“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.”
Read moreAuthor Mohamed Kheir on Surreal Coincidences and the Mysteries of Translation
” 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. “
Read moreMona Kareem on Translation: ‘Embrace Your Invisibility As a Superpower’
“Embrace your invisibility as a superpower.”
Read more‘No In-Between’: 10 Book Titles Changed in Translation
“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.”
Read moreTurkish Literature in Arabic & Other Tongues
“A closer look at the translation activities in the geography that shares certain common cultures with Turkey, six major translation junctions can be discerned: the Baghdad-centered translation movement, the Toledo movement in Andalusia, the era of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, the Ottoman Translation Chamber, the Translation Office in the Turkish Republic period, and the TEDA project.”
Read moreApril Translation Challenge: Konafa v. Qatayef
For our most recent Translation Challenge, hosted by Adam Talib, participants tried their hand at translating an 1882 text on taxation by ʿAbd Allāh an-Nadīm, and the results were “cruel […]
Read moreAnam Zafar Wins Inaugural ‘New Translator’s Bursary’ from Stinging Fly
Stinging Fly magazine today announced that Anam Zafar has been awarded their inaugural “New Translator’s Bursary,” and that her selected translation of Najat Abed Alsamad’s work – along with her note about the process – is now available on their website.
Read moreFebruary Translation Challenge Results: ‘Cruel and Barbarous, Blood-curdling and Gut-wrenching’
“Literary translators cannot also be experts in the history of taxation so we often have to consult with academic experts when we work on texts like this. You know it already, but I’ll reiterate: collaboration is fundamental.”
Read moreFebruary Translation Challenge: ʿAbd Allāh an-Nadīm’s Powerful 1882 Text on Taxation
“An-Nadīm is so firmly rooted in a tragic historical narrative—he belongs so richly and consequentially to that moment in the 1880s—that his vivid, entertaining, and stirring language becomes inert, maudlin, and hackneyed.”
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