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 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.”
Read moreJanuary Translation Challenge: Kushajim
“Nothing could be more befitting than Kushājim’s epigrammatic riddles.”
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‘Here Comes the Ripper’
“Lion’s fangs glimmer / You smile in return, but / Here comes the ripper”
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Arabic Translation Challenge: If You See His Fangs Bared …
إذا رَأيْتَ نُيُوبَ اللّيْثِ بارِزَةً * فَلا تَظُنّنّ أنّ اللّيْثَ يَبْتَسِمُ
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‘Fee for a Feline’
“I see people / getting beautiful / day after day / but just not you.
Like a kitten / you only mean anything / when you’re young /you know that’s true.”
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Arabic Translation Challenge: ‘You’ve Aged Like a Cat!’
“I saw everyone getting lovelier, day by day, / and you, becoming less so! / Like a cat that fetches a high price in its youth, / and which, when it ages, goes for cheap.”
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‘No Way But The Way’
“It’s heart-warming to see Sargon’s voice transmogrify in so many ways and across four languages.”
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Arabic Translation Challenge: ‘An Angel Appears’
“The beginning, we choose. / But the end chooses us. / And there is no road but the road.”
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