montage born in noise. In two recent works—“Bound to the Bow,” her Pulit- zer finalist composi- tion for orchestra and electronics, and the septet “Something To Hunt”—listeners are asked to challenge hardwired listening habits. “I think,” Fure

JEAN-MICHEL ALBERT said, “I am looking to believe that’s possible. for—and trying to offer—a type of empa-

MARINA LEVITSKAYA/PEAK PERFORMANCES MONTCLAIR AT STATE I have to believe that the thetic engagement with material that most Above: Percussionist Ross Karre of the International better I get at what I do— people in the audience, particularly those Contemporary Ensemble “plays” an aircraft cable stretched the more specific, and dis- who think Stravinsky is challenging, don’t across two styrofoam hemispheres in The Force of Things. At right: A still from Tripwire (2011), Fure’s multimedia tilled, and exacting I can spend much time trying to engage with.” installation project, in which motorized elastic strings be—the greater chance With a few months to go before the opera’s oscillate in response to onlookers’ movements there is my work might opening, Fure was still trying to find out what speak beyond the bound- sorts of new sounds the performance space parents, noting her interest in music, set her aries it’s born into.” allowed for, how close she could get to what up with piano lessons. Music soon became Concurrently, Fure began working with she was hearing in her mind. Midway through her ticket to new experiences. Feeling held the microphones in the campus electronics one rehearsal, Karre, the percussionist, was back at her high school, she won admission studio. “This is what’s difficult about the testing the sound a rope made when placed to the composition department at Interloch­ concert hall for me: I want people to feel the inside a subwoofer (a loudspeaker that pro- en Arts Academy, and then to Oberlin. But sound right here,” she explained. “I want duces low bass frequencies). As he repeatedly Fure assumed she would one day choose a to whisper it into their ear. But instead I lifted the speaker and set it down, the rope, field more explicitly entwined with politi- have to play it on a stage that’s 80 feet away, which was suspended from the ceiling, began cal action—education, perhaps, or conflict which always loses that crisp, intense, in- to twirl. It stuttered, then twirled again with resolution. Guilt about her work’s utility timacy of proximate sound.” Being able to renewed vigor, like a forgetful dancer. trailed her to Harvard, where she enrolled hold microphones right next to the sounds “It’s life!” someone gasped, noting its resem- as a composition doctoral student directly she was working with—like a glass tile that blance to a double helix. “Look at the insane after college. There, in a class on modernism, she placed, on a whim, inside a piano and sound it’s making,” Fure murmured, gazing she discovered Virginia Woolf, whose writ- then rotated, to earsplitting satisfaction— at the string with something like admiration. ing eased Fure’s fraught relationship with allowed her to create music exactly as she She seemed to have found what she was lis- her own work. “Woolf was the first person heard it. tening for: an agile whirring, slight yet tena- who taught me that you can go down to get The wish for closeness is present across cious, like a mind as it begins to spin. out. She goes so deeply inside of her char- Fure’s oeuvre: the desire to bring audiences acters that she hits the universal through close to netherworldly sounds they wouldn’t the extremely specific,” Fure said. “I have otherwise encounter, and to offer a catharsis Found in Translation on the trials and tribulations of

Turkish-to-English translation by oset babür

urkey has seen no shortage of personal diary. An outspoken leftist who political upheaval and cultural mysteriously died at the Bulgarian border shifts in the 70 years since Saba- while trying to flee in 1948, Ali has T hattin Ali first publishedMadonna proved to be an enduring symbol of anti- in a Fur Coat, a story of doomed love in 1930s government resistence, and after dancing in

Berlin, reflected through the protagonist’s and out of Turkey’s bestseller lists over the AVANESSIAN ANDRE Maureen Freely ANDRE AVANESSIAN ANDRE

