Basra Future Translators

The Return to Translation

2005-06-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

The Return to Marshes, The Return to Translation: Translation and Culture under Totalitarianism

The translation of Gavin Young’s (1990) exploratory book of the Iraqi world of marshes The Return to Marshes: A European in the Iraqi Marshes invites us to reflect on translations done under totalitarian and repressive systems of government and life such as Saddam Hussain’s. Young’s book was translated into Arabic by the Iraqi translator Fareed Dhia Shakara, with an introduction by Wathiq Al – Daini and published by the House of General Cultural affairs in Iraq. A typical example of the kind of effect that a totalitarian regime may have upon the practice of translation can be instanced from the 'dedications' of the author and the translator, for while the author uses the book to pay compliment to ordinary “marsh residents, to Wilfred Thessiger and to His Excellency Mr. Tariq Aziz who made it at all possible to go back to marshes again[1]” (p.10), the translation is dedicated, in bold and large font - to “the Leader of the masses in their march to future Mr. President Saddam Hussein, May God protect him” (p.5).

In his preface as a reviewer, Al – Daini praises the book, the author, the translator and the publishing house (making all of it an exploit for "nationalistic greatness”[2]. The three – page preface, however, is at odds with the reality of the time of the publication of the book and nowadays. To give just one example, the reviewer describes as one of the ironies of historical fates that "Iraq encompasses on its small size (430.000 square meters) the world’s different ecologies and environments (mountains, plains, valleys, deserts, rivers, lagoons and marshes), Iraqis especially at this time (Hussein’s era) are preordained unique and united"(p.7). The great irony is, rather, that Iraq’s deposed dictator never believed in the benefits of a diversity of ethnicities, different styles of life or varied nature, and for this reason he ruthlessly dried up the marshes and dispersed their people, in an attempt not only to destroy the marshes, but the cities as well as those people superimposed their customs, habits and practices 'unwillingly' against those of city dwellers[3]. Tyrants fear variance most and prosper unification and stagnancy. One of the greatest enemies of diversity is a government led by the inflated yet frail ego of a single individual, and one of the greatest enemies of tyranny is diversity and dynamism.

Al – Daini presented Young’s inquiry as implying that the real threat endangering the marshland and its people is the urban style of life. However, in this respect, the writer and the reviewer alike had underestimated the damage that totalitarianism and militarism inflicted on the uniqueness of the demography and population of the marshlands. As far as I can see it, it was not the ‘progress’ the country made in / after a policing period following the Baath Party assumption of power in 1968 or the long war(s) with the Iranians in 1980 – 1988 that was the threat and what caused most of the damage, but rather the regime's policy in domesticating and homogenizing the 'uneasy' marshes and its people so as to become loyal servants of the regime[4].

The reviewer sails into all those who believe, speak or write about difference in the Arab (marsh) life. Though admitting the existence of differences, he comes across unifying factors and argues that, by virtue of these unifying factors, Al-Maadan (the Arabic word used in reference to marsh-people) deserve to be compared to a Londoner or a New Yorker (p.8) . It is in this atmosphere that the reviewer commends on all the good qualities of Young, who not only incurred the difficulties of spending a good deal of time in the marshes but of criticisms of his (powerful) British fellowmen. Consequently, the writer is warmly welcomed as a friend and visitor (ibid.)[5].

Among the good qualities of the translation praised by the reviewer are the explanatory remarks appended to the end of each chapter of the book: "The translator Mr. Fareed Dhia Shakara may be equal to the author in his education and wide knowledge of the area, its customs and traditions. Moreover, the objective comments and explanatory notes written in plain Arabic exceed the English text in its local flavour…"(p.8). The book, as such, has ascertained the reviewer and his fellowmen (implying the government) that they have friends who if unhelpful are unharmful: "I am ascertained that we have friends who if unhelpful are unharmful. How are we to reward them for sharing us our own sufferings , partaking in our good endeavour and conveying us the feelings of friendliness and respect for all what we have done to them?" (p.9)[6].

More evidence of the political leanings behind the translation can be found in the translator’s notes appended to the end of the chapters of the book. The book is divided into twelve chapters and an epilogue. The notes amount to (67) and can be summarized into identification of individuals, explanations to some tools and habits in the marsh area, explanations of the Arab and Baathi views of historical events, geographic explanations, Quranic references, reservations on some of the author’s opinions, and, finally, appreciative comments on the progress achieved by the Revolution and its Leader at all levels of life. The last two types of notes (i.e. reservation and appreciation), for example, are intended to distance the translator from positions that might be considered as contrary to the Baath, see for instance note (8) on the author’s citing of Bertram Thomas opinion of Iraqis: “This is Bertram Thomas’s viewpoint. Iraqis now adopt different measures for blessing rulers into rule like confidence, love, sacrifice, bravery, honesty, and that’s what happened in blessing the President Saddam Hussein’s into ruling Iraq" (p.89)[7].

