ARABIC LITERATURE IN

TRANSLATION

ENG 615
Interdisciplinary English
Studies Program
• Why do we
translate?
• Why do we
write?
• Why do we
read?
What do you
think is
lost in
translation
when a
literary text
is
translated?
 In Octavio Paz’s words:
“Every text is unique, and, at the same
time, it is the translation of another text.
The No text is entirely original because
language itself in its essence is already a
Importance translation; firstly of the non –verbal
of Literary world and secondly, since every sign and
every phrase is the translation of another
Translation sign and phrase, …. Every translation up
to a certain point is an invention and as
such it constitutes a unique text”.
 Post-
Colonized
colonized

Back to the
previous question

Oppressed Voiceless Peripheral Repressed

Marginalized Arabs Muslims The East Subalterns The Other

 How can the marginalized survive in the west?
Homi Bhabha’s viewpoint

The answer Bhabha puts When Bhabha questions ‘how newness

enters the world’, he’s thinking less about
forward is cultural translation: literal chronological newness and more
a way of rewriting oppressive about how a migrant might take the
(Western) discourses in order discourses that structure Western culture
and refashion them into something
to expose their internal particular to his or her life, something
contradictions, to collapse totally novel, unseen, unshackled from
their structural integrity, and to pre-formulated stereotype or regressive
fantasy, and therefore untainted by – or
open up a space for something even escaping – the workings of Western
new. (colonial) power.
Cultural Translation
Bhabha offers the idea of negotiation
or cultural translation, which he
believes to be in itself politically
subversive and as the only possible
way to transform the world and bring
about something politically new. In his
view, then, an emancipatory extension
of politics is possible only in the field
of cultural production, following the
logic of cultural translation. (Buden et
al, p. 201)
 Cultural Translation

Bhabha sees cultural translation as a discursive Discursive

practice or strategy; a method of carefully practice: How a
relationship is
negotiating various discourses either through literal created by
practice and action or the production of literature, asserting power
culture, media, analyses and knowledge-making. The through the use
discourses of particular concern for Bhabha are of language.
Foucault
connected unsurprisingly to issues of the migrant,
the first- or second-generation immigrant,
particularly those individuals and family groups
moving from post-colonial countries to the West.
 On Translating Arabic fiction: An interview with
Denys Johnson-Davies

• The interview was conducted by Ferial Ghazoul

and published in The View From Within: Writers
and Critics on Contemporary Arabic Literature.
Eds. Ferial Ghazoul and Barbara Harlow.
Published by AUC press.
• Davies translated hadith, poetry, short stories,
novels, and drama as well as children’s
literature. He translated both Darwish’s poetry
and Salih’s most renowned novel Season of
Migration to the North.
• Activity: Read the interview and summarize its
main points
Davies: Translation as a
form of a challenge
• Translation as a form of challenge:
that’s why he translated many genres.
Translating colloquial dialogue was a
challenge as well.
• Translating poetry is a great challenge:
Davies says that he translated Darwish
as per the suggestion of Ghassan
Kanafani.
• Translating Hadith is a challenge
because of the constraints of a
religious text. Accuracy must be the
main priority over any other decision.
 The translator –reader
relationship
• Translation as intertraffic: Davies argues that
translation is of utmost cultural importance.
He is translating for the man in the street.
Having the audience in mind is very important
to a translator. He speaks of the incident of
translating hadith and how the intended
audience was Muslims who have no access to
Arabic or whose Arabic is not their mother
tongue.
• The Act of translation is making ideas, moods,
new ways of thought known, to uncover talents
and change the process of thinking in the target
language.
What are the mechanisms and
procedures of literary translation?
• To be creative within the confines of
the original text
• Translating the style of the writer, not
only producing a readable translation.
• Translating idiomatic expressions to
render the cultural background and
way of thinking. The two worlds of
English and Arabic societies are two
distinct worlds.
• Arabic grammar and syntax differ
widely from that of English
Season of
Migration to
the North

