Khaled Mattawa's reading at Mills last night was a pleasure - challenging, moving, fascinating. He read from Saadi Youssef, Hatif Janabi, Fazhil Al-Azzawi, and Adonis (the three poems published in the 10/24/05 issue of the New Yorker).
Here's my intro - which he liked. (I sweated over it, believe me).
We are fortunate to have Khaled Mattawa with us to inaugurate The Chana Bloch Reading of Writers in Translation. Some of us at Mills have been reading Khaled’s translations this term for a class on the literature of the Arab Diaspora; some of us will be taking Chana Bloch’s workshop next semester on translating poetry. Khaled Mattawa is one of the preeminent translators of Arabic poetry into English, having brought many important poets of the Arab world to our attention, and winning numerous awards in the process. Adrienne Rich has spoken with admiration of his translations of the Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef, and just last month the New Yorker published his translation of three poems by the Syrian poet Adonis. He is furthermore a prolific and energetic advocate for Arab-American literature.
I first heard Khaled read his own poems just a few months ago, when I was completely new to his work. His use of English struck me as unusually rich, luminous yet spare, strange and yet familiar; I heard resonances of Arabic in the searing images and lush word choice.
Mattawa has said that “translation is something I encounter on a daily basis. As soon as I say my name, I’ve put myself outside the border.” He was born in Ben Ghazi, Libya, and was educated there until his teens, when he emigrated to the United States. His own poetry elucidates the empires, the people, the history that have left their marks upon the stones of his city and the features of his face.
Mattawa’s translations benefit from his great gifts in English. He has said that “translation teaches you to try to perfect the poem at the cost of yourself…You are in the service of this poem and not of your ego.” His lines are clear and melodic, creating poems that breathe, that can be read aloud with pleasure and sometimes with sorrow. Two nights ago I was asked to read his translation of the war poem America, America, by Saadi Youssef. Half way through this barbaric yawp which echoes both Whitman and Ginsberg, I found myself weeping. I had read the poem to myself many times, but reading it aloud made the lament come alive. The pain and betrayal in the Arabic protest channeled clearly into its English translation.
25 years ago when I first entered college, there were no Arab-American literary anthologies. The only Arab-American poet I knew of, besides my father, was Khalil Gibran. Khaled Mattawa has done a great deal to add Arab writers to the shelves of American literature. Along with five books of translations and two books of his own poems, he has edited two anthologies of Arab-American writing which include both fiction and poetry; he is also president of RAWI, the Radius of Arab Writers Inc. Our emerging literary community is lucky to have such an energetic and gifted advocate.
So with great anticipation and pleasure, please help me welcome Khaled Mattawa.
(end intro)
Khaled's anthologies: Dinarzad's Children (fiction) and Post-Gibran (poetry, essays and fiction).
His books of poetry: Ismailia Eclipse and Zodiac of Echoes.
Poets in Translation (I'll get links for all these later this weekend): Maram al-Massri, Saadi Youssef, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Hatif Janabi.
