In The Country of Men – Hisham Matar, Libya
The news from Libya this month is increasingly grim. It turns out it is extremely difficult merely to protect civilians. …
Tag Archives: Translation
Arabic Literature as Windows into the Hearts of the Struggle
I long ago proved to myself that reading everything in the world, was impossible. I couldn’t even get through the …
A Poem from Egypt
from The Utopia of Cemeteries Unpainted walls, stone filled ground fragile bones not even able to stand and my bones …
Wedding Song by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
Wedding Song, by Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize winning Egyptian author, was written in 1981 well into his writing life which …
The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
I wrote last week about an Egyptian novel, Stealth, by Sonallah Ibrahim, which while I liked I felt presented certain …
The Armies — A Novel from Colombia
One of the great pleasures of going to the annual meeting of the American Literary Translators Association [ALTA] is the …
Away on Assignment
I’m in Philadelphia — the modern City of Brotherly Love, not the ancient one of the Roman world where Asia began. …
Beijing Coma: A Novel
Mainland China is an enormous country. With 9.6 million square kilometers it is the third largest country in the world …
The Way
Lao Tzu’s (Old Master) Tao Te Ching [Way and Virtue The Ancient Text] is one of the oldest meditations we …
Muddy River: A Town in China
The greater the flood of news the faster we are carried along. We have time to see only the surfaces …
Peru: Reading While Walking
If summer is a time to travel it is also a time to read. For me combining the two is …
Gypsy Cante: Deep Song of the Caves
Work I have done in my time: Gypsy Cante: Deep Song of the Caves