Paying homage neither to the marsh people nor to the Iraqi nation but to the leadership, the translator on his part infringes the neutral spirit of the writer by his very introductory paragraph: ”If Japan was able to transform itself from the medieval ages to the modern times in a period of 33 years, the 17 - 30 July blessed revolution (The Baath revolution) was able to transform the marshland area from the Sumerian age into the second half of the 20th century in a period of five years; this is the period spanning the revolution in 1986 and the returning of the author to the marshes in 1972.This book is a testimony on the great achievement accomplished by the Revolution under its victorious Leader Commander Saddam Hussein, May Good protect him” (p.11).

In introducing the author and the book (p.13), either the translator or the reviewer or the publishing house (as no clear reference is made) says that “Gavin Young is never strange to the marshes, his name is all familiar to the people as he had shared them life for more than thirty years. When (Gavin) reaches the marshes, Sheikhs and youth hurry to receive him. Whoever was in front (in the Iraqi - Iranian War) asks for a leave to meet this man whom they lived with, who became familiar to them and who knew well their fathers and forefathers. Gavin Young had written about the marshes, the people and their valiance in repulsing the Iranian aggression on their land. After the glorious marsh battles, Gavin Young hurriedly returned to marshes to get ascertained about the well - being of his friends. The articles he wrote in the British Observer are the most authentic of the sacrifice of the Iraqis in defending his land and country” (p.13).

The introduction provided by the author, on the other hand, explains in neutral terms the circumstances under which the book came into being: his first acquaintance with Wilfred Thessiger, the most recent books and authors on the marshes and his impressions of the marshes and of the marsh – people. The author also acknowledges the support of different institutions and individuals, among them: members of the London Institute for Oriental and African Studies and the Iraqi Museum, British people who had or were operating in Iraq , the then Editor – in – chief of the Iraqi English Observer, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naji Al – Hadithi, and The Observer. The book, in the author’s words, is a personal tribute to Arab marsh friends (p.14). By comparing the author's introduction to the book and the translator's own introduction, it becomes clear that an infringement of authorship has taken place, and that this is motivated by political propaganda.

Monolinguals, however, can read and enjoy Young's book with the propagandist notes discarded. This can be attained through reading another translation that appeared in Beirut translated by Asia Al-Turaihi . That it was in Beirut allows the translator a greater freedom to work comfortably as the book would not be censored. This would show that the purpose of Fareed Dhia Shakara's translation is not to make the text accessible to Iraqi readers but to serve some political ends. With the second Arabic version, however, comes in another problem in translation: The doubling of efforts!

Personally, I liked the little vernacular marsh Arabic that surfaced into the book, as in the following example, (p.124):

8 Yahoo hath (Marsh Arabic)? X man hatha (classical Arabic)? Who is it?
9 Sideej X sadeek X A friend.

The use of the real language as spoken by the marsh men is necessary for both attracting the Iraqi reader who knows well the language and informing and documenting this special variety to the Arab reader. More importantly, it makes a book on the marshes looks like a book on the marshes and not any other book. I have been somehow shocked by the translation of Sahain's (Young's close marsh men) wife as saying: hasanan alashaa jahizon alaan (Well, supper is ready now.). It would have been more attractive if that marsh woman made to seem a marsh women saying "al – isha walim".

Or the true Marsh song on page (106):

Galoli alarab anak, thalim min sigir sinak
(The Arabs told me of you, a tyrant from an early age)[8].

Sources

Al – Turaihi, Asia (tr) (1994). The Return to Marshes. Gavin Young. Beirut:
The Arab Establishment for Studies.
Shakara, Fareed Dhia (tr.) (1990). The Return to Marshes. Gavin Young.
Baghdad: The House of General Cultural Affairs.

Notes

[1] All quotes from the original text are literal translations carried out by the author.
[2] Kindly note how the reviewer praises the translation "I was pleased reading the book, original and translation. I became fully convinced of the greatness of my country's history and civilization… The House of the Cultural Affairs - authentic in its selection, meticulous in sustaining its status and ever aiming at tying the reader to his country, nation and the world – may have the greeting of whom it commissioned the reviewing and assessing of the translation…." (My italics, p.9).
[3]As an inhabitant of Basra province ,south of Iraq, I live daily tensions and go through many problems and criminal acts mainly committed by the marshmen.Tribal values, lack of education and long years of deprivation and separation can be counted as main reasons for this seemingly unresoleavable question.
[4] It is worth pointing that the regime faced and acted the same way with the Kurds and their mountains in the 1970s. The Kurds were either fought to the last breath or domesticated in other non – Kurdish areas to which they were deported; their rugged mountains were blown up by explosives, and roads were paved for the military and regime's control.
[5]Ironically enough, foreign relations are very well - monitored and suspected in dictatorships as we practiced in Saddam Hussein's era.