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 montage years, Madonna is now considered something Bringing a text into another language is of a cult classic. In the wake of the Gezi Park protests in 2013 and the attempted coup in gradual but also somewhat frenetic. 2016, international readers who’ve turned to Turkey’s Anglophone voices to better un- of English and comparative literature at the years can be seen as part of some imperialist derstand the nation’s current evolution have University of Warwick. Born in New Jer- project,” she says. “I don’t see it that way, but reawakened interest not only in contempo- sey and now based in England, she grew up people have written papers about how I am rary voices like Elif Safak, but also in authors in , where her late father, physicist an ‘orientalist.’ These tensions between the from Turkey’s past, including Ali, Sait Faik, , taught at (now political and literary cultures are real.” and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpi.nar. Bogazici University). In conversation, she is Freely’s first foray into translation, in her Maureen Freely ’74 is widely regarded as frank about how her position as a Westerner twenties, was with Turkish writer Sevgi the foremost translator of Turkish literature has influenced some readers’ perceptions of Soysal’s account of being a political prisoner. into English; Madonna is her fourteenth work. her abilities: they are hesitant to believe she Directly thereafter, she began what she jok- She’s also written seven novels and is at work will overcome her cultural biases. “Inevita- ingly refers to as her many years of “appren- on her eighth, while serving as the president bly, somebody bringing in the daughter of an ticeship” with , who would win of English PEN and head of the department American professor who taught Turks for 50 the Nobel Prize in literature in 2006. Between

(and, more to the point, curator in lustrating why it is impossible to imagine a herpetology) accessibly explains world without literature. Off the Shelf evolution as an experimental science, Recent books with Harvard connections helping lay readers understand what 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro,  is determined and what contingent by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Fletcher Univer- in life’s procession. (Read about his sity Professor (Pantheon, $40). Riffing on Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian, recent work on lizards’ swift adapta- the 1957 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro by Richard Aldous (W.W. Norton, $29.95). tion to climate change at harvardmag. with Complete Proof by the Pittsburgh Cou- If current events have you yearning for ad- com/anoles-17.) In Darwin’s Backyard rier’s Joel A. Rogers, and columns from The ministrations past, this biography of Ar- (W.W. Norton, $27.95), James T. Costa, Root, Gates explores Malcolm X at Oxford, thur M. Schlesinger Jr. ’38, JF ’43—histo- RF ’05, travels back in time to the domestic the emperor of Mali, Homer Plessy of the rian, faculty member, and author, in many experiments and puttering that under- eponymous litigation, and more. senses, of the Camelot version of the Ken- scored the development of the world- nedy presidency—may fit the bill. Aldous, changing theories. A Century of Wealth in America, by himself an historian at Bard, is well suited Edward N. Wolff ’68 (Belknap/Harvard, to take stock of the historian/popularizer/ Gorbachev: His Life and Times, by $39.95). A economist public figure, “always ready to write.” William Taubman ’62 (W.W. Norton, provides a definitive examination of the “re- $39.95). A sweeping life of the “hard to markable growth in household wealth” dur- The Lost Founding Father: John understand” leader (in his own words) who ing the twentieth century, and the equally Quincy Adams and the Transforma- drained the Soviet swamp—and perhaps remarkable “sharp increase in wealth in- tion of American Politics, by William J. set in motion the events that led to the equality” during the past four decades— Cooper (Liveright, $35). Looking even perils of Putin-era Russia. The author, an along with the status of those who did not deeper into the country’s past, to a still- Amherst political scientist emeritus, won benefit from that great skewing. Scholarly, earlier Harvardian president (A.B., A.M., a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Khrush- but with wide application to public discourse. LL.D.), Cooper, an emeritus historian at chev. Nonspecialists will be grateful for the Louisiana State, exhumes a world-traveled 11-page “cast of characters,” like those ac- Saamaka Dreaming, by Richard Price ’63, leader who “occupies a camouflaged posi- companying a vast Russian novel, given the P.D. ’70, and Sally Price ’65 (Duke, $26.95 tion in U.S. history.” Adding to the Crim- similar scope. paper). How can you not like people who son resonances, the author took up work begin a memoir about doing anthropology begun by his academic mentor, David Her- The Written World: The Power of in Suriname this way: “Despite physical dis- bert Donald (later Harvard’s Warren pro- Stories to Shape People, History, comforts, periods of boredom, ailments fessor of American history), but left unfin- Civilization, by Martin Puchner, Wien ranging from funguses…to hepatitis, and ished at his death. professor of drama and of English and com- periodic ridicule for being culturally clueless, parative literature (Random House, $32). we have always loved ethnographic field- Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, Drawing on his course on world lit (in the work.” A charming guide to a lost world. and the Future of Evolution, by Jona- classroom and online), the two-time Nor- than B. Losos (Riverhead, $28). The Lehner ton anthology editor makes a breathtaking Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a professor for the study of Latin America leap from Homer to Derek Walcott, il- Sane World Economy, by Dani Rodrik,

