PUBLISHER / EDITOR Margaret Obank ASSISTANT EDITOR Samuel Shimon COVER ARTIST Nabil Abu Hamad CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Khaled Mattawa Saadi Youssef Anton Shammas Peter Clark Fadhil al-Azzawi Sinan Antoon Paul Starkey Issa J Boullata Mona Zaki CONSULTING EDITORS Etel Adnan Roger Allen Mohammed Bennis Gamal el-Ghitani Marilyn Hacker Erdmute Heller Herbert Mason Yasir Suleiman Susannah Tarbush Sargon Boulus Saif al-Rahbi COPY EDITING Corinne Sklar LAYOUT Banipal Publishing
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Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 editorial email: editor@banipal.co.uk subscriptions: subscribe@banipal.co.uk website: www.banipal.co.uk PRINTED BY Short Run Press Ltd Bittern Road, Sowton Ind. Est. EXETER EX2 7LW ISSN: 1461-5363 Photographs not accredited have been donated, photographers unknown © All material: Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved.
Banipal takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the arts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the first systematically organised library 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
CONTENTS No 27, Autumn/Winter 2006
2 EDITORIAL – Farewell, Naguib Mahfouz 5 Luay Hamza Abbas Two short stories 9 Alawiya Sobh Excerpt from the novel Dunya 018 Rabia Raihane A short story The Señora
27 Salim Barakat Excerpt from Hydrahodahose Caves introduced by Issa JBoullata 32 Salwa Bakr A short story The River Nile 37 Fadwa al-Qasem Two short stories My Shirt andThe Loop 42 Nabil Sulaiman “Dance of the Wicker Basket”
– an excerpt from the novel Hypostases of Day and Night 48 Fatma Yousif al-Ali Two short stories
Nothing Shameful and A Feminine Ending 55 Sahar Tawfiq A short story Two Blue-Gum Trees in Giza 58 Hayet Raies A short story Azrael and the Author 62 Malika Moustadraf A short story A Mere Difference 68 Ghalia Kabbani A short story A Cup of Tea with Mrs Robinson 74 Salima Salih Two short stories Forgiveness Tree andThe Revenant 79 Nihad Sirees Excerpt from the novel A State of Passion 98 Lamia Makaddam Three Poems 102 Firas Sulaiman Three Poems
A TRAVELLING TALE 106 Youssef Rakha
Excerpts from Beirut shi Mahal, Beirut – Some Place 118 INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR
Brian Whitaker, editor of Arab Gateway, www.al-bab.com OBITUARY 122 Fadhil al-Azzawi remembers Jalil al-Qaisi (1936–2006)
BOOK REVIEWS 124 Stephen Watts reviews poetry in translation
Why Did You Leave The Horse Alone? by Mahmoud Darwish and Lebanon: Poems of Love and War by Nadia Tuéni 130 Peter Clark Voices from the Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales by Naguib Mahfouz 131 Peter Clark Abdelrahman Munif and Iraq by Maher Jarrar 134 Zuzana Kratka The Heron and Nile Sparrows by Ibrahim Aslan 138 BOOKS IN BRIEF
EVENTS 142 Banipal Translation Prize – First Prizewinner 146 Banipal Live UK tour – 14-20 August 152 Leipzig: Adel Karasholi at 70 153 London: Mourid Barghouti reading 154 Frankfurt: 2006 Book Fair, 3-8 October 158 CONTRIBUTORS ANDTRANSLATORS
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BANIPAL NO 27, AUTUMN/WINTER 2006 1
