New Novel Excerpts and More Online: Arab and Arabic Literature in Translation

PROSE

59664_170143346462034_1959044478_nYasmin Hanoosh has translated “Siege of Najaf from Al-Sayyid Asghar Akbar by Murtadha Gzar

Mr. Asghar Akbar was on ArabLit’s best of 2012 list as a pick by Ali Badr, who notes the book “creates a fictional story about three sisters living near the shrine of Imam Ali, granddaughters of a genealogist who have been living in Najaf city since the end of ninetieth century. By means of lyrical prose and surrealist events, Gzar reviews the different historical stages of this Iraqi city up until the time of the American occupation. “

Elisabeth Jaquette’s translation of “Slice of Family News” by Ibrahim Aslan

The great Aslan passed away last year; a number of his works are awaiting your loving translation.

Nancy Linthicum’s translation of “April Girl” by Hamdy El-Gazzar

From the Egyptian novelist’s The Epic of Our Revolution, forthcoming.

Jamal Mahjoub’s “Tombouctou” on Granta

After about three days in Djenné the lizards begin to talk. They scamper up the walls of the hotel in the early morning sunlight, snapping at one another’s tails. Some are the colour of dirty canvas, others indigo blue with orange heads and tails. Most of the time they just stand still.

POETRY 

The World Poetry Portfolio, edited by Sudeep Sen in association with ATLAS Magazine profiles Egyptian poet Iman Mersal.

They include several translations by Khaled Mattawa: ‘Respecting Marx’, ‘Things Elude Me’, ‘He Marks the Weak Point’, ‘They Tear Down my Family Home,’ and ‘‘The Idea of Houses’ and one by Robyn Creswell, ‘Celebration.’

The Arab American News’ Ali Harb did a re-translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s “I Do Not Know the Stranger.”

The poem was previously translated by Mohammed Shaheen.