76 November - December 2017

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 montage 2004 and 2009, she translated five of Pamuk’s translator preserve the author’s voice and those in my dreams,” she says, laughing. best-selling novels, starting with Snow and original vision, Freely says. The translated Walking the fine line between accessibility ending with . text should reflect the writer’s strengths. and verisimilitude is a continuing challenge By her account, the process of bringing Two of Pamuk’s are his ability to mimic voices in translation, especially with older texts like a text into another language is gradual but and set what Freely calls “a strong narrative Madonna. When the author has died, many de- also somewhat frenetic. She and Pamuk trance”: “He really knows how to tell a good cisions about how much to “domesticate” a have spent entire summers passing drafts story that just sucks you right in from the text fall to the translator—and during the back and forth at his home in Heybeliada, start.” Translation also means paying special editorial process, copyeditors sometimes in- a beautiful island near Istanbul. Individual attention to a writer’s idiosyncrasies. Pamuk troduce errors. Freely had a particularly frus- words are treated as puzzles, with author has strong feelings about never beginning a trating experience while translating Pamuk’s and translator challenging one another to sentence with the Turkish word “Ve,” which Snow: a copyeditor, worried that readers pinpoint translations that best preserve a translates to “And.” Freely is also mindful of would confuse serbet (a drink of flower petals work’s integrity. In particularly contentious his disregard for grammatical conventions, and fruits, especially popular with Ottoman cases, they move on, tabling the puzzle for and his love of sentences that seem to go on sultans) with sorbet and thus miss a key plot another day. English chapters slowly sprout and on, ending in unexpected ways that may point, changed serbet to sahlep (a warm milk from tribulations and arguments. require readers to double back to make sure beverage). “There is a view at many publishing It is of the utmost importance that the they understand what’s going on. “I still see houses that American readers should never

Ford Foundation professor of internation- Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession, pertinent research findings, developing sourc- al political economy (Princeton, $29.95). and My Wild Youth, by David Gessner es (and potential talent) from among faculty An assessment of globalization, by a critic, ’83 (Riverhead, $16 paper). The title and members and students, and more. in light of resurgent populist and nationalist subtitle accurately capture a loving recol- economic policymaking. The author aims lection of youth, doubled: the author when True Gentlemen: The Broken Pledge for a middle course: a global political econ- young, wholly given over to a sport then in of America’s Fraternities, by John omy buffered by nationalist characteristics, its infancy. Hechinger (PublicAffairs, $28). At a time if you will. of seemingly unending debate at Harvard Spy Schools, by Daniel Golden ’78 (Henry about whether to sanction final clubs, fra- An American Family: A Memoir of Holt, $30). Golden, whose journalism has ternities, and sororities and the students Hope and Sacrifice, by Khizr Khan, probed both admissions to elite colleges and who join them, it may be sobering to take LL.M. ’86 (Random House, $27). The Gold the shortcomings of for-profit schools, now a deep dive into the real deal—a national Star parent, an immigrant from Pakistan, looks at how domestic (CIA, FBI) and in- fraternity, plagued by excess alcohol, did more than any other speaker at the ternational intelligence agencies pursue fatal hazing rituals, and more—in 2016 conventions to illustrate the stakes— their work on campuses: gleaning the skilled hands of the veteran for individuals and the larger society—in education reporter. then-candidate Donald Trump’s antipathy to migrants and open borders; here, he amplifies the narrative. In The Other Side of Assimilation: How Immi- grants Are Changing American Life (University of California, $29.95 paper), Tomás R. Jiménez, Ph.D. ’05, a sociologist at Stanford, takes a scholarly, but warm and accessible, look at how newcomers change those in whose midst they arrive, as Amer- ica is “remade through a bumpy process.”

Greater than Ever: New York’s Big Comeback, by Daniel L. Doctoroff ’80 (PublicAffairs, $28). The Big Apple’s post- 9/11 economic recovery, as recounted by Kaey Nakae, of the champion Santa the then-deputy mayor. As the national Barbara Condors, gets “totally discourse turns slightly less kindly toward horizontal,” exhibiting the Ultimate cities—and in the wake of calamities like form David Gessner admired. those that recently befell Houston—an optimistic urbanist voice is especially wel- come and timely.

