This post celebrates and complements our first group read of 2018 in the Middle East North Africa Lit group on Goodreads.com: الباب المفتوح / The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat! This is one of the most enjoyable feminist classics in all of Arabic literature, as far as I’m concerned. As a historical novel, it transports us to a time when Cairo was part of the British empire, and Egyptians were ready for a change!
Here’s to travel, expanding one’s horizons, and taking on new challenges!
My friend Barbara Romaine recently published a series of poems here, including the following celebration of roaming (Arabic here). [one_half]
Wanderlust by al-Imam al-Shafiʿi (d. 820), translated by Barbara Romaine To a mind wise and cultured, what ease in a place? Pull up stakes, leave your country, and roam! Those you meet on your travels will make up the loss Of those left behind you at home.
Here is a tiny teaser excerpt from my Work in Progress translation of the epic Sirat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma/سيرة الأميرة ذات الهمة from Arabic to English. (This translation project is funded by a grant from the NEA.) Note: I’m playing with the name of the main character. She was born Fatima, but is known as Dhat al-Himma in Arabic. It’s a mouthful in English, so I’m calling her Valor for now.
Here is a tiny teaser excerpt from my Work in Progress translation of the epic Sirat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma/سيرة الأميرة ذات الهمة from Arabic to English. (This translation project is funded by a grant from the NEA.) Note: I’m playing with the name of the main character. She was born Fatima, but is known as Dhat al-Himma in Arabic. It’s a mouthful in English, so I’m calling her Valor for now.
As I talk with people about my current translation project, more and more people want to know about Arabic epics. These epics (Arabic: سيرة / sira) are long adventure tales that recount the exploits of a group of heroic characters and villains. Siras draw on historical events, although they are not to be considered conventional accounts of history. Peter Heath* has observed that heroic cycles cover almost all of recorded pre-Islamic and Islamic history:
As I talk with people about my current translation project, more and more people want to know about Arabic epics. These epics (Arabic: سيرة / sira) are long adventure tales that recount the exploits of a group of heroic characters and villains. Siras draw on historical events, although they are not to be considered conventional accounts of history. Peter Heath* has observed that heroic cycles cover almost all of recorded pre-Islamic and Islamic history:
Some Favorite Quotations in Arabic Literature On art, literature, and writing Horses, night, and the desert know me And the sword, the spear, paper, and the pen
– a famous line of poetry by the poet Al-Mutanabbi (known for his bragging!) from 10th century Baghdad
On education What I want is knowledge of how things really are,
so must I not [first] try to find out what knowledge really is?
Melanie A. Magidow Receives NEA Literature Translation Fellowship Fellowship will support the translation into English of The Adventures of Dhat al-Himma #### (the Arabic epic *Sirat al-amira Dhat al-Himma*) Washington, DC — Today, the National Endowment for the Arts announced that Melanie Magidow has been recommended for an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship of $12,500. Magidow is one of 23 recommended fellows for 2017. In total, the NEA is recommending $325,000 in grants this round to support the new translation of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry from 13 different languages into English.
Melanie A. Magidow Receives NEA Literature Translation Fellowship Fellowship will support the translation into English of The Adventures of Dhat al-Himma #### (the Arabic epic *Sirat al-amira Dhat al-Himma*) Washington, DC — Today, the National Endowment for the Arts announced that Melanie Magidow has been recommended for an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship of $12,500. Magidow is one of 23 recommended fellows for 2017. In total, the NEA is recommending $325,000 in grants this round to support the new translation of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry from 13 different languages into English.
Mortal Designs has been nominated for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation! More details here. See review of the book here.
“…couldn’t put the book down. I felt richly immersed in a culture and atmosphere I barely know. The characters are so alive! I love how you left some words untranslated and unexplained, preserving the foreignness of the text and leaving it to [the] reader to imagine the meaning.
