No one knows the world of the Turkish peasant better than Yashar Kemal. In a half dozen novels and collections of short stories, he has been remarkably successful in making their way of life comprehensible to the Western reader, writing with respect, affection and understanding about their customs and beliefs and the hardships they face.

Something is definitely awry, though, in The Undying Grass, the final volume of Kemal's trilogy of life in an Anatolian village called Yalak. The gruff, earthy characters, with names like Spellbound Ahmet, Home-Leave Memet and Gooey Apti, who peopled earlier Kemal novels, are still there, and their surroundings are described with the same loving detail, but this time they sound different. Their speech, colorful and coarse, has suddenly become awkward and artificial.

It is hard to tell who is responsible for this disappointing turnabout, Kemal or his translator. In all likelihood, the latter...