[6] Ironically, foreign sympathies and sharing with the Iraqi people have always been demagogically exploited by the regime's mass media as being sympathies with the Leader.
[7] Thomas' note , however , goes this way :" The tribal man living in far – off areas with his gun close is unruled unless he is convinced of the power and will of his ruler , and that this ruler works sincerely for the good of his people"(Unfortunately Young's book was lost here in the looting and burning of the libraries of the University of Basra and I am providing here my translation of Thomas' note as cited by Young and as it appeared on p.88 of the translation).
[8] The tyrant here is a love tyrant. The singer, a lover, speaks of some close people (using the generic "the Arabs") informing and advising him or her that the beloved is a tyrant … does not take care of your love.

As-Sayyab : A Censored Poet & Translator

2005-06-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

Unfinished Article
As - Sayyab : A Censored Poet & Translator

The Iraqi poet Badr Shakir As-Sayyab , like many world geniuses, died untimely in 1964 after a long suffering with a chronic disease. His short life (1925/1926 – 1964 ), however, was meaningful from the literary perspective. As-Sayyab was able to revitalize the Arab poetry by revolting against the classical form and content of poetry. His resources for doing so were the local traditions and the achievements of such acclaimed poets as T.S. Elliot, Edith Sitwell, Ezra Pound, Nadhim Hikmat , to name only a few.
Poor, ill and stricken by the unhealthy social and political atmosphere of Iraq in the 4th – 6th decades of the twentieth century, As-Sayyab made a number of choices which were all censored by the then thought police of Iraq. As a poet, his poetry were often censored and criticized, and he had consequently to mask his themes and thoughts in symbols. Viewing his time as being devoid of any spiritual values and controlled by iron and gold, As-Saayab resorted to symbols to enrich his world and to attack the non-poetic world of his time (As-Sayyab quotd in Abbas,p.187).Elsewhere (Balata : 189-190), As-Sayyab openly states his reasons for employing legends and myths in his poetry : " perhaps I am the first contemporary Arab poet to use myths as symbols . The political motive was the main reason that urged me doing so. When I wanted to resist the royal and Saidi[1] rule through poetry, I employed symbols - which the men of Noori As-Said were not able to understand – as a cover for that purpose. I used symbols for the same reason in Qassim's rule[2]. In my poem " Sirius in Babel" , I bitterly criticized Qassim and his administration without their notice. Moreover, I criticized that regime in my other poem "The City of Sinbade". When I wanted to express the failure of the July Revolution in achieving its original aims, I replaced the Babylonian name of "July" by the Greek "Adonis", which is just a copy of it".
As a translator, As-Sayab's translations were censored under different pretexts. In 1955 As-Sayyab translated some twenty poems which were published in a book entitled " Selected Poems from Modern World Poetry". T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, Edith Sitwell, Stephen Spender, John Fletcher and C. Day Lewis were among the translated poets. Other poets were from Spain, Greece, Chile, Italy, France, Belgium, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Turkey and India. Commenting on the book, Balata (84) contends that " in 1955, As-Sayyab was preoccupied with translation. He did not want to write new poetry that would put him in clash with then authorities. It seemed that his translations were symbolically open for they contained a number of thoughts on prisoners, laborers, nationalists, poor people, suppression and exploitation. Thus he was arrested in Al-Kadhimain Police Station for seven days , and Mr. Mahmood Al-Ibta defended him. As the judge was convinced that translator was innocent , he fined him five Iraqi Dinars according to the 1323 Ottoman Publishing Law for not mentioning the name of the publishing house".
That was not the only attack on the book. Abbas (238) mentions that the "Al-Thakafa Al-Wataniya" (literally : The National Culture) magazine attacked the translation in its issue of November 1955 . The magazine accused As-Sayyab of translating some fascist and Nazi poets like Pound and some spies of the Intelligent Service like Stephen Spender (Al-Ali,1995:20)!
Fearing censorship, prosecution and party retaliation, As-Sayyab in the period in which he divorced the Iraqi Communist Party published namelessly some chapters of Richard Crossman's book "The God that Failed". The book talks about the experience of six (Richard Right, Arthur Koestler, Inacio Celloni, Lewis Fisher, Stephen Spender and Andre Gide) literary figures talking of their change of their thoughts on communism (ibid.).[3]
As-Sayyab also did some translations for the American Franklin publishing enterprise. He translated S. Eifert's " New Birth of Freedom", Walter Farley's " The Black Stallion" and some chapters of Forester & Falk's " American Prose and Poetry". Additionally, he did some reviewing work for the enterprise. The translator's work for Franklin was severely criticized and some seized the opportunity of under reputing him.[4]
It is noteworthy that censorship and police thought are all the more acute in conservative and repressive regimes such as Saddam Hussain's. In such "systems' of administration, no author or translator , dead or alive is exempted from censorship. As-Sayyab poem "Song of Rain" was long published and translated in the 1980s by the Iraqi Cultural Centre ( by Basima Bizigan & Elizabeth Fernea) in London. Some important lines of that masterpiece were deleted just because they criticized the Iraq of the 1950! . The italicized lines below are omitted in the translation, and they are incorporated from another translation to demonstrate their invaluable position in the text:
I can hear the palm - trees drinking rain.
I can hear the villages moaning, and
emigrants
Battling, with oars and rough axes,
65 The storms of the Gulf and the thunder,
singing:
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…

