Exile, A Hard Trade combines Nâzım Hikmet's most beautiful poems with Abidin Dino's designs. Prepared by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts under the art counselling of Metin Deniz and edited by Ferit Edgü, the book includes great poet Nâzım Hikmet’s poems in English and French. The French poems in this work come from a period when the poet was in Paris. They are special translations, translated mot-à-mot by the Dino couple, while Nâzım Hikmet and French poet Charles Dobzynski tried to catch the form and tone of the French language. Published in a limited number, Exile, A Hard Trade is presented to the reader with the support of Istanbul Kültür University.
“Nâzım's newly created poems met with French readers in a weekly arts and culture paper (called Lettres Françaises), mostly along with Abidin's designs. Abidin, who never got tired, not only worked on the translations of the poems, but also created illustrations for each of the poems as if he were saying ‘a poem without a picture is incomplete.’”
From the foreword by Ferit Edgü
Gurbetlik Zor Zanaat / C'est un dur métier que l'exil (Exile, A Hard Trade)
Nâzım Hikmet & Abidin Dino
Edited by Ferit Edgü
Languages: Turkish, French
2008