Translating rich and complex Arabic poetry for a contemporary English-reading audience is no easy feat. But Ferial Ghazoul, chair of the department of English and comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and John Verlenden, a writing instructor there, have won international acclaim for their translation of the poet Qassim Haddad’sThe Chronicles of Majnun Layla and Selected Poems. Haddad, who was born in Bahrain in 1948, is best known for his free-verse poetry and for reworking the classical love story into a modern poem infused with erotic imagery.

In Cairo, the two translators have been working together on translating Arabic literature in Cairo since 1995, including Edwar Al-Kharrat’s Rama and the Dragon and Muhammad Afifi Matar’s Quartet of Joy, which earned them the University of Arkansas Arabic Translation Award in 1997.

Their latest book is the product of almost nine years of work on Haddad’s poetry.

Published this year by Syracuse University, the book earned the professors another University of Arkansas Arabic Translation Award.

Ghazoul and Verlenden sought to convey Haddad’s evocative prose and imagery in their translation, consulting Arabic language and poetry experts from Cairo University and the American University of Beirut.

Their next project will be a book of translated poems by the Iraqi poet, Nazik Al-Mala’ika (1923- 2007), who, like Haddad is an Arabic free-verse pioneer. More.

See: Al-Fanar Media

Subscribe to the translation news daily digest here. See more translation news.