There is hunger in Iraq
And corn is scattered to feed
The locusts and ravens in harvest time
In the fields the mills go round and round,
Grinding grain and stones,
Grinding men.
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…[5]
How many tears we shed the night we
departed,
70 Excusing our sorrow by saying, ‘ It’s only the
rain.’
Rain…
Rain…
Since the days of our childhood, the sky
Was always cloudy and dark in winter,
75 And the rain beat down.

We starve each year when the soil
Breaks forth into shoot;
Not one year has gone by
Without hunger in the land.[6]

Rain…
Rain…
Rain…
Each drop glows
80 Red or yellow, from the petals of flowers
Each tear of the naked and hungry,
Each drop of blood shed by slaves,
Becomes a smile awaiting a new mouth,
Or a nipple pink from the sucking
85 Of the newborn child
In the world of a new tomorrow, the world
that will offer life.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …[7]

Finally, censorship - often admitted and defended by all for one reason or another- is relative to the extent of conservatism and freedom a society enjoys. It is very much active and widespread in totalitarian systems of rule. The translator, like any intellectual, in such societies develops a higher sense of self-censorship. In historical and political books, the translator makes a full use of prefaces and footnoting just to defend himself against any charge which may be leveled against ( Al-Ali,2005:forthcoming). And while "slight" modifications are being advised for and done by translators for the benefit of the text, a sensitive reader may see them damaging for the text like the one above.

References

Abbas, Ihsan (1969). Badr Shakir As-Sayyab : Astudy of his Life & Poetry.Beirut: Dar Athakafa.

Al-Ali, Kadhim (1995). Badr Shakir As-Sayyab as a Translator. Bulletin of the College of Arts.
-------------------- (2001) . The Song of Rain: The Poem and Three Translations. Basra : Dar As-Siraaj.

-------------------- (2005). The Return to Marshes, The Return to Translation: Translation & Culture under Totalitarianism.

Balata, Isa (1987). Badr Shakir As-Sayyab: His Life & Poetry. Beirut: The House for Public Cultural Affairs.

Notes

[1] The adjective Saidi is used in reference to Noori As-Said a prime minister in the royal Iraq who formed a number of cabinets. The man was severely attacked for his alleged association with the west. He was assassinated in the 1958 July Revolution while running away in women's cloak.
[2] Abdul-Kareem Qassim , a colonel , led the 14th of July 1958 Revolution that ended monarchy in Iraq. He was assassinated by the Baathists.
[3] It is important to mention that As-Sayyab published at the same time some articles entitled "I was a Communist" in Al-Huriyya ( literally , the Freedom) newspaper.
[4] The deposed Saddam Hussein's regime poet Sami Mehdi is a bitter critic of As-Sayyab saying that his translation competence and his (foreign) cultural background are ill-founded on the rumor that he graduated of the English department of the High Teachers House, taught English for some high schools , and translated some books for Franklin (Megdi,1993:176).
[5] These and following italicized lines are added from another translation by Nadi Bachai. It is worth pointing out that the original text speaks of mills rather than operated by mules were operated by men. The men are not fed properly, and as such they are grinded in the end.
[6] The original text specifies Iraq rather than the translator's "in the field".
[7] There is a third translation, and the author who is presently a Ph.D. candidate in translation is working on the responses of non Arab fluent speakers of English to these translations .He would very much appreciate colleagues responding to full texts at www.translationresponse.blogspot.com

سنوات صدام / ج1

2005-05-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

هذه مقتطفات من كتاب صدر حديثا للمترجم الخاص للرئيس العراقي صدام حسين. قام بأعداد و تحرير الكتاب السيدان كريستيان شينو و جورج مالبرونو. و قيه يروي السيد سامان عبد المجيد جوانب من سنوات الدكتاتورية ، و يشكل الكتاب مع كتب أخرى مثل " كنت طبيبا لصدام" للدكتور الجراح علاء بشير و " كنت أبنا للرئيس منارات لا غنى عنها لفهم هذه الحقبةالمظلمة من تأريخ العراق.

