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