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 82 Nael el-Toukhy – A short story The Machos, trans. Wiam

El-Tamami 90 Hassan Najmi – An excerpt from the novel Gertrude, trans.

Nancy Roberts THE 2012 INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION 104 The Shortlist 105 Jabbour Douaihy – The Vagrant, trans. Ghenwa Hayek 109 Ezzedine C Fishere – Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge, trans. John Peate 115 Rabee Jaber – The Druze of Belgrade, trans. Nancy Roberts 121 Nasser Iraq – The Unemployed, trans. Robin Moger 127 Bachir Mefti – Toy of Fire, trans. William M Hutchins 133 Habib Selmi – The Women of Bassatin, trans. Maia Tabet

139 GUEST LITERATURE 9 KOREA 140 Kim Jaeyong – Korean fiction at the border of globalization 142 Park Soo-yeon – Introduction to Korean poetry 146 Jeong Do-sang – Zebra, trans. Jeon Miseli 154 Kim Sun-woo – Poem, trans. Sam Cha 161 Kim In-sook – Sea and Butterfly, trans. Sohn Suk-joo 172 Son Taek-Su – Poem, trans. Brother Anthony of Taize 174 Ra Hee-duk – Poems, trans. Kevin O’Rourke 177 Jeon Sung-tae – The Korean Soldier, trans. Jae Won Chung 188 Do Jong-hwan – Poems, trans. Park Kyung-ri 191 Kwon Yeo-sun – To Believe in Love, trans. Charles La Shure

BOOK REVIEWS 200 André Naffis Sahely: The Traveler & Innkeeper by Fadhil al-Azzawi 202 André Naffis Sahely: Disordered World by Amin Maalouf 206 Susannah Tarbush: The Art of Forgetting by Ahlem Mostaghanemi 209 Norbert Hirschhorn: Heavenly Life: Selected Poems by Ramsey Nasr

211 BOOKS IN BRIEF – Fiction, Poetry, Memoir and Non-Fiction 222 CONTRIBUTORS

LAST PAGE 224 Rachida el-Charni – Letter from Tunis

New for 2012, from Banipal 43 Subscribe to the Online Banipal via Exact Editions

Banipal, founded in 1998, takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the ar ts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the fir st systematically organised librar y in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Hassan Najmi

Kim In-sook

Kwon Yeo-sun

Kim Sun-woo

BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 3