لقد ظللت أعمل الى جانبه خلال الفترة التي تعقدت قيها الأزمة ، و كنت أعلم ان صدام كان أقدر على التصرف بكثير من البراغماتية رغم تصوره البدوي للشرف و العزة ، و كنت أعرف أيضا ، بفضل المعلومات التي كنا ننقلها اليه ، انه كان يعي خطورة الوضع .. حق الوعي .
في الغالب كان صدام ينهض في حدود الخامسة صباحا ، و قد شعرنا حقا خلال الشهور الستة التي سبقت الحرب انه لم يذق طعم الراحة . كان يرسل الينا بريده بواسطة حراسه ، في أي ساعة من ساعات الليل أو النهار . كان جهاز نقل الرسائل مروضا ترويضا متقنا ، ففي الأوقات العادية كان رجل من رجال الأمن يحمل رسائلنا الى الرئيس فيسلمها الى مكتب الأستقبال في بناية سرية تقع حارج القصر ، فيتكفل رجل ثان من الأمن بنقلها الى سكرتير الرئيس الخاص ، عبد الحمود الذي كان يظطلع بفتحها ، و لاشيء من كل هذا تغير أثناء الأزمة ، فقد ظل صدام يمسك بزمام العراق حتى النهاية. ص9

Translation Response

2005-05-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Colleagues,

"Doing research is never an easy task in the present Iraqi situation! Your kind response, however , can make it possible." Could you please forward to other colleagues?

Your answers will be confidentially utilized in a Ph.D. project on “Assessing Responses of Non - Arab English Speakers to Arab / Iraqi Poetry Translated into English”. Kindly note the following:
1.Kindly read the three translations well before responding to them.
2. Please fill in personal information. Your name may be needed
for further information on your responses. Age and sex may be taken as variables in the study, so please do not forget
them.
3. Please note that this research depends on your personal response; taking it seriously, however, promotes translation and academic research in new Iraq. Moreover, as it is personal, there is no need for seeking the help of other people.
4. I would appreciate any enquiry on the questions and the
subject as well.

Kindest Regards

Kadhim Al – Ali
Ph.D. Candidate
Iraq
kadhimalali@hotmail.com

Responses are expected until the end of 2005

Please fill in the following:

1. Full Name:2. Age:3. Sex:4. Nationality:5. Proficiency in English:
6. Degree (university ,other):7. Occupation:
8. Are you interested in world’s literature / poetry?
9. Are you interested in Arabic literature / poetry?
How do you respond to / enjoy / evaluate these
translations? You may consider ambiguity, meaning
indeterminacy, cultural differences and loads, word
choice, sentence structures, themes, rhetorics…etc.

