Denys Johnson-Davies on Translation (No, He Doesn’t Like It)
Edward Said once called Denys Johnson-Davies “the leading Arabic-English translator of our times.”
May 2011
Can Egyptian Humor Be Translated?
I wrote a bit about the difficulty of translating humor last week; the idea seemed worth pursuing, so I followed that with an essay for Al Masry Al Youm. One of the most obvious differences in the books I looked at was whether or not authors chose to use footnotes.
In Praise of…Khaled Mattawa
I do believe that poets can become too easily shackled to ideology.* A certain sort of political poem (the “Arab Spring” poem, the “confessional Western feminist” poem, the “confessional Arab feminist” poem) becomes un-surprising. It makes us fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
What Role Should a Poet Play in Politics?*
In recent days, two very different views of poets and politics have appeared online.
Friday Links: London’s 20-Day Arab Cultural Festival; Donqol’s ‘Unfree Verse’; More
In London, el-Shubbak (“A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture”) beyiftah for 20 days, from July 4-24. The program will host more than 70 events in more than 30 cultural venues throughout the city.
Khaled al-Khamissi’s Taxi and ‘The Beginning of the End’
I was paging back through Khaled al-Khamissi’s Taxi, trans. Jonathan Wright, which is crammed with observations of and insights about contemporary Egypt. The prose here is not elegant, but one reads it and regrets that Anwar Sadat wasn’t “overthrown properly.”
Al Fagoumy, Movie About Colloquial Poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, Opens Today
The Fagoumy billboards have been up for several days now; the film, based on Ahmed Fouad Negm’s autobiography, is out today.
Censors in Tunisia and Egypt Have ‘Important Role to Play’?
While head of the Egyptian Board of Censors Sayed Khattab believes “we are living in the age of freedom,” he adds that “nobody can reasonably say we should just cancel the whole institution” of censorship.
“Er7ol,” by Libyan Poet Giuma Bukleb
Even the ululations, if they exist, that heralded you birth
Take it all with you and leave,
And let us…