If You’re in Cairo: ‘In Translation’ Lecture Schedule for Fall 2013
This fall’s lectures include “Translations of Nasser,” Ibsen’s political drama in Arabic, and the provocatively-titled “The Limits of Translation.”
September 2013
On Nazik al-Mala’ika’s Revolutionary Romantic Poetry
Iraqi poet Nazik al-Mala’ika is best known for the important role she played in the development and popularization of Arabic “free verse” (or taf’ila poetry) in the 1950s. But while she is well known as a pioneer, her verse itself is less well-known, and largely absent in translation. Emily Drumstra has translated one of al-Mala’ika’s poems for Jadaliyya, “Revolt Against the Sun,” and is currently at work on another translation. She talked about translating al-Mala’ika.
From ‘A Song for Mankind’ by Nazik al-Mala’ika
Emily Drumsta was, as part of her Q&A about Nazik al-Mala’ika’s revolutionary romantic poetry, kind enough to share an excerpt of a poem she’s now working on translating:
Which Arab Authors Are in the ‘Running’ for This Year’s Nobel Lit Prize?
If we can trust the Ladbrokes betting odds — and I’d imagine that we can’t — it’s more or less the same authors as last year.
Abdellatif Laâbi: 11 Moroccan Writers Who Should Be Translated into English
I am not sure how, but I missed this wonderful interview Christopher Schaefer conducted with Abdellatif Laâbi when it came out on The Quarterly Conversation this June. You should read it in its entirety, but I’ll just pull out Laâbi’s list of 10 under-translated Moroccan writers.
Against the Odds, a Generation of Egyptian Readers
Over at Mada Masr, Asmaa Abdallah reviews Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa: A Postcolonial Outlook. One of the chapters features commentary by translator and scholar Richard Jacquemond who discusses, in “The Yacoubian Building and Its Sisters,” popular literature and the “growing insertion” of a new, Westernized Arabic literature into a global literary market.
Start Reading: Excerpt of Hani al-Rahib’s ‘The Epidemic’ for ‘And Other Stories’ Reading Group
And it begins: It’s time to get an copy of Hani al-Rahib’s الوباء or read the excerpt and more online at And Other Stories.
On Raba’i Madhoun’s ‘Wonderful, Amazing, and Stunning’ ‘Bad Ideas’
Raba’i Madhoun is a Palestinian novelist and journalist whose PEN-supported The Lady from Tel Aviv was recently translated by Elliott Colla and published in English. Madhoun answered a few questions about his writing, and the challenges and controversies that have attended it, for AL:
Three Novelists, Poet on Egypt’s 50-member Constitution Committee
On Sunday afternoon, Egypt’s presidential spokesman Ihab Badawi announced names of the 50 member-committee given the job of re-drafting the suspended 2012 constitution.