“Translation is first and foremost a critical reading. It must be motivated by having something to say about the text—not just transfer it from one language to another, which is impossible anyway.”
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Ahlam Mosteghanemi: A Writer’s Journey of Love for and Devotion to Arabic Literature
“Arabic was my father’s choice, not mine; he wanted me to avenge him, as he was deprived of learning it by the French colonizer, who declared war on the Arabic language as a way of stripping Algerians of their identity.”
Read more2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Dima El-Mouallem on Authors and Their Ghosts
I find myself asking, “Would you have liked this translation? Would you have done it differently?” I hope the ghosts of my authors approve.
Read more2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Burnaby Hawkes on the Translingual Experience
“Translation made me understand language much better. … This translingual experience has changed my perspective, of course. I became aware of the merits and limitations of each language. “
Read more2021 ArabLit Story Prize Shortlisted Translators Maissa Tanjour and Alice Holttum: On the Value of Co-translations
“We are both outsiders and insiders, readers and translators, hence approaching the text from various angles and perspectives which ultimately enriched the translation process and product.”
Read more2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Katherine Van de Vate on Great Storytelling
““The Baffling Case of the Man Called Ahmet Yilmaz” was actually written at my request. Karima is primarily a novelist, though she published an award-winning collection of short stories at the age of only 18. I asked Karima if she had any short stories I could translate, and she wrote this one in response to my question. It was based on an event she heard about while she was working as a journalist in Istanbul.”
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Editing and Translating al-Hamadhānī, Who’s Always ‘Just One or Two Steps Ahead of You’
“Equivalence is bolder but also riskier. The translation may end up effacing the particularities of the text in the first place. If it is all these different things, then what is it? Where did it come from?”
Read more2021 ArabLit Story Prize: Shortlisted Translator Katharine Halls on Dismantling and Rebuilding Stories
“The reader will never know these things, but I like to know them so I can orient myself properly towards the text. I want to come at the text in the right direction.”
Read moreRebuilding that Old Tower of Babel, A Talk with Michael Cooperson
” I’d say that one does learn that medieval adab has a lot in common with Gertrude Stein, Vikram Seth, the OuLiPo, or anyone, really, who does odd things with language; and that may be a fresh and useful insight for many readers.”
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