Скачать или смотреть Translating from Arabic: Humphrey Davies talks about the realities and challenges

In the past decade, award-winning, Cairo-based translator Humphrey Davies has rendered fifteen AUC Press titles from Arabic into English. He translates both classical and colloquial Arabic texts and the topics can range from a jihadist's autobiography and the cultural legacy of Turks in Egypt, to an eclectic variety of Arabic literature, including works by internationally-acclaimed writers such as Naguib Mahfouz and Alaa Al Aswany.

Today Humphrey Davies is widely regarded as one of the best translators from Arabic into English, having already received a number of literary prizes.

He won the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation twice: for his English rendering of Elias Khoury’s 'Gate of the Sun' in 2006, and again in 2010, for his translation of the same writer's novel 'Yalo.' He was also the runner up for the award for his translation of 'Sunset Oasis' by Bahaa Taher the same year. More recently, in 2012, he was the Banipal Prize runner up for his translation of Mourid Barghouti's 'I Was Born There, I Was Born Here' (AUC Press, 2011)

In this recent interview, the British translator talks about his passion for his craft, and the challenges behind it.

Humphrey Davies studied Arabic at Cambridge University and the American University in Cairo's Center for Arabic Studies Abroad. He completed his PhD in Arabic at the University of California, Berkeley in 1981.

To browse all the AUC Press books translated by Humphrey Davies, go to http://www.aucpress.com/search.aspx?S...


The interviewer is Ingrid Wassmann, AUC Press senior web editor.

Video by Ingrid Wassmann