Photograph by Tom Kennedy Harvard Magazine 77

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 montage be rattled,” Freely says. “There’s a tendency to convey Turkish words and idioms that pression of the longevity of love. “If I’m try- to think that you have to travel very close to don’t have direct English analogues. In Ma- ing to bring a beautiful Turkish book into the American reader’s known world.” donna, for example, the protagonist intro- English, I want them to hear the cadences When discussing the back-and-forth duces his wife as his “life companion” (can of Turkish thought,” she says. “Not just the that creates a strong translation, the aspect yoldasi.m). The phrase sounds quite banal in music of the language, but the music of the Freely returns to most often is her desire English, but in Turkish, it is a powerful ex- way of thinking.” “Kingmaker” to Gatekeeper Stephanie Burt’s new role in the poetry world by tara wanda merrigan

rofessor of English Stephanie pleasing, enlighten- Burt ’94 is the kind of poetry critic ing, beautiful, now.” who provokes anger in other poetry The question of P critics. Called a “kingmaker” by The what is “worth” New York Times Magazine in 2012, Burt writes reading can be in- often for the Times, but also for The Re- credibly fraught, view of Books and The Times Literary Supplement. and Burt is keenly She’s the kind of poetry critic who shapes aware of how her how readers think of the literary climate, personal biases may through projects like The Poem Is You, her an- color her evalua- thology of 60 worthwhile works of contem- tions. This summer, porary poetry, and through several books of she was named co- literary scholarship and her own volumes of poetry editor of The verse (the most recent, Advice from the Lights, Nation (along with was released this October). Carmen Giménez Success alone can stoke negative senti- Smith), a weekly ments in competitors, but Burt’s particular with a longstanding critical persona—gracious and enthusias- reputation for being Stephanie Burt tic, verging on hyperbolic—has made her a a sort of intellectual target. “Gleeful and gorgeous,” Burt wrote standard-bearer for the American left. When is vital, especially given recent changes in of Angie Estes’s collection in 2009; “Few asked in August about how she would ap- American poetry. “To do a good job of un- writers have shown at once the vividness proach her new position, she launched into derstanding where American poetry is in and the evasions of memory so well,” Burt an explanation about how the poetry eco- general,” she said, “and choose poems that I characterized Killarney Clary. In 2013 (be- system has become more demographically want to recommend to strangers, I get to— fore Burt began exclusively using female pro- diverse in recent decades, and rattled off a and have to—think about the experience of nouns), a New Republic critic complained that list of her own identities: transgender, Har- people of color more than I thought I would Burt “strains enough superlatives to make vard-educated, Jewish, white. These social have to when I got into this line of work.” his praise seem cheap.” The piece claimed markers, she said, will affect her taste when As poetry editor, Burt will act as an ad- that Burt spent too much time explaining choosing poems for the magazine. Burt lat- vocate not only for diverse poetry but also how a poem worked, rather than deciding er explained by email, “If I read and love a for the magazine’s readers. “We expect to whether or not a poem was worth reading, poem about trans lady identity and fighting receive (and therefore, probably, to publish) and let the audience down by refusing to sort transmisogyny, or about raising a toddler, or some poems in harmony with the progres- the great from the good from the bad. Burt about watching Maya Moore shoot three- sive mission in the front of the magazine, be- responded in the online arts review Partisan pointers, or about the Dark Phoenix saga, cause in a giant universe of poets who could that as a poetry critic, she was more con- or about reading Gerard Manley Hopkins, send their work anywhere, poets who think cerned with looking for originality than de- I can’t be entirely sure whether it’s a great about social justice a lot are incrementally fining works as major or minor. “If I look only poem, or just an OK poem that I like because more likely than others to send their work for greatness,” Burt wrote, “for what’s likely I’m drawn to the subject.” to The Nation, Burt wrote. “But I hope we to ‘change the conversation’ or last a hundred Nonetheless, she thinks that disentangling won’t condescend or get predictable.” years or demonstrate mastery or advance the the influence of her own personal tastes from This mindfulness is a skill she first devel- whole art, I’m going to miss a lot of what’s her judgment of a poem’s worth and value oped while an undergraduate—but not while

78 November - December 2017 Photograph by Stu Rosner

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746