TEHRAN -- Iranian author and translator Alireza Seifoddini believes that Iranian scholars and intellectuals usually look for major literary events somewhere far away from neighboring countries.

“We think that the cultures near us have no intellectual literature, and all major events in this field take place somewhere distant from our geographical region,” Seifoddini told MNA on Wednesday.

He recently finished the translation from Turkish to Persian of “Thus Looks at Euphrates Carting the Blood”, the first volume of novelist Yashar Kemal’s trilogy “A Story of an Island”, which is to be published by Qoqnus Publications in Tehran.

“To understand the atmosphere of Turkish literature and to introduce Iranian literature in Turkey, we need translators on both sides. Although we have been struggling more strenuously than Turkish intellectuals in this regard, the problem still remains,” he lamented.

According to Seifoddini, the lack of interaction between the two countries’ intellectuals in literature is related to political problems and the history of the countries, but he refrained from explaining these problems and cited other reasons.

“Unfortunately, Iranian intellectuals possess a conviction that avant-garde literature is only created in some Latin American countries and encourage the Iranian youth to only read works from those countries.

“A person like (Turkish writer) Orhan Pamuk, who has initiated a new style and debate in literature, has been praised by (Mexican author) Carlos Fuentes. This indicates the influence of such writers, but our intellectuals keep aloof from such talents and only after they are recognized in the West do we show an inclination toward them.

“If we want to consider the intellectual aspect as a criterion for translation of a work, we cannot close our eyes to contemporary Turkish literature,” he noted.

Works of a number of Iranian poets and writers, including Gholam-Hossein Saedi, Ahmad Shamlu, Forugh Farrokhzad, and Sadeq Hedayat, have been translated into Turkish.