Translation (1)
Translated by:Basima Bizrgan & Elizabeth Fernea

In the hour before the dawn
Your eyes are two groves of palm - trees
Or two balconies
Passed over by the moon
5 When your eyes smile, vines flower
And lights dance … like the reflection of the
moon in the river
Disturbed gently by the movement of oars
In the hour before dawn,
As if stars throbbed in their depth
10 The stars drown in a mist of sorrow
The sea opens its arms
In the warmth of winter, the chill of autumn
Embracing death and birth and darkness and
light,
The shiver of a sob wakens in my soul
15 And a wild ecstasy courses through me
reaching the sky
The ecstasy of a child who fears the moon.
Smaller clouds are lost in the heavy dark
clouds
Which, drop by drop, disperse in rain;
The children’s giggling in the grape arbors
20 Tickles the silence of the sparrows in the
trees.
Then comes the song of the rain.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
25 The evening yawns and the clouds continue
to gush
And pour, pour their heavy tears down
Like a child weeping in his sleep
For his mother whom, when he a year
ago,
He did not see
30 And when he persisted in asking,
They told him,
“She’ll be back the day after tomorrow.
She must come “
Though friends whisper that she’s there
35 At the side of the hill, sleeping the sleep of
the dead,
Down in her own earth, drinking the rain
Like a disappointed fisherman gathering his
nets,
And cursing the fates and the waters,
Singing his mournful songs when the moon
wanes.
40 Rain …
Rain …
Do you know what grief the rain brings?
When gutters resound with the sad music of
the falling rain,
And how the lonely feel a sense of loss when
it rains
45 Endlessly … like bleeding, like hunger,
Like love, like children, like death
Is the rain.
I see your eyes
Which seem to float with the rain
And across the waves of the Gulf, lightning
Sweeps the shores of Iraq with flashes of
stars and coral ,
As though the shores themselves would rise
up
Before the night draws over them a cover of
blood.
I cry aloud to the Gulf:
55 ‘O Gulf,
Giver of pearls and coral and death’
I can hear Iraq storing thunder,
Storing lightning on mountains and in
valleys,
And when she has finished,
60 She will stamp them as her own.
(The great storm left no trace in the valley
of the village Thamud. )
I can hear the palm - trees drinking rain.
I can hear the villages moaning, and
emigrants
Battling, with oars and rough axes,
65 The storms of the Gulf and the thunder,
singing:
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…
How many tears we shed the night we
departed,
70 Excusing our sorrow by saying, ‘ It’s only the
rain.’
Rain…
Rain…
Since the days of our childhood, the sky
Was always cloudy and dark in winter,
75 And the rain beat down.
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…
Each drop glows
80 Red or yellow, from the petals of flowers
Each tear of the naked and hungry,
Each drop of blood shed by slaves,
Becomes a smile awaiting a new mouth,
Or a nipple pink from the sucking
85 Of the newborn child
In the world of a new tomorrow, the world
that will offer life.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
90 Iraq’s fields grow green in the rain …
I cry aloud to the Gulf:
‘O Gulf,
Giver of coral and death.’
My words return
95 In the echo of a sob:
“O Gulf “
Giver of coral and death.’
The Gulf spreads its gifts on the sands,
A foam of flaming coral.
100 And the bones of the drowned,
One of the emigrants who drank death
In the fathomless depths of the Gulf.
Countless serpents in Iraq drink the nectar
Of the flowers watered by the Euphrates, the
innocent dew.
I hear the echo
Ringing across the Gulf
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…
110 Each drop glows
Red or yellow, from the petals of flowers,
And each tear of the naked and hungry,
Each drop of blood shed by slaves
Becomes a smile awaiting a new mouth,
115 Or a nipple pink from the sucking
Of the newborn child …
In the world of a new tomorrow, the world
that will offer life.
And the rain pours down.

Translation (2)
Translated by: Nadia Bach

1Your eyes are forests of palm at dawn
Or lattices behind which the moon sets;
When they smile the vines burst into leaf
And lights dance like moons on a river
5Stirred by an oar which flags at break of day,
Its depths throbbing with stars.
They drown
In mists of sorrow serene as the sea
When the night spreads its hands over it.
10They quiver with tremors of autumn,
With death and birth, with darkness and with
light.
My soul wells over with sadness and an
ecstasy
Fierce as that of a child which fears the
moon.
It embraces the skies like rainbows which drink in the clouds
15Till drop by drop they melt into rain.
Children gurgle in the vinebowers
And the silence of the birds on the trees
Tingles with the song of the rain.
Rain…
20 Rain…
Rain…
The night yawns and the clouds
Still drip with heavy tears
Like a child who rambles in his sleep
25About having woken up one morning
To find his mother gone.
And to his persistent questions
They had replied,
“She will come back
30 The day after tomorrow,
No doubt she will return”.
Yet friends whispered that she lay
There on the side of the hill,
Sleeping the sleep of death,
35 Breathing in the dust,
Drinking in the rain
Like a sad fisherman who gathers in his nets
While he scatters his song
To where the moon sets.
40Rain…
Rain…
Do you know what sorrow brings rain?
How the waterpipes burst when it pours,
How desolate a man feels when he is alone?
45 Rain without end, like blood that is shed,
Like hunger and love and children and the
dead.
Rain…
And in your eyes I surge along with the rain,
50 And across the waves of the gulf
Flashes of lightning sweep the shores of Iraq
With shells and stars, making them glow
When at sunrise the night casts veils
Of blood over them. I cry out,
55 “O gulf, giver of pearls, of shells, of death” .I can almost hear Iraq
hoarding
Thunder and lightning in the mountains and
the plains
If ravished by men these will release
Gales that will leave no trace
60 Of Thammud in the valley.
I can almost hear the palms
Drink in the rain,
And I hear the villagers moan
And the refugees struggle with sail and oar
65 Against the storms of the gulf.
I can hear peals of thunder singing
“Rain…
Rain…
Rain…”
70 There is hunger in Iraq
And corn is scattered to feed
The locusts and ravens in harvest time.
In the fields the mills go round and round,
Grinding grain and stones,
75 Grinding men.
Rain…
Rain…
Rain…
How many tears have we shed
80 On the eve of departure
Pleading - for fear of blame -
The rain.
We have always known the sky
To gather with clouds in winter
85 And the rain to fall.
We starve each year when the soil
Breaks forth into shoot;
Not one year has gone by
Without hunger in the land.
90 Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
In every drop which falls,
Yellow or red from the heart of a flower,
95 In every tear shed by the hungry and the
naked,
And every drop spilt of the blood of serfs,
Is a smile awaiting a fresh one
To follow in its wake, or a nipple
Which flowers at the mouth of a babe
100 In the brave new world of tomorrow.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
Iraq will burst forth into leaf
105 With the rain.
And I cry, “O gulf,
Giver of pearls, shells, of death”.
And the echo wails an answer,
“O gulf, giver of shells, of death”.
110 And it strews its many gifts over the sands:
Shells, brine and the scattered
Bones of some immigrant
Who has drunk deeply of death from the gulf.
In Iraq there are a thousand snakes
115 Who have sucked the scent of a flower
Watered by the Euphrates with dew.
And I hear an echo
Ringing through the gulf,
Rain …
120 Rain …
Rain …
In every drop of rain which falls
Yellow or red from the heart of a flower,
And every tear shed by the hungry and the
naked,
125 And every drop spilt of the blood of serfs
Is a smile awaiting a fresh one
To follow in its wake, or a nipple
Which flowers at the mouth of a babe
In the young world of tomorrow;
130 World, giver of life.
And the rain falls heavily.

