{"id":12753,"date":"2015-01-21T07:27:14","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T11:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12753"},"modified":"2015-01-20T20:27:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T00:27:31","slug":"sinan-antoon-first-to-win-saif-ghobash-banipal-prize-for-self-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/sinan-antoon-first-to-win-saif-ghobash-banipal-prize-for-self-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinan Antoon First to Win Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Self-translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via \u00a0Arabic Literature (in English). BY MLYNXQUALEY<\/a><\/span><\/span> on<\/em> 2<\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Iraqi novelist, poet, and translator Sinan Antoon has won the\u00a0Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for bringing his own novel,\u00a0<\/em>The Corpse Washer,\u00a0into English:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Sinan-Antoon-02\"<\/a>The 2014 prize\u00a0was awarded to Antoon for his translation of hisThe Corpse Washer<\/em><\/a>, originally titled The Pomegranate Alone\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0published by Yale University Press in 2013.\u00a0Meanwhile, Paula Haydar got a \u201chighly commended\u201d for her translation of Jabbour Douaihy\u2019s June Rain<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0published last year.<\/p>\n

Judges for the\u00a0award, which is in its\u00a0ninth year, met in December of last year to choose from between 17 submitted titles<\/a>.\u00a0The judging panel was made up of literary translator and former Banipal prize winner\u00a0Jonathan Wright, translator and writer Lulu Norman, broadcaster and writer Paul Blezard, Banipal<\/em> editor and trustee Samuel Shimon, and was chaired by the Society of Authors\u2019 Paula Johnson.<\/p>\n

The judges\u2019 statement about\u00a0The Corpse Washer\u00a0<\/em>says that \u201cSinan Antoon\u00a0comes close,\u00a0in\u00a0this translation of his own novel, to\u00a0the ideal in literary translation \u2013 the\u00a0invisibility of the translator\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"1corpse0728\"<\/a>Heart-warming and horrifying, sad and\u00a0sensuous in equal measure,\u00a0The Corpse Washer<\/strong>\u00a0is the moving\u00a0story of Jawad, a young Iraqi whose family washes and\u00a0prepares bodies for\u00a0burial, and of the\u00a0fracturing\u00a0effects of\u00a0war, occupation and civil strife \u2013 on Jawad, his family, his friends\u00a0and their country. The subject matter is\u00a0often grim, as befits the tragedies\u00a0that Iraq has suffered for over three decades, but the meticulous portrayal of\u00a0the corpse-washing rituals, Jawad\u2019s\u00a0ambivalent\u00a0feelings about his work and the other world of his nightly dreams, show\u00a0a gentler, more human side to a world of violence and brutality.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thoughtful, precise and consistent in\u00a0voice and mood, Sinan Antoon\u00a0comes close,\u00a0in\u00a0this translation of his own novel, to\u00a0the ideal in literary translation \u2013 the\u00a0invisibility of the translator. His\u00a0fluent and forthright language matches the style and rhythm of his own original\u00a0Arabic and the\u00a0unadorned, sometimes affectless tone\u00a0reflects the\u00a0hollowness of life as the onslaught of war brings an onslaught of bodies for\u00a0the corpse washers of Baghdad. The novel\u00a0ends with Jawad sitting under\u00a0the\u00a0pomegranate tree that grows from the water he uses to wash the corpses.\u00a0A rich, profound insight into an Iraq we\u00a0hear very little of, this is a story that resonates with\u00a0human pathos\u00a0and bears\u00a0every hallmark of becoming a modern classic.<\/p>\n

About\u00a0June Rain,\u00a0<\/em>the judges wrote that Haydar\u2019s translation \u201cexactly captures the tone and heft of an extraordinary\u00a0novel\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"june_rain\"<\/a>The judges very highly commended\u00a0the masterly translation by Paula Haydar of\u00a0June Rain<\/strong>\u00a0by Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy.\u00a0This complex story explores the\u00a0effects \u2013 at once\u00a0\u00a0cohesive and corrosive \u2013 of family and clan\u00a0loyalties\u00a0in a mountain village in northern Lebanon, taking as\u00a0starting-point a massacre in 1957 and its\u00a0repercussions throughout the\u00a0community. Eliyya Kfoury returns there after decades living in the United\u00a0States to\u00a0search\u00a0for the truth behind the murder of his father,\u00a0which took place before he was\u00a0born.<\/p>\n

Lyrical and at times wistful, Douaihy\u2019s novel,\u00a0part tragedy, part \u2018whodunnit\u2019, is rendered through a kaleidoscope of superb\u00a0stories and characters.\u00a0Using multiple\u00a0points of view, the shifting of time and\u00a0a cast of beautifully drawn characters, his affectionate, at times humorous,\u00a0conjuring of Lebanese village life makes\u00a0June\u00a0Rain\u00a0a very rich and rewarding read.\u00a0Paula\u00a0Haydar\u2019s astonishing translation exactly captures the tone and heft of an extraordinary\u00a0novel that tells us so much about\u00a0sectarianism and its heartbreaking legacies.<\/p>\n

Previous winners include last year\u2019s tie between Jonathan Wright (for\u00a0Azazeel<\/em>) and William Hutchins (for\u00a0A Land Without Jasmine<\/em>)<\/a>, 2012 winner Roger Allen<\/a>, 2011 winner and \u201cGenius Grantee\u201d Khaled Mattawa<\/a>, and two-time winner Humphrey Davies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Events:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday,\u00a0Feb 24<\/b><\/p>\n

Sinan\u00a0Antoon talks with Paul Blezard at\u00a06.30 p.m. at\u00a0WATERSTONE\u2019S PICCADILLY.\u00a0This\u00a0is a free event, but please reserve your place by emailingpiccadilly@waterstones.com<\/a>
\nWednesday, Feb 25<\/b><\/p>\n

The Award Ceremony of\u00a0Translation Prizes\u00a0from Arabic, French, German,\u00a0Greek, Spanish and Swedish,\u00a0held at\u00a0Europe House,32\u00a0Smith Square, London\u00a0\u00a0SW1P 3EU. The event will be\u00a0introduced\u00a0by Paula Johnson, Prize Administrator, the Society of Authors and prizes will be presented\u00a0by Sir Peter\u00a0Stothard,\u00a0editor of the TLS,<\/em> with readings by the winning translators. This\u00a0is a free event, but please reserve your place by emailing\u00a0marco@banipal.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via \u00a0Arabic Literature (in English). BY MLYNXQUALEY on JANUARY 20, 2015 \u2022 ( 2 ) Iraqi novelist, poet, and translator Sinan Antoon has won the\u00a0Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for bringing...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,64,1442,1283,103,1006],"tags":[1095,1627],"class_list":["post-12753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-literature","category-mashreq","category-novel","category-translation","category-translator","tag-sinan-antoon","tag-ssaif-ghobash-banipal-prize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12753"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12758,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12753\/revisions\/12758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}