طَبيعة root: ط-ب-ع / noun / definition: nature My appointment to reconnect with nature is approaching and it can’t come soon enough. I’ve been feeling sort of anxiously suspended between buildings and roads here in London and—whilst local parks have been somewhat of a refuge from all things grey—sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and sunshine areContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #12”
Category Archives: literature translations
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #11
مُواصَلة root: و-ص-ل / verbal noun of form III / definition: continuation This week we’re continuing on from last week’s literature translation where we went through the first part of our extract:
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #10
سِكّين root: س-ك-ك / noun / plural: سَكاكين / definition: knife As September swept in, I made a resolution to read more in both English and Arabic. Novels, specifically, because I miss getting lost in them as I used to. And I’ve now, for various reasons, found myself in a situation where I have multipleContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #10”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #9
حَقيقة root: ح-ق-ق / noun / plural: حَقائِق / definition: reality, truth Well, well, well… it’s been quite a while since we had a literature translation post, hasn’t it? (On consulting the calendar, that “while” appears to be nearly six months—time must have taken a shortcut somewhere…) Time anxiety aside, in this post we’ll beContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #9”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #8
سيرة root: س-ي-ر / noun / plural: سِيَر / definition: biography For this post in the literature translation series, we’ll be going word-by-word through a non-fiction excerpt, taken from بغداد: سيرة مدينة (Baghdad: Biography of a City) by the Iraqi writer نجم والي (Najem Wali).
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #7
مُؤَلِّف root: ء-ل-ف / noun / plural: مُؤَلِّفون / definition: author, writer We’re adding to the literature translation series this week—it’s been a while!—with a short excerpt from عائد إلى حيفا (Returning to Haifa) by غسان كنفاني (Ghassan Kanafani).
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #6
شاعِر root: ش-ع-ر / noun / plural: شُعَراء / definition: poet For today’s addition to the literature translation series, I’ve chosen some lines from a poem that really had an impact on me the first time I read it. And that’s because the poet’s words are not confined to a poem. Instead, they unsettlingly foreshadowContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #6”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #5
شَمس root: ش-م-س / noun / plural: شُموس / definition: sun Welcome back! For our fifth post in the literature translation series, we’re taking a look at an excerpt from the famous novel رجال في الشمس (Men in the Sun) by the Palestinian writer غسان كنفاني (Ghassan Kanafani).
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #4
اِستِعارة root: ع-و-ر / noun / plural: اِستِعارات / definition: metaphor And… we’re back with the fourth post in the literature translation series! This time, we’re going through an excerpt from another poem: مَسرَح (Theatre) by الصادق الرضي (Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi), whose poetry I previously mentioned in this post.
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #3
قَصِيدَة root: ق-ص-د / noun / plural: قَصائِد / definition: poem You may remember me mentioning Badr Shakir al-Sayyab previously, when I used a quote from a poem of his to exemplify one of the Four Synonyms for “to Begin to” in Arabic. And—unsurprisingly, I suppose, considering my dissertation was centred around his poetry—al-Sayyab’s works wereContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #3”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #2
رِوايَة root: ر-و-ي / noun / plural: روايات / definition: novel Note: this is part two of the previous Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation, so if you haven’t read that one yet, you might want to start with that first! We’ll keep this introduction short because it’s safe to assume this will be a very longContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #2”
Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation
أَدَب root: ء-د-ب / noun / plural: آداب / definition: literature The shift from simplified pieces of writing in Arabic textbooks to your first encounter with an Arabic novel can will be intimidating. You’ll likely note (amidst your “mild” panic at the sheer amount of words between your hands that you’ll have to mentally decipher)Continue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation”
The Arabic Pages 