“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.”Continue Reading
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 and barbarous, blood-curdling and gut-wrenching.” For this month’s translation challenge, we hope the results will be sweeter. Join in theContinue Reading
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.Continue Reading
“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.”Continue Reading
“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.”Continue Reading
“Self-translation is no easy work. For me, it was an arduous confrontation not only with the act of re-writing but also with my language practices and preferences.”Continue Reading
Also read the author-translator’s note, part of our special section on self-translation. By Khalid Lyamlahy Translated by Khalid Lyamlahy Excerpt 1 – Queuing at the Prefecture On my right, people under a wooden shed, in front of a metal gate. I walk their direction, convinced that my place is there:Continue Reading
This is part of a special section on self-translation. By Mona Kareem When I first started writing poems in Arabic at the age of ten, I called them “foreign poems.” I did not know at the time what a “prose poem” is, but I was able to tell that myContinue Reading
In this special section on self-translation, authors and author-translators Mona Kareem, Khalid Lyamlahy, Deena Mohamed, Dunya Mikhail, and Ali Shakir reflect on what it means to transport their own writing from one of their languages to another. Continue Reading
Find t-shirts, prints, stickers, and more.
Find t-shirts, prints, stickers, and more.