“If you are trying to avoid reproducing violence or trauma as it is, if you are trying to distill something in it that evokes something that makes it relatable, or accessible to a stranger—to make it vulnerable—humor plays a beautiful role there.”Continue Reading
The event for Lewis at the Institut du Monde Arabe, which took place on a sunny day in Paris, was packed, and while he spoke in Arabic via an interpreter, the majority of the audience had obviously read him in Arabic and were already laughing by the time his sentences were translated into French.Continue Reading
“I was aware from the very start of the novel that one of its themes would be language, translation, and encounters between languages. This was one of the things that drew me to it, including the amusing and lyrical way the author describes the opening encounter between al-Kahina and the envoy sent by the Muslim general Hasan Ibn al-Nuꜥman.”Continue Reading
” This is a godless world, even though Allah is mentioned all the time. The only possible heroism in the novel is that of survival in face of misery.”Continue Reading
When the book went out for review, a number of reviewers got in contact with me saying what can we do after we read a book like this? So I asked Bushra: “What do you want readers to do?”Continue Reading
“The biggest difference is Nathalie’s poetic techniques are unfamiliar in Arabic. As a translator, I have tried to communicate these techniques faithfully, to preserve the poet’s tone and breath, to preserve the fine, close thread that connects the technique to the essence of the poem.”Continue Reading
” One day, I read Lorca’s wonderful poem “Elegy to a Bullfighter,” translated into Arabic by a great Arab poet. I was agitated by the translation, not because I knew Spanish — I don’t know Spanish — but because I memorized the poem from another translation, which had been done by a man who was neither a poet nor a translator. “Continue Reading
“Embrace your invisibility as a superpower.” Continue Reading
“Titles are complicated, because it’s different from the actual content. It makes sense; you want titles to evoke something in the audience. But sometimes, they’re not the best choices.”Continue Reading
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