New in Translation: A Novel Excerpt and 20+ Poems

Two new translational offerings — one from Jadaliyya and one from ArteEast — caught my attention this week.

NOVEL EXCERPTS

From Ebola ’76 (2012), by Amir Tag el-Sir, trans. Maia Tabet

One of Tunisian novelist Kamel Riahi’s favorite reads of 2012, Ebola 76 “takes disease as its hero.” In this short excerpt, trans. Maia Tabet, the ebola virus hitches a ride with one Lewis Nawa of Nzara on his “sorrow-filled visit to the Congo.” Read the excerpt.

POETRY

The new issue of Shahadat put together by Sousan Hammad includes work by Alaa Khaled (“9 Qirdahi St.”, “A Map to the World”), Hala Alyan (“22 Houses [Diaspora]”, “One Conversation in April,” “Season for Flinching,” “The Flower from Haifa”), Vénus Khoury-Ghata (eight poems), Najwan Darwish (“Sayed Darwish,” “For Haifa,” “In Paradise,” “Tantoura,” “Fabrications”), Ahmad Yamani (“Abstraction,” “Pasha Mama”), Suzanne Alaywan (“Montmarte,” “Draft of a City,” “Degree Zero of the Desert”) and Nouri al-Jarrah (“Damascus,” “The Fugitive,” “On Reflection”).

With translations from Hammad, Ghada Mourad, Ahmed Habib, Tom Warner, and Marilyn Hacker. Read it all now.

ALSO, FOR POET-TRANSLATORS IN LONDON

There is a workshop being given tonight, on the work of Syrian poet Fouad Mohammad Fouad, with translator Samuel Wilder. I’m not sure if there are any places remaining, but you can check.