The winners and runners-up of the 2012 PEN Awards were announced this week; among those noted was Sinan Antoon, for his translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence.
Sure, there is already an International Translation Day celebrated on September 30th, to coincide with the feast-day of St. Jerome. This day has gotten some traction in the English-scribbling world, with an annual event at the UK’s Free Word Centre (since 2010) and steady promotion by the Federation of International Translators (FIT). But now there’s one just for Egypt:
Gifted Egyptian novelist Ibrahim Farghali writes in Neue Zürcher Zeitung about why you’re reading all the wrong Arabic books (in translation). I vastly oversimplify for you:
The first-ever (2007) International Prize for Arabic Fiction went to Bahaa Taher’s tenth fictional work, Sunset Oasis. It has since been translated into English, French, Greek, Norwegian, Turkish, and other languages; its latest adaptation is to radio. Mohga Hassib interviewed Taher for the Egypt Independent:
Sarah Irving recently found herself co-translating a short story. She writes about the process.
Max Weiss’s translation of Nihad Sirees’s 2004 novel “الصمت والصخب” — The Silence and the Roar — is due out from Pushkin Press in January of next year.
Young writer — and prospective literary translator — Nada Adel Sobhi sent in 18 pointed questions about the ins and outs of literary translation. English-Arabic translator Hala Salah Eldin Hussein (Albawtaka Review) and writer/publisher Hilary Plum (Interlink Publishing) did their best to answer Nada’s questions.
I have belatedly gotten around to reading novelist and poet Youssef Rakha’s recent essay “In Extremis: Literature and Revolution in Contemporary Cairo (An Oriental Essay in Seven Parts)”.
Dr. Samia Mehrez notes, about tomorrow’s lecture by Mohammad al-Kholy, titled “To Be an International Translator,” that: “Due to the ongoing situation in Tahrir, please note that the June 26 lecture will be held at the AUC Zamalek hostel (16 Mohamed Thaqeb Street, across from Maraashly Church).
