Skip to main content
Read page text
page 64
WILLIAM M. HUTCHINS Hats off to the dean of translators! Denys Johnson-Davies has had more influence on my career as a translator of Arabic literature than any other individual. This fact may seem puzzling, because I never studied with him or collaborated with him on any project. Moreover I met him only after I had completed translating all three volumes of The Cairo Trilogy, and even then we never really sat down to talk or brainstorm. Since the two-year period when we were both at the American University in Cairo, we have met twice at conferences in Cairo.The first time I initially did not recognize him; the second time he did not initially recognize me. What Denys Johnson-Davies did was to show me something that was revolutionary for me at the time. It is thanks in great measure to his work that the idea now seems self-evident and beyond dispute. Back when I was a student of philosophy of various sorts, including medieval Islamic philosophy, his translations demonstrated to me the value and importance of paying attention to contemporary Arabic literature. The three books that most influenced me then were his translations of Tewfik Al-Hakim’s The Tree Climber and Fate of a Cockroach and Johnson-Davies’ collection called Modern Arabic Short Stories. My copies of these books have travelled with me to my various postings. My two volumes of translations of plays by Al-Hakim were an hommage to Al-Hakim but equally to Johnson-Davies. The same can be said of my book Egyptian Tales and Short Stories of the 1970s and 1980s. I tried hard to avoid duplicating his efforts in these books and also in In the Tavern of Life, short stories by Al-Hakim. So, hats off to the dean of translators of Arabic literature: Denys Johnson-Davies! William M Hutchins is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University, USA, and a literary translator. 62 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
page 65
MUSA AL-HALOOL Not even a typo! Before 2009, it never occurred to me that I would be lucky enough to meet Denys Johnson-Davies, “the leading Arabic-English translator of our time”, to quote Edward Said. Even the lecture he had given at Aleppo University I missed and thus failed to defend him when he was treated rudely by some self-styled luminaries among my compatriots. I was no less soured by the Arabic translation of his book, Memories in Translation. This horrendous piece of ingratitude on our part moved me to detail in writing our massive debt to Denys. When that article was published by a popular Saudi magazine in 2009, the editors made a dog's dinner of it. Too embarrassed to send Denys a copy of my brutally ravaged piece, I emailed him the original (which I later republished in my book Anguished Arabic). Delighted with my modest article, he personally nominated me to translate his book Stories from the Life of the Prophet Muhammad for a Dubai publisher.To translate a work by Denys was an honour beyond all imagining. In November 2009, I flew to Cairo to meet him and his wife Paola Crociani. During my week there, I was enveloped in their kindness and singular generosity. Back in Saudi Arabia, I proudly worked for two weeks at my assignment. Once again, Denys was delighted with my work, and he phoned me to tell me just that. A few minutes after we hung up, he called back. “Ya Musa, . . .” He went on to tell me I had put the wrong diacritical mark on a certain verb! While my Saudi editors thought that the 80-plus mistakes they had scattered through my article were not worth fussing about, meticulous Denys at 87 would not tolerate even a typo! Musa Al-Halool, a Syrian academic and translator, is currently Associate Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Taif University, Saudi Arabia BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 63

Page Text

View plaintext

WILLIAM M. HUTCHINS

Hats off to the dean of translators!

Denys Johnson-Davies has had more influence on my career as a translator of Arabic literature than any other individual. This fact may seem puzzling, because I never studied with him or collaborated with him on any project. Moreover I met him only after I had completed translating all three volumes of The Cairo Trilogy, and even then we never really sat down to talk or brainstorm. Since the two-year period when we were both at the American University in Cairo, we have met twice at conferences in Cairo.The first time I initially did not recognize him; the second time he did not initially recognize me. What Denys Johnson-Davies did was to show me something that was revolutionary for me at the time. It is thanks in great measure to his work that the idea now seems self-evident and beyond dispute. Back when I was a student of philosophy of various sorts, including medieval Islamic philosophy, his translations demonstrated to me the value and importance of paying attention to contemporary Arabic literature. The three books that most influenced me then were his translations of Tewfik Al-Hakim’s The Tree Climber and Fate of a Cockroach and Johnson-Davies’ collection called Modern Arabic Short Stories. My copies of these books have travelled with me to my various postings. My two volumes of translations of plays by Al-Hakim were an hommage to Al-Hakim but equally to Johnson-Davies. The same can be said of my book Egyptian Tales and Short Stories of the 1970s and 1980s. I tried hard to avoid duplicating his efforts in these books and also in In the Tavern of Life, short stories by Al-Hakim.

So, hats off to the dean of translators of Arabic literature: Denys Johnson-Davies!

William M Hutchins is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at

Appalachian State University, USA, and a literary translator.

62 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content