A postcolonial text
A worldly text
• Season of Migration to the North" is a novel by
Sudanese author Tayeb Salih, first published in 1966. It
tells the story of the unnamed narrator, a young man
who returns to his native village in Sudan after spending
several years studying in England. Upon his return, he
encounters Mustafa Sa'eed, a mysterious and
charismatic figure who also lived in England and has a
dark and troubled past. As the narrator becomes
increasingly fascinated by Mustafa's story, he uncovers a
complex tale of love, desire, and cultural identity.
• Mustafa Sa'eed's life story unfolds through a series of
flashbacks, revealing his experiences as a young
Sudanese man who becomes entangled in relationships
with various European women while living in England.
Despite his outward success and charm, Mustafa is
haunted by his traumatic past and struggles to reconcile
his Sudanese heritage with his life in the West.
One night, as he drinks together with some villagers, the
narrator is shocked when Mustafa Sa’eed begins
reciting poetry in English. It is then that he realizes that
there is more to Sa’eed’s identity than meets the eye.
Indeed, soon, Sa’eed arrives at the narrator’s house
and, over the course of a long night, narrates his life
story. He tells the narrator that he comes from near the
capital, Khartoum. His father died when he was an
infant, and he was raised by his mother. After
distinguishing himself as a child prodigy in the colonial
schools he attended in Sudan, he was sent off to study
on scholarships in Cairo, and then in London. In London,
he commenced a series of relationships with English
women, many of whom were drawn to him because of
his exotic, “Arab-African” roots. Mustafa Sa’eed himself
had encouraged the women’s sexual obsession with
him, playing up his identity as a “noble savage,” similar
to Shakespeare’s Othello, with roots in the jungles and
deserts of Africa. Three of the English women with
whom Sa’eed commences relationships eventually
 Stock Innate
Character Goodness

Moral

Uncorrupted Uncorrupted Superiority

by
Civilization by Civilization

Primitiveness
In harmony
with nature
His nemesis, however, is Jean Morris, an English woman who mocks
and provokes him—refusing to submit to his power, even after she
marries him. Their marriage is an endless war, pervaded by verbal and
physical violence, sexual betrayal, and degradation. One cold February
night, Sa’eed returns home to find Jean waiting for him, naked, in bed.
As he makes love to her, he plunges a dagger into her chest, killing
her—an act which Jean herself strangely seems to welcome. Sa’eed is
then put on trial in London for the murder of Jean Morris; however, while
the jury finds him guilty, he is sentenced only to seven years in prison.
After his release, he wanders far and wide to many different places and
countries, before finally returning to make a home in the small, remote
village of Wad Hamid, where the narrator encounters him.
Mustafa Sa’eed’s life story sets the narrator’s
world upside down. While the narrator, upon his
return to Sudan, had felt rooted and connected
to his country and his people, his encounter
with Sa’eed leads him to experience a deep
sense of alienation: suddenly, he wonders
whether, like Sa’eed, he is also estranged and
cut off from those around him as a result of his
long migration abroad. Nonetheless, the
narrator continues with his life, taking up a job
in the capital Khartoum, and returning to the
village only occasionally. Soon, news reaches
him that Sa’eed, during a season of especially
severe flooding in the village, has disappeared
while out tilling his field one day: he has
drowned in the flooded river, possibly by
suicide. He leaves the narrator as guardian of
his wife, Hosna bint Mahmoud, and his two
young sons.
Even after his death, Sa’eed continues to haunt the narrator.
The narrator is once again drawn into Sa’eed’s affairs when,
visiting the village one year, he learns that an old villager,
Wad Rayyes, has set his eyes upon Sa’eed’s widow Hosna.
He is intent on marrying her, in spite of the 40 years’ age
difference between them, and in spite of the fact that Hosna
herself does not want to marry. Although Hosna appeals to
the narrator to help her, the narrator does not, and he
returns to Khartoum. Within weeks, he rushes back to the
village, upon receiving terrible news. Hosna’s father had
forcibly married her to Wad Rayyes. In the village, he learns
that, shortly after the marriage, Wad Rayyes had attempted
to rape Hosna and, in response, she murdered him and killed
herself. This horrendous act of violence sends shockwaves
through the sleepy, peaceful village, which had never
experienced such an event before. The villagers simply
attempt to cover up the murder-suicide, but it is clear that
things will never be quite the same again.
The narrator, who had himself developed
feelings for Sa’eed’s widow, is devastated by
this event. During his time in the village, he
finally decides to enter the secret room in
Mustafa Sa’eed’s house, whose key Sa’eed had
entrusted him with after his death. Upon
entering the room, the narrator is shocked to
find that it is a temple to Sa’eed’s life in
England: among the thousands of books that
line the shelves, there is not one single volume
in Arabic. Furthermore, the room contains a
proper English fireplace—even though it is
located in a small village in Sudan, on the
equator, where there is no need of fireplaces.
In the room, the narrator finds further traces
and fragments of Sa’eed’s life in England,
including journal entries and photographs of
the various women he had been involved with.
He spends hours there, further piecing
together Sa’eed’s life abroad.
After leaving the room in the very early
hours of the morning, the narrator,
disturbed, decides to calm himself by
going for a swim in the Nile river. He
enters the river and begins making his
way to the other bank. However, he soon
becomes disoriented and exhausted, and
feels the current pulling him downwards,
into its darkest depths. As the waters
close over his head, he feels
overwhelmed by the desire to give
himself up to the river, and to die, like
Mustafa Sa’eed had done before him.
Suddenly, however, he awakens: he
decides that he wants to live, and, with a
huge effort, begins swimming again while
calling for help.
 Cultural translation and Season of
Migration to the North
• According to Davies, at the beginning, modern
Arabic literature like classical Arabic was the
product of a single culture and language but now
each Arab nation seeks to claim its own writers and
its own style. A translator of Arabic literature
should be aware of evolving structures and
patterns.

• The novel’s translation to English is due to the

emergence of postcolonial studies in American
and British universities. Salih was hailed by Arabic
critics in 1976 as the genius of the Arabic novel.
Hence, the novel is representative of Arab culture
and Sudanese specific way of life. It is the product
of a single culture and is written in modern
standard Arabic.
 Edward Said wrote “S of M to the N” is
among the six finest novels to be written in
modern Arabic Literature”. Said was quoting
Albert Guerard’s comment on another novel
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Thus,
Said was equating Salih’s novel to Conrad’s
novel. This highlighted the importance of
The novel is a Salih’s novel as part of the writing back
project.
postcolonial The novel is read as a counter narrative from
former European colonies and hence is
novel considered a postcolonial text. Many critics
saw it as the rewriting of Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness especially since it follows a
structurally and thematically complex form.
The novel was read as a way of answering
Conrad’s racist text that misrepresents
Africans as savage and violent.
How does this apply to Mustafa Saeed?
 According to Fanon, one of the leading
postcolonial critics, native intellectuals are
educated young men from the colony who
receive a western education and are
supposed to lead their countries to
The novel is also a civilization . Hence the intellectual plays
the role of go-between between colonizer
postcolonial text: and colonized. He has been trained by the
Applying Frantz colonizer and so his way of thinking is
western but he needs to embrace his native
Fanon’s concept of culture to connect with his people. This
the native creates his dilemma during the struggle for
liberation. He has to struggle to free himself
intellectual first and reconnect with his people.
Therefore he goes through three stages but
not all of them succeed in reaching the third
stage. APPLY THIS TO BOTH MUSTAFA AND
THE NARRATOR.
Extract from
Fanon –read
only
According to Frantz Fanon, the native intellectual undergoes a
three-phase narrative in their development and engagement with
colonialism:
1. Period of Unqualified Assimilation: In this initial stage, the
colonized native writer's literary production reflects complete
assimilation into the culture of the colonizer. Their work is
European-inspired and imitative of the literary trends and
intellectual fashions of the metropolis. The native intellectual "has
thrown himself greedily upon Western culture" .

2. Ambivalent Stage of Nativist Resistance: During this phase, the

native intellectual begins to resist colonial influence. Their work
becomes more ambivalent, reflecting both resistance and
remnants of colonial influence. Fanon acknowledges the salient
issues related to nationalism, nativism, identity construction, and
the past. However, this narrative is specific to the Caribbean
colonial experience and cannot be generalized to all colonial
contexts
 The native intellectual is a necessity in
any coherent national program The native
intellectual who takes up arms to defend
his nation's legitimacy and who wants to
bring proofs to bear out that legitimacy,
The native intellectual who decides to
expose colonial lies fights on the field of
The role of the the whole continent. The past is given
back its value. Culture, extracted from the
native past to be displayed in all its splendor, is
intellectual not necessarily that of his own country.
He simply spoke of “the Negro”. The
culture which is affirmed is African
culture. He must demonstrate that a
Negro culture exists. This native
intellectual goes through three stages
before he can do the above.
 In the first phase, the native
intellectual gives proof that he
has assimilated the culture of the
occupying power. His writings
correspond point by point with
those of his opposite numbers in
the mother country. His
The first phase inspiration is European and we
can easily link up these works
(mimicking the with definite trends in the
colonizer) literature of the mother country.
This is the period of unqualified
assimilation. We find in this
literature coming from the
colonies the Parnassians, the
Symbolists, and the Surrealists.
 • In the second phase we find the native is
disturbed; he decides to remember what
he is. But since the native is not a part of
his people, since he only has exterior
relations with his people, he is content
to recall their life only. Past happenings
The second phase of the bygone days of his childhood will
be brought up out of the depths of his
(refusing the memory; old legends will be
reinterpreted in the light of a borrowed
colonizer and estheticism and of a conception of the
glorifying world which was discovered under other
skies.
Africa=Negritude) • Sometimes this literature of is
dominated by humor and by allegory; but
often too it is symptomatic of a period of
distress and difficulty, where death is
experienced, and disgust too.
 • In the third phase, which is called the
fighting phase, the native, after having
tried to lose himself in the people and with
the people, will on the contrary shake the
people. he turns himself into an awakener of
the people; hence comes a fighting literature,
a revolutionary literature, and a national
literature.
Third phase (National • During this phase a great many men and
consciousness/international women who up till then would never have
dimension) thought of producing a literary work, now
that they find themselves in exceptional
circumstances--in prison,, or on the eve of
their execution--feel the need to speak to
their nation, to compose the sentence which
expresses the heart of the people, and to
become the mouthpiece of a new reality in
action.
 • The colonized man who writes
for his people ought to use the
past with the intention of
opening the future, as an
invitation to action and a basis
The role of The for hope. But to ensure that hope
native and to give it form, he must take
part in action and throw himself
intellectual and body and soul into the national
the possibility of culture. Then, he among others
will offer the world a new set of
new humanism universalizing values.
• Comment on this with reference
to the ending of the novel.
 Season as a
Postcolonial Novel
• Hence the novel is a postcolonial novel because
it discusses violence, the dilemma of the native
intellectual who tries to build up a national
culture according to fanon.
• The narrator tries to connect himself with his
past and teaches Arabic poetry in a school
because he believes that culture is first the
expression of a nation, the expression of its
preferences, of its taboos and of its patterns.
• A national culture is the whole body of efforts
made by a people in the sphere of thought to
describe, justify, and praise the action through
which that people has created itself and keeps
itself in existence. A national culture in
underdeveloped countries should therefore take
its place at the very heart of the struggle for
freedom which these countries are carrying on.
The Novel As An Example Of
World Literature
Salih’s novel paves the way for the possibility of
new humanism (an understanding of humanity
and its values which comes from the non-
western world). In his novel he uses cultural
specific references and symbols such as his
reference to afreet, to wind, to plants and crops
specific to Sudan and Africa. He also mentions
everyday life details that are specific to Arab and
African villages but he also tackles themes of
love, alienation, fear and loss that are applicable
to human beings across times and places. Due
to the mixture of cultural specific and universal
themes, values and references the text could be
considered a world literature text.
Salih as a worldly critic
• Salih attended Gordon Memorial College (Later
Khartoum university) and in 1952 he travelled to
London as part of the first generation of
Sudanese educated in Britain in preparation for
independence which came in 1956. Salih’s
encounter with the west mark his fiction and
his life, through his depiction of his Sudanese
village in northern Sudan, he was able to
change this humble setting into a universal
one. His ability to reflect how our lives as
human beings are ruled by tensions that we are
unaware of and that life is full of choices and
that we are obliged to face the facts of life
makes his work relevant to diverse people.
• By setting Sudan as the center of the action, he
made readers aware of Sudanese life style and
geographical location and by representing the
identity crisis faced by his main characters, he
also commented on human beings struggles
between modernity and tradition.