Exporting cultural goods through the medium of translation in the Arab world: the (not so) strange case of L2 translation

Abstract

The Arab literary translation scene offers a context that accommodates the common translation-as-import paradigm, where translation is typically accounted for as an opening onto the outside world, and the less common translation-as-export paradigm, which usually expresses an eagerness to have one’s literary heritage occupy, through translation, a larger share of the international literary scene. Where the Arab context stands out is that this second paradigm is frequently performed through the mediation of L2 translation – that is, involving translators working into their second language. Usually considered as atypical, the dynamics of this literary translation practice are examined from a sociological perspective within the framework of Bourdieu’s sociology of culture. This exploration reveals three main driving forces (the quest for visibility, resistance and preservation), which, through their coexistence, make L2 literary translation a socially and culturally plausible modus operandi. Investigation of the various factors affecting such export projects shows that success or failure does not depend on the linguistic dexterity of the translators – the typical argument against L2 translation – but on the amount of cooperation with, and involvement of, various agents from the recipient context in these projects.

Keywords:

• Arabic literary translation
• L2 translation
• translation functions
• sociology of culture
• translation agents

Notes

1. The only derogations are for people translating non-creative language into their ‘language of habitual use’ (Newmark 1991, 21) or for purposes of language teaching, most efficient when introduced at a rather advanced stage. However, the received wisdom that L1 translation should prevail is increasingly being challenged (see Tirkkonen-Condit 2002; Pokorn 2005). See also Jamoussi (2002) for an investigation of the shortcomings of one specific aspect of L1 translation.

2. Subsequent periods, however, have been marked by a perceptible decline in translation activity. See Jacquemond (1992, 144) for a focus on the situation in Egypt. This decline in translation import cannot be accounted for in terms of a shift of Arabic to a central position and requires further investigation.

3. ‘Beside excellent transpositions due, in their majority, to people who are primarily writers but who occasionally assume the role of translators, a great many amateurs fall for a text or an author, transpose it/him as best they can into their mother tongue and manage to get published, often at any cost for that matter.’ Unless otherwise stated, all English translations are mine.

4. Although anecdotal evidence seems to show an upsurge of interest in Arabic language and Islamic studies spurred by recent events in the region, the impact on translation still has to be evidenced.

5. The novel in question here is Tayib Salih’s Mawsim al-Hijra ila-l Shamal, published in English under the title Season of Migration to the North.

6. ‘Due to its literary importance, this novel has been translated into many languages, notably French (which is the object of our interest here), into which it has been translated twice. The first translation was carried out by a Lebanese, Fady Noun, … A second French version was jointly undertaken by the Tunisian academic, writer and journalist Abdelwahab Meddeb together with the first translator Fady Noun.’

7. ‘The idea of translating Moroccan short stories into English started out as a reaction to the obvious dearth of Moroccan prose texts written in or translated into English.’

8. See for instance Heilbron (1999, 435) for a definition of belles infidèles.

9. ‘It has to be admitted … that Antoine Galland’s rewriting largely contributed to the celebrity of the One Thousand and One Nights. A literal translation of the manuscripts would have made the work difficult to read for a public that was still ill-informed of the things that go to make up the Orient and that was mainly fond of “belles infidèles”. Subjected to classical aesthetics like any other writer, the translator has to abide by rules of propriety, which make it necessary to reject coarse expressions as well as elements of every-day-life and of the material world.’

10. In the words of Bassnett and Trivedi, ‘European norms have ensured that only certain kinds of texts, those that will not prove alien to the receiving culture, come to be translated’ (1999, 5). These norms can even affect the upstream stage of SL text production. Jacquemond, in focusing on the case of Egyptian literature, reports that ‘modern Egyptian production was consistently asked to conform to dominant French ideological, moral, and aesthetic values in order to be translated and received in France’ (1992, 151).

