6 Poems: The Self-translations of Sargon Boulus

via Arabic Literature and Translation: The poet-translator Mona Kareem has an essay up in The Babel Review of Translations, issue D9: The essay, “He Goes to the Place: Sargon Boulus Translates Himself and Others,” is accompanied by five translations: two where Boulus translates himself, two of Auden, and one to make you read Derek Walcott’s “Love after Love” afresh. They are all side-by-sides and make their own masterclass in translation. As Kareem … Read more 6 Poems: The Self-translations of Sargon Boulus

On Translating ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah, Perhaps Arabic’s Most Prolific Premodern Woman Writer

Saturday Summer Re-runs by MLYNXQUALEY on AUGUST 5, 2017 • ( 0 ) Th. Emil Homerin, editor-translator of the recently-published The Principles of Sufism, has long been interested in the work of ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah, who is perhaps the most prolific and prominent woman who wrote in Arabic prior to the modern period. Homerin, a professor of religion and former chair of the Department of Religion & Classics at the University … Read more On Translating ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah, Perhaps Arabic’s Most Prolific Premodern Woman Writer

Happy 70th, Joachim Sartorius!

Joachim Sartorius is one of Germany’s most elegant poets and, besides diplomatic service in New York, Istanbul, Prague and Cyprus, as well as becoming director general of the Goethe Institut in 1996, he also directed the Berliner Festspiele from 2001 to 1011. Sartorius is further the editor of the Collected Works of Malcolm Lowry and William Carlos Williams and has translated, among others, John Ashbery, Wallace Stevens and ee cummings. Below, a poem … Read more Happy 70th, Joachim Sartorius!

Ingeborg Bachmann: Nobody has the Right to Appeal to the Victim

Reading, thinking and writing about Ingeborg Bachmann right now, while also thinking about the victims of terror and the misuse they are put to, here in this country and in France as well. So this morning I came across a posthumous prose fragment of Bachmann’s which I’d read in the 4-volume collected but now met again, insistently, in Françoise Rétif’s lovely, excellent, challenging book-length essay on I.B. (Ingeborg Bachmann, Editions … Read more Ingeborg Bachmann: Nobody has the Right to Appeal to the Victim

Why translate Zakaria Tamer’s stories into Sardinian when you could translate them into Italian?

via Arab Literature (in English): BY MLYNXQUALEY on NOVEMBER 18, 2015 • ( 2 ) By Alessandro Columbu  On October 2, Segamentu de Ancas, the Sardinian translation of Zakaria Tamer’s Taksir Rukab(Riyad el-Rayyes Books, Beirut, 2002) appeared in Sardinia’s bookshops. It was brought out by an independent publishing house based in Casteddu, Condaghes, which has pioneered the publication of novels, short stories, and poetry in Sardinian. These include works written … Read more Why translate Zakaria Tamer’s stories into Sardinian when you could translate them into Italian?

Five Palestinian Poets in Paris

‘Interludes Poétiques de Palestine’: via the always excellent Arab Literature in English) BY MLYNXQUALEY on SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 • ( 1 ) Palestinian poet and publisher Ashraf Zaghal was in Paris for the “Interludes Poetiques de Palestine.” He writes: By Ashraf Zaghal Between September 22 and 26, five Palestinian poets shared the stage at two cultural and literary hubs in Paris, Maison de la Poesie and Institut du Monde Arabe, … Read more Five Palestinian Poets in Paris

Sinan Antoon First to Win Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Self-translation

Via  Arabic Literature (in English). BY MLYNXQUALEY on JANUARY 20, 2015 • ( 2 ) Iraqi novelist, poet, and translator Sinan Antoon has won the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for bringing his own novel, The Corpse Washer, into English: The 2014 prize was awarded to Antoon for his translation of hisThe Corpse Washer, originally titled The Pomegranate Alone and published by Yale University Press in 2013. Meanwhile, Paula Haydar got a “highly … Read more Sinan Antoon First to Win Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Self-translation

Abdelwahab Meddeb (1946-2014)

Abdelwahab Meddeb passed away in the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Paris.  Born in Tunis in 1946, he was a poet, scholar, writer, translator, traveller, magazine editor (“Dédale“), book editor (as series editor with  Editions Sindbad from 1974 to 1987 he published the classics of sufism as well as many of the most outstanding contemporary Arab authors), radio producer (check out his France Culture broadcasts Cultures d’Islam which he did weekly for 17 years) & … Read more Abdelwahab Meddeb (1946-2014)

Nina Cassian (1924-2014)

Saddened to hear of Nina Cassian’s passing.  She was a Romanian poet, journalist, film critic and who also translated works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan into Romanian. She published more than fifty books of her own poetry. The New York Times’ obit can be read here. Born into a Jewish family in Galaţi, they lived in Brașov between 1926 and 1935, when the family … Read more Nina Cassian (1924-2014)

Sinan Antoon’s Darwish Translation Gets ALTA Award

Via Arabic Literature (in English) blog: Antoon Wins 2012 National Translation Award for ‘In the Presence of Absence’ Posted on October 7, 2012 by mlynxqualey | Leave a comment On Friday, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced that it had honored two poet-translators, Sinan Antoon and Don Mee Choi: Sinan Antoon received the 2012 National Translation Award for his translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence. According to ALTA, “The $5,000 prize is given annually … Read more Sinan Antoon’s Darwish Translation Gets ALTA Award