Translating Trauma, the Trauma of Translating
Sahar Khalifeh’s ‘Free’
Classic Short Fiction by Ali Al-Douagi
Fiction
Sahar Khalifeh’s ‘Free’
In this excerpt from Sahar Khalifeh’s ‘A Novel for My Story,’ by turns playful and serious, the novelist describes the moment she freed herself from her marriage and other people’s expectations of what her life could be.
Classic Short Fiction by Ali Al-Douagi
“Ah, how immense my delight when I saw the moving cart piled high with carpets, lamps, and sacks of every size and color!”
From Kawther Al-Jahmi’s ‘A Son of the Country’
The novel poses a question about identity: Is it a piece of paper, or a sense of belonging?
Poetry
Three Poems from Gaza
“I pace this room alone, / fingertips brushing the wall, / memorizing each mark, each echo.”
Three New Poems by Maysara Salah El-Din
“Once, I became / A cloud / To gain / Flight experience / And twice / I became / A brick / To gain / Experience in falling.”
Five Poems by May Ziadeh
“sometimes my soul is wild, / an egret flying far / beyond the ocean’s edge, // and sometimes I curl up, / tender as an anemone when touched, / as salty and as damp.”
Interviews
Translating Trauma, the Trauma of Translating
Here, Leri Price talks about the referred trauma (and guilt) of translating testimonies from a genocide, how she worked with translators bringing the book into other languages, and the particular challenges of translating this book.
Kawthar Al-Jahmi’s Journey: From ‘Bint Tripoli’ to Award-winning Novelist
Today, Kawthar al-Jahmi talks about her writing and reading journeys, the role of literary prizes, submitting her novel to the publisher a day before giving birth, and developing a writing practice while working and raising children.
Words, Music, and Translating ‘Red Like Orange’
This month, Hoopoe Fiction (an imprint of AUC Press) publishes Charles Akl’s debut novel Red Like Orange, which won a 2023 Sawiris Cultural Award. Now, three years later, Sarah Enany’s translation of this novel is available to a new readership.
In Focus
From the archives
A Talk with Poet Golan Haji: ‘Languages Never Draw Geographical Boundaries’
” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”
Another Road for Syrian Poetry
“The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world.”
‘When Darkness Falls’: On the Shortened, Brilliant Life of Iraqi Author Hayat Sharara
“The word eib rings in my head, it is eib to love, to sing, to get sick, to divorce, to show your emotions…and.…and. I felt these social chains were burdening me with fear, despair, and confusion, and I almost abandoned work on the book, but when I looked at the materials that I had collected, I knew that if I didn’t publish it now, it would never be published.”