# [...] için mi bilinmez (rhetorical statement?)



## Nogmaals

Hello, I have an exam tomorrow and was wondering how to translate the following sentence. It is from a series of letters called Seni Sevgiye Emanet Ediyorum by Hamdi Topçu



> Kiremit çatılı evler yaygınlaştığı için mi bilinmez, yitip gitti çocukluğumun kömür karası gençleri.



There is no question mark at the end of the sentence. Would you translate this as a rhetorical question? What I would say is:



> Could it be because houses with tiled roof constructions have become widespread perhaps, that the coal black youths of my childhood have disappeared?



Any thoughts? Keep in mind that this guy is really fond of his 'devrik cümleler'.


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## SARI7

Is it because the houses with houses with tiled roofs have become commonplace that the coal black youths from my childhood got lost, nobody knows.


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## spiraxo

Hi Nogmaals, 

Welcome to the forum!


> There is no question mark at the end of the sentence. Would you translate this as a rhetorical question?


  Yes. Actually rhetorical questions in Turkish are generally yes/no questions. I think the writer is pretty sure about the reason but prefers to act with humbleness and asks an open question. Concerning the question mark, we do not use question mark at the end of a rhetorical question.

  I do believe that you've understood the sentence. I suggest some corrections. 





> Could it be because houses with tiled roofs constructions have become widespread perhaps, that the coal-black skinned youths from of my childhood have disappeared?



Good luck!


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## Nogmaals

Thanks for the welcome and the reply! What an awesome resource this will be as I make my way through the marvelous world of Turkish.


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## Nihilus

I disagree. The meaning is more like:



> I don't know if it's because tiled roof constructions have become widespread, but the coal-black faced youth from my childhood have disappeared.


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## hakos

Nihilus said:


> I disagree. The meaning is more like:
> I don't know if it's because tiled roof constructions have become  widespread, but the coal-black faced youth from my childhood have  disappeared.



the sentence doesn't refer to i as subject

Nobody knows if it's because of having been widespread the houses with tiled roofs, but the coal-black skinned youths of my childhood have disappeared.


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## Nihilus

hakos said:


> the sentence doesn't refer to i as subject


Structure versus meaning. Meanings are often lost or distorted in mot-a-mot translations.

The author of the sentence *doesn't* imply others also wondered how "the coal-black faced youth" from their childhood disappeared but couldn't decide if tiled roof constructions were the reason. The sentence is very personal and nostalgic.



> Could it be because houses with tiled roofs have become widespread perhaps, that the coal-black skinned youths from my childhood have disappeared?


And I disagreed this version, because it gives too much emphasis on tiled roofs. The author doesn't genuinely wonder if they are the reason. They are not the point. The point is, the author is nostalgic about the youth from his childhood. And indeed, there should be no question mark at the end of the sentence.

Correcting a mistake in my earlier version:



> I don't know if it's because houses with tiled roofs have become widespread, but the coal-black faced youth from my childhood have disappeared.



While it's accurate, I must admit it doesn't sound as powerful in English as in Turkish. Translating literature is hard.


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## Reverence

There's no place for a question mark in this verse. The poet tells us that it isn't known whether the cause is the tiled roofs being so common lately, so the first part should start with something like "No telling if it is because..." or an equivalent thereof, preferably something that looks better in a poem. Nothing interrogative here.


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