Aron Aji cannot recall a time when he was not translating. Growing up in Turkey among Ladino, Hebrew, and French used at home and then, from elementary school on, in Turkish—and studying in English later—he learned to move between languages long before he began translating Turkish literature. In this talk, Aji asks what that lifelong experience brings to the page. What happens when English meets a Turkish text on its own terms? How might the text stretch English’s rhythms and expressive habits, rather than simply fit into them? Aji calls his approach “acoustic translation”: an act of close listening that draws on memory, sound, and the senses to recreate the experience of a work in another language. Translation, in this account, is a way of hearing a text—and of finding one’s way back to the languages of one’s life.

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About the speaker: Aron Aji has published ten book-length translations of modern and contemporary Turkish literature, alongside numerous translations of poetry and prose. His translation of Bilge Karasu’s The Garden of Departed Cats won the National Translation Award, and his co-translation with Selin Gökçesu of Ebru Ojen’s Lojman won the 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize. His translations also include works by Murathan Mungan (with David Gramling) and Ferit Edgü. His most recent translation of Edgu’s landmark novel, A Season in Hakkari, will be published in 2027. For many years, Aji directed the University of Iowa’s Translation Programs; he is a past president (2016-2019) of the American Literary Translators Association.