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Contributor

Humphrey Davies

Contributor

Humphrey Davies

Humphrey Davies was an award-winning translator of some twenty works of modern Arabic literature, among them Alaa Al-Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building, four novels by Elias Khoury, including Gate of the Sun, and Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s Leg over Leg. He also made a critical edition, translation, and lexicon of the Ottoman-period Hazz al-quhuf bi-sharh qasid Abi Shaduf (Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded) by Yusuf al-Shirbini and compiled with a colleague an anthology entitled Al-‘ammiyyah al-misriyyah al-maktubah: mukhtarat min 1400 ila 2009 (Egyptian Colloquial Writing: selections from 1400 to 2009). He read Arabic at the University of Cambridge, received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, and, previous to undertaking his first translation in 2003, worked for social development and research organizations in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Sudan. His awards included the inaugural Banipal Prize for Arabic literary translation for Gate of the Sun. 

Articles by Humphrey Davies

Two Million People in the Square: Scenes from the Revolution
By Magdy El Shafee
The people say: Step down now!
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
Learn
From “Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded”
By Yusuf al-Shirbini
My people, why do I behold you of sweet rice with honey all unaware?
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
From “Metro”
By Magdy El Shafee
Magdy El Shafee’s Metro, the first adult Arabic graphic novel, is set in a chaotic modern Cairo pulsing with financial and social insecurity. Shihab, a young software designer who has been forced…
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
Annihilation
By Gamal al-Ghitani
“The most important Arab novelist today.”—Naguib Mahfouz
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
From “The Assembly of Secrets”
By Elias Khoury
The death was expected. The only one to be taken by surprise was Ibrahim Nassar.
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
From “Yalo”
By Elias Khoury
Yalo didn't understand what was happening.
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
From “Gate of the Sun”
By Elias Khoury
You're from Beirut? she cried, the words tumbling out of her mouth and her eyes filling with tears.
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
Shooq
By Sayed Ragab
The train moved off and her journey of despair began.
Translated from Egyptian Arabic by Humphrey Davies