This episode is devoted to the Turkish writer Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar who was born in Istanbul in 1901. I am conversing with Erdağ Göknar, who is an associate Professor of Turkish Studies at Duke University and an award-winning translator. Dr. Göknar translated Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, Atiq Rahmi’s Earth and Ashes and finally Tanpınar’s A Mind at Peace [Huzur, 1948].

At first glance, A Mind at Peace looks like a historical novel and a love story set in Istanbul on the eve of WWII. The cosmopolitan protagonist Mümtaz is caught between Ottoman tradition and Turkish modernity as he longs for reunion with his beloved Nuran. He takes refuge in the fading Ottoman past, immersing himself in literature and music, but he is forced to confront the challenges of the everyday world and impending war.

In our conversation, we try to go beyond the mainstream interpretations of this novel and zoom into some overlooked aspects in Huzur, such as Tanpınar’s specific word choices, the Christian imagery he draws on, the messianic descriptions of the character called Suat, and the problematics of translating Tanpınaresque sentences into English.