Sonallah Ibrahim

Saadiah Mufarreh

Saadi Youssef

Khaled Najar

Maram al-Massri

4 Editorial 5 Saadiah Mufarreh – Poems, translated by Allison Blecker

A TRAVELLING TALE 10 Khaled Najar – Alexandria, trans. Ghenwa Hayek 26 Saadi Youssef – Poems, trans. Sinan Antoon & Peter Money 30 Maram al-Massri – Poems, trans. Khaled al-Masri 34 Youssef Rakha – Poem, trans. the author

INTERVIEW 38 Sonallah Ibrahim: Calling Things What They Are interview by Camilo Gomez-Rivas 51 A TRANSLATOR CALLED DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES 52 Denys Johnson-Davies – 60 years of Arabic literature in translation 54 Roger Allen – In celebration 56 Khaled Mattawa – Such a standard bearer 58 Mark Linz – A unique and long-lasting legacy 59 Peter Clark – An enormous debt 60 Paul Starkey – Putting modern Arabic writing on the map 61 Humphrey Davies – He made me a translator 62 William M Hutchins – Hats off to the dean of translators! 63 Musa al-Halool – Not even a typo 64 Brahim Oulahyane – With Denys in Marrakesh 66 Margaret Obank – First and foremost an art, not a science 68 Saleh Snoussi – Abu Saleem’s Prison – an excerpt from a novel, trans. William M Hutchins 77 Jad El Hage – A tale, Cats up a Pole

2 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES