The Arab World Has a Hard Time with Translations

Efforts were made early on to translate works from European languages, especially in Egypt, but to this day it has proved impossible to coordinate these initiatives and implement them systematically. By Khalid Al-Maaly

In the 19th century, translation was a key factor in setting off the modern Arab Renaissance (Nahda). The Arab World hurried to catch up in terms of knowledge and progress: schools and universities were founded, girls were given access to education, Arab culture discovered the art of theater and the novel, journalism flourished. The origins of radio and cinema go back to this period as well.

The Cold War and internal conflicts dealt the death blow to the Arab Renaissance, which had already lost its vitality years before. Today, nearly 100 years after the heyday of the Nahda, the statistics are sobering: a decline in the quality of scientific research, a lack of professionalism in the journalistic field, dwindling sales and the declining quality of translations in publishing.

Pioneers of the culture of translation

Taking "Translation and the Knowledge Society" as its motto, the Supreme Council for Culture – the most respected Arab institution that funds and publishes translations into Arabic – organized an international congress under the patronage of Susan Mubarak, the wife of the Egyptian president.

Prominent Arabic and foreign translators were invited, and several foreign translators were honored for their achievements in the service of Arabic literature, such as the French orientalist Jacques Berque, the American Roger Allen and the German Hartmut Fähndrich.

This international event celebrated the thousandth translated book published as part of the Supreme Council's "National Translation Program". Egypt was the first Arab country to systematically cultivate a culture of translation: the language and translation institute Dar al-Alsun was founded in Cairo in 1836.

This was followed by a number of initiatives to found similar institutions in the Arab world, but these were state or state-funded bodies subject to corresponding restrictions, such as the Ministries of Culture in Syria, Kuwait, Iraq and Egypt. Fear of breaking political or religious taboos compelled translators and censors to "trim" the translations or distance themselves from the content of the publications.

All the translations of the Supreme Council are prefaced with the words: "The ideas expressed in this book are the interpretations of the authors and do not reflect the views of the Supreme Council for Culture". A clever move to avoid censorship – but in some Arab countries, such as Syria, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, even that is impossible.

There is no coordination between the Arab state institutions that publish translations, nor is there any overarching concept: what books are published is a matter of chance. Translators submit proposals, or the titles are commissioned by state institutions. Private cultural institutions, such as the Abdalmuhsin-al-Qattan Foundation in Palestine, the Sultan-al-Uwaiyis Foundation in the United Arab Emirates, the Abdalhamid-Shuman Foundation in Jordan and the Abdalaziz-al-Babtain Foundation in Kuwait, are rarities in the Arab world and are unable to provide a counterbalance.

With the exception of the first institution on the list, they function almost completely unsystematically. Thus, for example, there is no project to publish the complete works of important thinkers and writers in Arabic: the complete works of Shakespeare and Molière in Arabic are the result of isolated Arab League initiatives in the 1960s, with García Lorca following several years ago. Unfortunately, however, these translations are often of such poor quality that one would prefer not to have them in one's library.

Detour via third languages

Most translations into Arabic are based on English and French texts; other important languages include Spanish and, in the Soviet era, Russian. Translations from other European languages or Japanese, Chinese, Farsi, Turkish and Hebrew are rare. The work of Jürgen Habermas, for example, is available only in a bad translation from the French, published in Syria. Several works by Nietzsche, also translated from the French, were published in Morocco. In Syria Nietzsche's "The Antichrist" was published in a translation from the Italian.

One major problem for translators is the inadequacy of the public libraries and bookstores. In Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco it is possible to find international bookstores that sell current foreign books. But in most Arab states, in contrast to the 1960s, international bookstores have ceased to exist. How is an Arab translator, who, like most of his countrymen, has very limited means, expected to find access to important literature in English or French? Few people have a credit card which would enable them to order books online.

Call for a new order

Another issue for serious publishers is the lax attitude toward copyrights. It is still the case that many state institutions and private publishers do not bother to purchase rights, which means that often several translations of one book are in circulation, as in the case of Kundera and Süskind. And if an Arab publisher has acquired the rights, the prospect of confrontation with another Arab institution that has decided to publish the same title is unpleasant and discouraging.

In view of this problem, congress participants expressed their support for Jabir Asfur, the President of the Supreme Council for Culture, who proposed working out a translation concept stipulating that translations will be based on the original language and that copyright regulations will be respected, that direct contact with publishers and literary agents will be sought and that the arbitrary selection of titles for translation should be avoided.

Other important demands are that translators be offered reasonable fees and that the project be expanded to support translations from the Arabic as well. The last demand, however important it may be, is likely to miss its objective if it is subject to the same constraints as the other state translation projects.

These demands were directed at Susan Mubarak, and it is she who will decide whether the "National Translation Program" will continue to receive funding: one of many steps which state and private institutions in the Arab world must take for cultural life can revive again.

Khalid Al-Maaly

Translated from the German by Isabel Cole

This text was previously published in German in the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Qantara.de

Found in Translation
Literature as a link between West and East
Leila Chammaa, translator from Arabic, set up the Agentur Alif last year, specialising in bringing Arab fiction onto the German-speaking market. She describes her motivation and her experiences and talks about the status that Arab literature has on Germany's book market

Arab Literature in Translation
Listen to What the Arab World Has to Say
In a world in which translations of literary works are getting more and more important for the understanding of other cultures, there are distinct gaps in most European book markets when it comes to know creative writing from other countries. This is particularly true for the literature of the Arab World, writes Peter Ripken