IT is an opening sentence which still sends a certain erotic thrill through many readers, a promise of earthy sexuality: "Evet sik sik hastalanmi gibi bir sesle yataga dusmus numarasi yaptigio zamanlardan...", it goes, and literary types everywhere shiver.
"Bu yana iki yumurtasi dahil kahvaltisinin yatagina getirilmesini," it continues, as it starts its steady, prosaic climb. By the time they reach the end of this lengthy soliloquy, generally untroubled by punctuation, readers will have experienced one of the most startling monologues in literature. The readers, it should be noted, will also be Turkish, otherwise it loses something in translation.
James Joyce's Ulysses has been translated into Turkish in one man's labour of love, and citizens from Istanbul to Ankara will soon be familiar with Molly Bloom's soliloquy, Stephen Dedalus and Davy Byrne's Moral Pub. After five years, Mr Nevzat Erkman has finally completed his epic translation of Ulysses and the first print run of 5,000 copies has been snapped up by distributors.
Mr Erkmen started his task in 1991 and completed work on Ulysses this year.
A former executive for a number of soft drinks companies, Mr Erkman is now a specialist in Gestalt therapy and a word games expert. He was introduced to Ulysses in New York in the 1960s by his then wife, who was Irish. He has since remarried.
He initially translated 15 pages of Ulysses in order to enter a competition which invited Turkish contestants to translate one of 30 great literary works, including works by Shakespeare and Chaucer. Mr Erkman won and the competition organisers, the Yapi Kredi bank and publishing house, duly invited him to complete his mammoth task.
"It was a spiritual experience for me," said Mr Erkmen. "I had to take care of my family and do this work. Each night I would think of giving everything up and returning it to the bank."
His dream is now to start translating Finnegans Wake. "I will buy a little hut overlooking the Black Sea and as I look at the waves of the Black Sea I will eat my fish, drink my raki and start translating Finnegans Wake," he said.