How Do You Know It’s a Good Translation?
Or, more importantly, how do you know it’s a bad one? I, like you, don’t read both texts side by side: comparing, contrasting, savoring the linguistic differences. After all, my […]
On Translation
What Makes Arabic Literature Difficult to Translate?
One of the interesting moments in Humphrey Davies’ talk at the AUC campus on Monday night was when an audience member pressed Davies on the topic of free indirect discourse. […]
Why Doesn’t Humphrey Davies Translate More Arab Women?
…And a Few Other Moments from Last Night’s Talk I never did hear a thorough answer to this question, although moderator Samia Mehrez—head of the American University in Cairo’s new […]
Youssef Rakha’s Coffee with Denys Johnson-Davies
A few reminiscences from the father of (modern) Arabic-English literary translation.
Happy 50th, AUC Press
Gamal Nkrumah at Al Ahram Weekly looks at the press’s first 50 years. It’s interesting, but, outside the Naguib Mahfouz phenomenon, the impact of AUC Press’s literary translations is little-examined. […]
AUC Launches New Translation Initiatives, Including Translator-in-Residence, Annual Journal
Rania Khallaf, of Al Ahram Weekly, attended the first in a new series of lectures on Arabic-English translation, hosted by the groundbreaking Denys Johnson-Davies. They also plan lectures hosted by […]
Translate This Book!
Let me enthuse, for a moment, about this new feature on Quarterly Conversation. Of course, I am a sometimes-contributor to QC, so not completely pure in my applause, but you […]
Review: Bahaa Taher’s Sunset Oasis
Quarterly Conversation has posted my review of Bahaa Taher’s Sunset Oasis, which won the inaugural “Arabic Booker,” or International Prize for Arabic Fiction. (The book, not my review.) As you’ll […]
Best Arabic Writing (Newly Available in English) of 2010
The print media is rife with the “best books of 2009,” and I’m sure we’ll soon see countdowns of dozens of other things (“top news stories,” “best frauds perpetrated by […]