Translation (3)
Translated by: Isa Balata

1Your eyes are two palm groves at the hour of
dawn
Or two balconies from which the moon
recedes.
When your eyes smile, vineyards leaf
And lights dance like moons in a river
5 Which an oar shakes at the hour of dawn
As if, in their depths, stars are throbbing.
Like the sea when evening spreads its hands
over it
They are drowned in clouds of transparent
grief
Full of the warmth of winter, the shiver of
autumn,
10 Death, birth, darkness and light.
The tremor of weeping awakes in my soul
With a frightful thrill embracing the moon.
Like a child’s when awed by the moon
As if the rainbow drinks the clouds
15 And drop by drop melts in rain
And children babble under vine trellises
And the song of rain
Tickles the silence of birds on the trees
Rain …
20 Rain …
Rain …
Evening yawns, and the clouds
Pour down their heavy tears
Like a child who before sleeping raves
25 That his mother - whom he did not find
On waking up a year ago and was to
After persisting questions
That she would return day after tomorrow
Must by all means return
30 Although his comrades whisper that she is
there
On the hillside mortally sleeping in her grave
Eating earth and drinking rain;
As if a sad fisherman gathers his nets
And curses water and destiny
35 And casts a song where the moon sets.
Rain…
Rain…
Do you know what sadness the rain evokes?
And how roof-gutters sob when it pours?
40 And how in it the lonely person feels lost?
Endless is the rain: like shed blood,
Like hunger, love, children and the dead.
Your eyes come to my fancy with rain
And cross the Gulf’s waves lightning
burnishes
45 With stars and shells the coasts of Iraq
As if they are about to shine
But night covers them with a robe of gore.
I cry to the Gulf, “O Gulf,
O giver of shells and death.”
50 The echo comes back
Like sobs,
“O Gulf,
O giver of shells and death.”
I can almost hear Iraq gathering thunder
55 And storing up lightning in mountains and
plains
So that when men break open their seals
The winds will not leave of Thamud
Any trace in the vale.
I can almost hear the palms drink the rain
60 And hear the villages moaning and the
emigrants
Struggling with oars and sails
Against the tempests and thunder of the Gulf
while they sing :
“Rain …
Rain …
65 Rain …
And there is hunger in Iraq!
The harvest season scatters the crops in it
So that ravens and locusts have their full
While a millstone in the fields surrounded by
human beings
70 Grinds the granaries and the stones.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
How many a tear we shed, on departure
night,
75 And - lets we should be blamed - pretended it was rain.
Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
Ever since we were young, the sky was
Clouded in the winter,
80 And rain poured,
Yet every year when the earth bloomed we
hungered.
Not a single year passed but Iraq had hunger.
Rain …
Rain …
85 Rain …
In every drop of rain
There is a red or yellow bud of a flower.
And every tear of the hungry and the naked,
And every drop shed from the blood of slaves
90 Is a smile waiting for new lips
Or a roseate nipple in the mouth of a babe
In the young world of tomorrow, giver of life.
Rain …
Rain …
95 Rain …
Iraq will bloom with rain.”
I cry to the Gulf, “O Gulf,
O giver of pearls, shells and death.”
The echo comes back
100 Like sobs,
“O Gulf,
O giver of shells and death.”
Of its many gifts, the Gulf strews
On the sand its salty surf and shells
105 And what remains of the bones of a
miserable, drowned
Emigrant who drank death
From the Gulf waters and its bottom,
While in Iraq a thousand snakes drink nectar
From flowers blooming with the dew of the
Euphrates .
110 I hear the echo
Resounding in the Gulf,
“Rain …
Rain …
Rain …
115 In every drop of rain
There is a red or yellow bud of a flower.
And every tear of the hungry and the naked,
And every drop shed from the blood of slaves
Is a smile waiting for new lips
120 Or a roseate nipple in the mouth of a babe
In the young world of tomorrow, giver of
life.”
And rain pours.

