English Poetry and Modern Arabic Verse: Translation and Modernity

The first study to examine Arabic translations of major modern poems, focusing on T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, reveals how Arab modernists were drawn to these poems through situational context and the creative manner in which they were converted into their own language.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This groundbreaking study is the first to explore the Arabic translations of significant modern poems in the English language, focusing on T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. It delves into the works of Arab translators who were themselves modernist poets, including Badr Shakir al-Sayyab and Saadi Yusuf, and examines the translations as literary works in their own right. Through a series of case studies, Ghareeb Iskander reveals the reasons why Arab modernists were drawn to these poems, highlighting the creative manner in which the Arab poet-translators converted them into their own language. The study demonstrates that the influence exerted by the English originals stems from the innovative techniques employed by the Arab translators, making this a significant contribution to the field of translation studies.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780755639939