Literature in Translation – Modern Arabic

In: Middle East Studies Association bulletin, Band 5, Heft 1, S. 26-38

Abstract

Technological inventions in recent decades having so totally revolutionized the nature and extent of communications between various parts of the world, it is difficult to appreciate how severely restricted inter-cultural knowledge was even in the almost immediate past. Translation has always been one of the few media available for the transference of ideas and emotions from one language group to another and, as we shall see, even it has been of remarkably limited range and influence, certainly between the peoples of the Near East and the English-speaking world. Fear and dislike of what is different and therefore seemingly threatening are natural human responses that have governed international relations throughout history; that translation has been and continues to be so limited an influence mitigating such fear and dislike is surely tragic. A brief survey of translation from Arabic to English in previous centuries will hopefully assist us in viewing the range of modern materials available in book form in a proper perspective.