In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Margaret Litvin discuss the triangulation of translating Arabic literature and Soviet Russia into English, vanishing intertexts, and why translating Sonallah Ibrahim’s Ice into a single language would have been like “putting salad through a blender.”
“The zoo in the Russian quarter is not Russian. Like any zoo in the world, it is a place of estrangement where animals reside far from their natural habitats and countries of origin.”
“Nonna and her scallions were two important events in the life of the giraffe.”
PEN America today announced the ten translators to have won 2023 PEN/Heim grants. The ten projects represent a diverse array of books in ten languages: Arabic, Filipino, Polish, Urdu, Spanish, Bulgarian, Korean, Swahili, Tamil, and German.
“I don’t know anyone else who teaches this way, but I’m really proud of it. First because – we’ll bracket the native speakers for a minute – the overwhelming majority of my students will graduate without achieving fluency in Arabic. Most will die without achieving it. So what?? “
