Music Articles (Lyrics)
Here, we revisit Ranya’s translation of “The Roc Flew Over Shahraban,” which ran as part of The Common’s special section on Palestine. The Roc Flew Over Shahraban opens: Slowly, we raised our heads as hellish cries echoed in our ears, and we looked up in awe and fear. On Gumroad, the book it as a
Continue reading Lit & Found: Samira Azzam’s ‘The Roc Flew Over Shahraban’
How else would they pay our bills?” But we like to imagine this young girl, starved for both fun and affection, finds a way to listen to the fun, rocking “The Grandma With a Limp.” It might help her night visions. Her daughter-in-law is constantly threatening to get rid of the old dog (and, she
Continue reading A Literary Playlist for Samira Azzam’s ‘Out of Time’
Maya Abu Al-Hayyat’s ‘You Can Be the Last Leaf,’ Tr. The Arabic work on the list is Maya Abu Al-Hayyat’s deeply honest and funny You Can Be the Last Leaf, in a warm and open-hearted translation by poet-translator Fady Joudah. The new prize is named for late NBCC board member Gregg Barrios and “celebrates
I’m sure he saw me: the car’s eyes cut through the dark night, and I stood in its way until I thought it would hit me. And he—he’s strong and handsome, that’s what the girls at the factory said about him. My house is far away, in an ancient part of the city. No matter
Was there once a train whistling in Palestine? They called the security chief and my heart started to bang violently in my chest. I don’t know how much time passed before my watch, then I, were cleared of all suspicions and allowed to leave. Afterwards, I was led into a room for a body search
Continue reading Adania Shibli on Samira Azzam: ‘Out of Time’
How did their views on morality change, both in how they judged themselves and others? It is also coming to other platforms and bookshops, as well as launch events in the new year. In her essay on Samira Azzam, Adania Shibli writes about how Azzam’s story, “The Clock and the Man,” was included in her
Continue reading INTRODUCING ‘Out of Time: The Collected Short Stories of Samira Azzam’
Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInRedditTumblrWhatsAppPinterestTelegramPocketSkypeLike this:Like Loading… They also call for video (video essays or short film) and audio submissions (podcast, music, etc.) on the same theme to be specially featured in the webzine. For detailed submission guidelines, head to Rusted Radishes’ Submittable and submit by December 31, 2022. Sunday Submissions: Rusted Radishes ‘Labor and Idleness’ December 4,
Continue reading Sunday Submissions: Rusted Radishes ‘Labor and Idleness’
DM: I always have more information on the Shubeik Lubeik world because I’m always thinking about it, but I’m also happy with how these three books showed this world as I wanted to show it. DM: Actually, this was kind of funny—when Heba called me about the project I was already very busy working on
Continue reading Extended Conversation: On Wishes, Translation, & Being ‘Deena Shubeik Lubeik’
The village has seemed to stand apart from time, protected by the mountains and too small to attract much political notice. Merging memoir with fiction, and the hallowed with the profane, The Blue Light is a meditation on and liberation from madness—a brilliant, inimitable literary achievement. At first angry, he soon sees the error of his
Besides al-Mawlid, Elkabli put to music Muhammad el-Fayturi’s famous spiritual poem A Roaming Dervish’s Stanza: In the solemn presence of my master, my emotions are playing havoc with me. Nor have I seen Russia. Even in his romantic songs, he seems to look beyond the sensual to sublime — almost saintly — heights. His poem “On the
Also read: Author Mohamed Kheir on Surreal Coincidences and the Mysteries of Translation Alex Elinson: On Translating the Linguistic Diversity of ‘Hot Maroc’ An Excerpt from Hamdi Abu Golayyel’s ‘Men Who Swallowed the Sun’ Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLinkedInRedditTumblrWhatsAppPinterestTelegramPocketSkypeLike this:Like Loading… Three Novels Make 2022 Banipal Prize Shortlist December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 by mlynxqualey DECEMBER 1, 2022
Continue reading Three Novels Make 2022 Banipal Prize Shortlist
The translator captured perfectly the style of the original, a balance of long sentences flowing beautifully revealing the internal struggle of the characters, and the punch in the gut anger expressed in dialogue. I thought the story captured the essence of what a short story ought to be perfectly; nothing overdone and everything in the right place. The $500 prize
In this case, he happened to know the author and that she had someone else in mind [who was] already translating the work, but he said, “I have this friend, Muhsin [Al-Ramli], and he’s looking for a translator for his second novel. You write in your translator’s note that verb tenses were very difficult, because
Discussions on the ethics of collaboration will conclude the series, along with a shared collective translation. How do we work through practical challenges in translating dialects, humour and insults, or using footnotes and paratexts? Like a basil plant in translation, these workshops will not make up their mind. What kinds of poetic, aesthetic and ideological
Continue reading Sunday Submissions: Trace Press Arabic Translation Workshop
The latter is almost folktale-like in its rhythms: a woman discovers a mole is growing on her leg, a small, fatherless daughter to join her in her forty-fourth year: And also delightful that I found out about her today, on this hour, not tomorrow or the day after, and wonderful that no orphanage will take
KJAZ: Exactly. I know I’ll finish the project, but the timing has to be right. Do you think this is true? KJAZ: Honestly, I haven’t thought too much about ideology. There are some projects where I can work on for one or two hours a day and make great progress, but I feel the need for
Continue reading Kareem James Abu-Zeid: Making Imru al-Qays Sing and Soar
A saying or a line of poetry just emerges after the work of fiction is written, and I see that it fits that work. Another good reason is that a majority of Kurds live in the city, and Narjis’s journey goes through a Kurdish city. And what about you, Hadiya? She is uncertain and fearful
Continue reading A Conversation with Hadiya Hussein and Barbara Romaine about ‘Waiting for the Past’
And finally, 5. Recommended Reading: Novelist Hadiya Hussein on 5 Iraqi Books November 23, 2022November 22, 2022 by mlynxqualey By Hadiya Hussein Translated by Shakir Mustafa My reading recommendations: 1. Despite the brevity of the novel, it is full of details about the loss of a son who was a military pilot, wherein the author
Continue reading Recommended Reading: Novelist Hadiya Hussein on 5 Iraqi Books
Would you just remember him and lay my mind to rest?” “You’ve always been strange, my friend. I’ve been looking for that particular friend of ours ever since I came to remember his story, but none of my friends seems to recall it. Maybe you just got mixed up.’ “And like that, he took a
Continue reading Newly Translated Fiction: Emile Habibi’s ‘At Last the Almond Blossomed’
Also read: * An excerpt of The Russian Quarter appeared (in Sophia Vasalou’s translation) in Banipal 67 * Another excerpt, in Litvin’s translation, is set to appear in Spring 2023, along with her interview with Khalil Alrez, in a forthcoming anthology from Oxford University Press. The Russian Quarter was
Continue reading Margaret Litvin Wins PEN/Heim to Translate Khalil Alrez’s ‘The Russian Quarter’