Magazine of Modern
Arab Literature
Publisher / Editor MARgARET OBANk
Assistant Editor SAMUEL SHIMON
Consulting Editors FADHIL AL-AzzAWI MOHAMMED BENNIS SARgON BOULUS
PETER cLARk MOHAMMAD ALI FARHAT
ERDMUTE HELLER kHALED MATTAWA
AMJAD NASSER SAIF AL-RAHBI HILMy SALEM HISHAM SHARABI
Copy Editor DEBORAH HORTON
Covers AFIFA ALEIBy
Address BANIPAL PO Box 22300 LONDON W13 8zq Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 e-mail:banipal@compuserve.com website: www.banipal.com
Printed by THE MAgAzINE PRINTINg cO
25 Mollison Avenue, Brimsdown, Enfield Middlesex EN3 7NT
ISSN: 1461-5363
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
Photographs not accredited have been donated by friends, photographers unknown © All material: Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
NO 8, Summer 2000
2 EDITORIAL 3 FEATURE ON TAHAR BEN JELLOUN: poet, novelist and essayist
3 J M G Le Clézio: Tahar the wise 5 Stefan Weidner: Homage to the Unknown Dead 6 Excerpts from The Raising of the Ashes and Ephemeral Childhood 9 Maati Kabbal: The Polyphonies of Ben Jelloun 10 James Kirkup: Ben Jelloun’s Italian journeys 11 Excerpt from the novel Labyrinthe des sentiments 16 Tahar Ben Jelloun talks to Pierrre Maury 18 Excerpt from Le Discours du Chameau with an appreciation by translator Margaret Furniss 20 Mai Ghoussoub reviews Harrouda 21 Mona Zaki reviews Corruption 23 Margaret Obank on Ben Jelloun’s trilogy The Sand Child,
The Sacred Night and The Wrong Night 24 And French Hospitality 25 MAHMOUD DARWISH: Translating poetry – The Place of the Universal 28 HAIDAR HAIDAR: Excerpt from The Desolate Time 32 BASSAM k. FRANgIEH: Haidar Haidar – novelist of social change 35 ETEL ADNAN: Three poems 36 ABDALLAH zREkA: Excerpts from “Black candle drops” 37 AHMED BARAkAT: Three poems 38 SABRI MOUSSA: Three short stories 42 RAFIk ScHAMI: Three short stories 45 ULLA kASTEN: Rafik Schami – Damascene storyteller 45 yAHyA AL-qAISSI: Short story - Shattered desires 46 TEN IRAqI POETS: selected poems
46 SALAH NIAzI
48 SARgON BOULUS
50 SADIq AL-SAyEgH 52 A k EL JANABI 53 HASHIM SHAFIq 54 AMAL AL-JABOURI 55 MUNIAM ALFAkER 56 ADNAN MOHSEN 58 FADHIL SULTANI 59 DALIA RIADH 60 ISSA J. BOULLATA: Short story – Bar-room confessions 62 SALEH AL-AzzAz: Short story – Chirping 63 MAy TILMISSANy: Excerpt from Dunyazad 64 ROgER ALLEN: Possibilities of meaning and delicious ambiguities 66 MUHSIN AL-RAMLy: Short story – Boredom 66 FARAJ BOU AL-ISHA: Six poems 68 SABAH zWEIN: Selected poems 69 LEILA MAROUANE: Excerpt from The Abductor 71 HODA ABLAN: Twelve poems 73 REVIEWS
73 Samir el-Youssef: Out of Place by Edward Said 77 Susannah Tarbush: The Honey by Zeina B. Ghandour 78 Susannah Tarbush: Tony Hanania’s islands of desire 79 Peter Clark: Eros Island by Tony Hanania 80 Books received Inside back cover cONTRIBUTORS and translators
BANIPAL is published three times a year – Spring, Summer and Autumn. Translators are acknowledged at the end of each piece. The source language of the work is noted only when it is not Arabic.
FREE BACK ISSUE with every new subscription. TURN TO page 80 for details banipal Summer 2000 1