11. In the words of Bassnett and Trivedi, ‘colonialism and translation went hand in hand’ (1999, 3). See also Ramakrishna (1997, 444), Said (1978, 78) on the domestication of the Orient into a ‘province of European learning’, and Bandia (1995, 491) on translation as a re-colonising attempt.

12. Letter to Cowell, 20 March 1957 (quoted in Bassnett 1980, 3).

13. Originally quoted in Niranjana (1992, 31).

14. Originally quoted in Niranjana (1992, 31). See also de Rivarol’s comments on the clarity of French (quoted in Swiggers 1990, 123).

15. See Grees (2003) for a review and discussion of the main arguments in this respect.

16. ‘bringing valuable unpublished texts back to life and rehabilitating doctored ones’. Loïc Barrière, Alger Info International, 13 December 1995. Quoted in Bouhlal (2005, 10).

17. Quoted in Hatim (2006).

18. Commenting on the situation in India, where, after a translation effort undertaken predominantly by British translators in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the scene witnessed a massive contribution from Indians in the nineteenth century, Mukherjee argues that this ‘practice of translation has … performed acts of recovery which, in some cases, developed into feats of preservation’ (Mukherjee 1997, 456).

19. Al Maleh is in fact describing Arab Anglophone authors here. However, writing in the foreign language and translating into it are often two sides of the same coin, as her analysis shows.

20. For instance, Issa J. Boullata (Hartford Seminary, McGill University, McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies, now retired), Bassam Frangieh (Claremont McKenna College), Adnan Haydar (University of California, Berkeley; the University of Pennsylvania; Middlebury College; and the University of Massachusetts; currently at the University of Arkansas), Mona N. Mikhail (New York University), Ibrahim Muhawi (Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon) and the late Farouk Abdel Wahab (University of Chicago). The case of Nehad Selaiha and the late Fatma Moussa-Mahmoud, who pursued their academic careers at home represent exceptions to the rule.

21. Tahar Ben Jalloun’s (1987) La Nuit Sacrée.

22. Since it was established in 2006, four translators of Arab origin have been the recipients of this prize.

23. Mona N. Mikhail for the translation of Seeds of Corruption, by Sabri Moussa (1980).

24. Mona N. Mikhail for the translation of the Story of Zahra, by Hanan al-Shaykh (1996).

25. Adnan Haydar with Michael Beard for the translation of Adonis’s (2008) Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs.

26. This does not include commercial success, though.

27. ‘Besides the advantage of moving from a system to another, the multilingual individual can translate the signifieds of a language in another, answer a question asked in a language by resorting to a second language.’

28. Personal communication, 2001.

29. Ironically, queries using these keywords in Arabic yield a significant number of hits.

30. The following examples are provided by way of illustration only: University of California Press (translator I. Muhawi), Modern Poetry in Translation (S. Simawe), Kegan Paul, Columbia University Press (S. K. Jayyusi), Doubleday (F. Moussa Mahmoud), Actes Sud (M. Meddeb/F. Noun), Verlag Edition Orient (N. Naguib), Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Austin, Univ. Texas at Austin (I. J. Boullata), Penguin and Viking (F. Abdel Wahab), University of California Press (Sherif Hetata). See also Jones (2000, 84, 85).

31. This is the case, for instance, for Roger Allen and Adnan Haydar for the translation of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s In Search of Walid Masoud (2000), M. Jayyusi and C. Tingley for Ibrahim Al-Koni’s The Bleeding of the Stone (2002), Bassam Frangieh and Clementina Brown for Hanna Mina’s Sun on a Cloudy Day (1997) and in S. K. Jayyusi’s anthologies (1992, 2005).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rafik Jamoussi

Rafik Jamoussi is an Assistant Professor of Translation Studies and a freelance translator. His involvement within his current position has included the review and implementation of a BA in translation. He is currently working on a nationwide survey investigating the uptake of translation technology among translation practitioners in Oman. His other research interests include translator training, translation syllabus design and translation history.