Translations

2005-05-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

God's work is perfect , man's never. This makes life goes on. This makes translation possible!

To His Love

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2. Though art more lovely and more temperate
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
4. And summer’s lease hath all too short a date

5. Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines
6. And often is his gold complexion dimm’d:
7. And every fair from fair sometimes declines
8. By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d

9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10.Nor lose possession of that fair though owest
11.Nor shall brag thou wanderst in his shade,
12.When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

13.So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14.So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(1) ترجمة الشاعرة فطينة النائب
1. مـنذا يقارن حسـنك المغرى بصـيف قد تجـلى
2. وفتون سحرك قد بدت في ناظري أسمى وأغلـى ؟
3. تجني الرياح العاتيات على البراعم و هي جذلـى
4. و الصـيف يمضي مسرعا إذ عـقده المحدود ولى
5. كـم أشـرقت عـين السـماء بـحرها تـتلهب
6. و لكـم خبـا في وجـهها الذهـبي نور يغرب
7. لابـد للـحسن البـهي عن الجميل سـيذهـب
8. فالدهــر تغـيير و أطـوار الطبـيعة قـلب
9. لكن صــيفك سرمـدي ما اعـتراه ذبـــول
10 لن يفـقد الحـسن الذي مـلكت فهـو بخــيل
11. و المـوت لن يـزهو بظـلك في حمـاه يجول
12. ستعاصــرين الدهـر في شعري و فيك أقول:
13. ما دامـت الأنـفاس تصـعد و العـيون تـحدق
14. سيــظل شعـري خـالدا و علـيك عمرا يغدق

(2) ترجمة يوئيل عزيز و آخرون

1. هل أشبهك بيوم ربيع جميل؟
2. أنت أجمل صفة و أكثر اعتدالا
3. فالرياح العاتية قد تهز براعم أيار اليانعة
4. و فصل الربيع قصير
5. ان شمسه في بعض الأحيان قاسية
6. أو كئيبة تكسوها الغيوم
7. و كل جميل لابد ان يفقد جماله الفاني
8. فهذه سنة الحياة و الطبيعة المتقلبة
9. أما ربيعك الخالد فلن يفنى
10. و يبقى جمالك خالدا إلى الأبد
11. و لن يفخر الموت انك تسيرين في ظله
12. حين تعيشين خالدة في هذه الأبيات
13. إذ مادام الإنسان يتنفس و عينه تبصر
14. فان هذه الأبيات ستعيش لتمنحك الحياة

(3) ترجمة جبرا أبراهيم جبرا

1. أ بيوم من أيام الصيف أشبهك؟
2. لأكثر جمالا أنت و أشد اعتدالا
3. فالرياح العتية تجني على براعم آيار الحبيبة
4. و عقد الصيف ما أقصر أجله

5. و عين السما آنا تشرق بقيظ ملتهب
6. و آنا في صفحتها الذهبية يخبو البريق
7. و كل حسن عن الحسن يوما يفترق
8. فاقدا زهوه بطارئ أو بمجرى الطبيعة المتقلبة:
9. أما صيفك الأبدي فلن يسري فيه الذبول
10. و لن يفقد الحسن الذي تمتلكه
11. و لن يفخر الموت بأنك تطوف في ظله،
12. حين تعاصر الأزمان بأبيات خالدة:

13. فما دام في الناس رمق وفي العيون بصر
14. هذا القصيد سيحيا ، و ينفخ فيك الحياة

Translation Competence

2005-05-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

In addition to linguistic competence in any two languages, a translator needs to develop translation competence. Such type of competence includes a number of stored options for handling a problem at hand. Next to translation competence is patience. An impatient translator is never able to spend a good deal of time proofreading and revising his product. The good number of failure "translators" is good case study!

Translators' Friendly Space

2005-05-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Students,Colleagues & Friends,

This space is created for you to express your thoughts , ideas and feelings from a translator's perspective. It's an attempt. It's you who can fail it or make it a success. I expect all participants to be very responsible and follow etiquette when commenting or expressing themselves.

Best Regards & Wishes

Kadhim Al-Ali