English & Arabic: A List of Bilingual Books
This past weekend, novelist Layla al-Ammar set off a search for bilingual Arabic-English books:
A search turns up a decent number of classic works in bilingual editions. Nearly all of the Library of Arabic Literature hardcovers, for instance, are produced in bilingual facing-page editions. The Arab Renaissance: A Bilingual Anthology of the Nahda, ed. Tarek al-Ariss, was also produced in two languages.
Poetry collections are also often produced bilingually, and you can read collections by Mahmoud Darwish, Nizar Qabbani, Amal al-Jubouri, Dunya Mikhail, and Abdul Wahab al-Bayati bilingually, as well as a number of multi-author anthologies.
Yet there were far fewer contemporary prose works produced bilingually, and even fewer that remain in print. Please do add others in the comments.
A non-exhaustive list of bilingual Arabic-English literary works:
Classic works
Most of the Library of Arabic Literature catalog.
The Arab Renaissance: A Bilingual Anthology of the Nahda, ed. Tarek al-Ariss, which includes work by Butrus al-Bustani (1819–83), introduced and translated by Stephen Sheehi; Fahmi al-Mudarris (1873–1944), introduced by Muhsin al-Musawi and translated by Anna Ziajka Stanton; Esther Moyal (1873–1948), introduced and translated by Lital Levy; Muhammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905), introduced and translated by Tarek El-Ariss; Mikhail Naimy (1889–1988), introduced and translated by Margaret Litvin; and Farah Antun, introduced and translated by Ghenwa Hayek, among others.
Classical Poems by Arabic Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. Abdullah al-Udhari
Contemporary poetry anthologies
Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Arabic Poetry, tr. Abdullah al-Udhari
The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry, ed. Abdelwahab M. Elmessiri
Single-author poetry collections
The Butterfly’s Burden, by Mahmoud Darwish, tr. Fady Joudah
Instructions Within, by Ashraf Fayadh, tr. Mona Kareem and others
Dusting the Colour from Roses: Bilingual Collection of Arabic Poetry, by Ghazi Algosaibi, edited and translated by
Arabian Love Poems, by Nizar Qabbani, tr. Bassem Frangieh and Clementina R. Brown
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran: Bilingual, English with Arabic translation, by Khalil Gibran, translated by
Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation, by Amal Jubouri, translated by Rebecca Gayle Howell and
Husam Qaisi
Love, Death, And Exile: Poems Translated from Arabic, by Abdul Wahab Al-Bayati, translated by Bassem Frangieh
The Perception of Meaning, by Hisham Bustani, translated by Thoraya El Rayyes
Prose anthologies
Modern Arabic Short Stories: A Bilingual Reader, ed. Ronak Husni and Daniel Newman
Modern Arabic Short Stories: An Arabic-English Reader with exercises, ed. and translated by Ali Almanna
An Anthology of Iraqi Short Stories, ed.
Encounter/تلاقي, ed. Ismail Fayed and translated by Nariman Youssef
Single-author collections
The Scent of Winter, by Mahmoud Abdul Wahhab, translated by Ramadhan Sadkhan and Fred Pragnell
Yasser Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled:Diary of a Fighter, by Yussef Bazzi
The Perception of Meaning, by Hisham Bustani, translated by Thoraya El Rayyes
November 25, 2019 @ 3:24 pm
I still have to look through these so I can sort & add to the list, but Ben Koerber notes that there are a number of Saad Elkhadem’s books published bilingually:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/123937.Saad_Elkhadem?fbclid=IwAR0oOSf-AUyNi3OZqogUPkG28hdtDsCRtsaV0wSaaJ9U9PPPjoM7ShnwHIE
November 25, 2019 @ 3:24 pm
Pernille Myrvold also wrote to suggest different language pairings for bilingual texts; if anyone wants to take on a different (Arabic-French, Arabic-Tamil, Arabic-Chinese) language pair….