Khaled Mattawa and Denys Johnson-Davies

In interviews and conversations, Denys never theorizes or complicates his description of his process.The books he produced in English are ones he liked, written by people he grew to like. No presumptions, no other-ing, no historical burdens involved. Oldfashioned as sometimes seems, Denys appears to live in the multicultural utopia that all cosmopolitan sophisticates dream of establishing.

So, as Denys puts down his translator’s pen, we should salute him an any master artist whose has done much more than duty to his craft had called. But there is something Denys has not done enough of. His memoir was so rich and evocative that I read it twice – in one evening, I may add, because it was that short.The book seemed like a lush movie preview of what would certainly to be one of the great chronicles of our modern Arab literature. I certainly did not have enough of his stories and wish to read more.

Dear Denys, we can forgive your decision to quit translation.You have done more than what a hundred gifted translators could have done. But do write down your stories, for as much you have made your English translations part of our literature, your stories and memories will find a welcome home in our appreciate hearts.

A thousand healths to you, maestro, and a billion salams! PS . . .And dear scholars of Arab literature, dear literary biographers, why is there not one among edging to write Denys’s biography?

Khaled Mattawa is Associate Professor of Creative Writing, University of

Michigan, a poet and award-winning poetry translator.

BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 57