Arabic literature can be translated inasmuch as it has to be translated. Why? Because the reality Arabs encounter stretches beyond the Arab World, and thus does not fit the orderly context the Arabic language requires to keep on being as categorical as it has been for centuries.
The price a nation has to pay for boasting a language carved in stone is the cumbersomeness of its notions. But first, before Arabs face the Sphinx, they have to make sure they recognize both their mother tongue and their fatherland. We are just here to provide a space where they can shelve their paralysis by putting their stances into perspective.
Contemporary Arabic Literature, translated into English
A beautiful smile allows inner beauty to shine through one’s shell. ’Cause, believe me, eyes are the window to the soul. A steely gaze is all it may take to win another person’s heart over. Attend the meeting: an itch to laugh, cry, and hold one’s breath. Now that I have polished up my infamous […]
Praise the Lord The waters are crystal clear. Everything is covered by reeds and seagrass, and water lilies float on the surface. Here, in the south of Iraq, more specifically, in the Hawizeh Marshes, marine vegetation spreads all over a vast territory. It builds the golden houses where the descendants of the Sumerians live, those folks […]
Time stopped. My heartbeat started racing and I gasped for air. I felt like I was buried under debris. It was as if I had just come across another layer of the human soul, which revealed itself wider than the sky and deeper than the sea standing in front of me. I never thought I […]
Leila was just over forty and her husband was still madly in love with her. He had never stopped feeling attracted to her, even though her body (having gone through three childbirths) didn’t look exactly the same as it had when they first got married. He made sure she knew how much he appreciated her […]
Waseem was not going to have it easy finding the cradle of his story by getting to where his grandparents had been born. Overall, he possessed rather little knowledge about the place. However, the moment he met Sameer, he felt a lot more optimistic about his expedition. Waseem was about twenty years old while Sameer […]