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Egypt

The covers of the five books featured in the Watchlist on a peach-colored background: Unlove Story,...
The Watchlist: November 2024
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll on the five books in translation that should be on your radar this month, from Egypt, India, Poland, and more.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist in a 2x3 grid: Mourning a Breast, Elevator in...
The Watchlist: July 2024
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll on six summer reads you won’t want to miss, from a detective thriller banned in Vietnam to a collection of speculative stories from Egypt.
View of the Las Vegas skyline
Photo by Britta Preusse on Unsplash
Godshow.com
By Ahmed Naji
Another “only in Vegas” site: a yacht graveyard in the middle of the desert.
Translated from Arabic by Rana Asfour
The covers of Vengeance Is Mine, Under Our Skin, Negras, Rotten Evidence, MA, Owlish, The Love...
The Best Books We Read in 2023—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2024
By Words Without Borders
WWB staff members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they’re most looking forward to in 2024.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: October 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books in translation from Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Colombia, South Korea, and Norway.
A rooftop in Riyadh
Photo by Rashyd . on Unsplash
Hi Maryam, It’s Arwa
By Areej Gamal
The world appeared in stages with each rung of the ladder I climbed.
Translated from Arabic by Addie Leak
Multilingual
The book covers of Animals in Our Days, Brisbane, Flowers of Lhasa, Radio Siga, Linea Nigra, and...
The Watchlist: May/June 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Tibetan, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Croatian.
April-2022-Arabic-Kid-Lit-Interview-Feature-Image
From left to right: Salwa Shakhshir, Miranda Beshara, and Mohamed Nabulsi.
The Present and Future of Arabic Kid Lit: A Conversation
By M. Lynx Qualey
There are many great Arabic children’s books that haven’t reached their young readers yet.
Portraits of translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish.
Kareem James Abu-Zeid, left, and Najwan Darwish (photo credit: Veronique Vercheval)
A Wave in the Sea: Najwan Darwish on “Exhausted on the Cross”
By Kareem James Abu-Zeid
It's impossible to be the same person in the translation, because poetry itself is a kind of translation.
Deceptive Simplicity: International Children’s Literature
By Daniel Hahn
I often feel that adults forget what children’s stories are capable of.
Communism in Style
By Nadia Kamel
What I'm trying to say is that we didn't have a sense of how dangerous it all was.
Translated from Arabic by Brady Ryan & Essayed Taha
Multilingual
Beyond Representation: Life Writing by Women in Arabic
By Sawad Hussain & Nariman Youssef
One cannot write about real-life experiences from the place of the “I” without laying claim to a place in the world.
Blood in Flames
By Muhammed Mustajab
Men can be angels when joy is in the air.
Translated from Arabic by Robin Moger
Important Announcement
By Ahmed Fouad Negm
Upsidedownistan here.
Translated from Arabic by Elliott Colla
Vienna
By Sahar Mandour
After I fell for him, I never cheated on him again, except that time in Paris. And that other time.
Translated from Arabic by Nicole Fares & Sara Ramey
Beyond Queer: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
The contributors to our Queer issues produce narratives that elude facile compartmentalization.
Mina
By Sahar Mandour
One day this violation will be in the past, consigned to oblivion, long forgotten.
Translated from Arabic by Alice Guthrie
The World at Home: US Writing in Translation
By Susan Harris
This issue is not a departure but a continuation.
Bahaa and Shareef Escape to New York
By Ezzedine Fishere
They didn’t get any satisfaction from coming out.
Translated from Arabic by Jonathan Smolin
Multilingual
My Grandfather and Sitt Biba
By Mohammed Abdelnabi
I was convinced that I really had caused the death of the one I loved most.
Translated from Arabic by Nariman Youssef
Reflections on the President’s Discourse
By Basma Abdel Aziz
This demonstrates how overwhelmingly crude his rhetoric is.
Translated from Egyptian Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
Graphic Novels at WWB: The First Ten Years
By Susan Harris
The narrative threads that weave through the last ten years tell a tale in themselves.
The Queue
By Basma Abdel Aziz
He would need a special permit if he intended to extract the bullet.
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
A duplicate black-and-white portrait of Walt Whitman as an older man sporting a bushy beard.
Photo by Mathew Benjamin Brady, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Walt Whitman and Me: Notes on a Poetic Education
By Abdel-Moneim Ramadan
I was possessed by memory and forgetfulness and by Arabic poetry.
Translated from Arabic by Michael Beard & Adnan Haydar
Apartment in Bab el-Louk
The Apartment in Bab el-Louk
By Donia Maher & Ganzeer
Outside your window, Cairo's nooks and crannies are lonely and forsaken, like a deserted crime scene.
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
LearnMultimedia
February 2013 International Graphic Novels Volume Vii The Last Of The Bunch Igo Rollz Page 1
The Last of the Bunch
By Migo Rolzz
You're young and I don't want my feelings to get hurt!
Translated from Arabic by Chip Rossetti
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Funeral for Walt Whitman
By Abdel-Moneim Ramadan
So finally, atop the fender of a tank / lounges Walt Whitman.
Translated from Arabic by Michael Beard & Adnan Haydar
Adonis Recommends Abdel-Moneim Ramadan
By Words Without Borders
Ramadan's dazzling poem evokes Adonis's famous “Funeral for New York.”
The Guest
By Miral al-Tahawy
And she tells the story of how he came and took her away on his horse and shut her up in a house with high walls.
Translated from Arabic by Samah Selim
Learn
Certain Suspicions
By Tarek Eltayeb
The glass in the windows will burst.
Translated from German by Wolfgang Astelbauer
Multilingual
My Lot in the Days of the Lord
By Tarek Eltayeb
Yet the sun has been gone for months / And I have no veil to delude me
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
The Egyptian Revolution Won’t Be Fooled
By Nawal El Saadawi
The battle continues and the revolution continues.
Translated from Arabic by Chip Rossetti
Learn
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
February 2010 Worth Ten Thousand Words Part Iv International Graphic Novels Proud Beggars Thumb
From “Proud Beggars”
By Albert Cossery & Golo
What does a man need to live? A bit of bread is enough.
Translated from French by Lulu Norman
Learn
From “The Remnants”
By Hagop Oshagan
Her parents, like thousands upon thousands of other creatures of their class, lived lives divided between earning their keep and taking care of their children
Translated from Armenian by G. M. Goshgarian
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
Annihilation
By Gamal al-Ghitani
“The most important Arab novelist today.”—Naguib Mahfouz
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies
From “A Peace of Women”
By Lenin El-Ramly
This is a time of sex strikes, and women are in such a short supply.
Translated from Arabic by Hazem M. Azmy
The Toughest Guy in Utouf
By Naguib Mahfouz
What would you say, Boss, he asked, if I offered you a job that would keep the heat off your back?
Translated from Arabic by Raymond Stock
An orange door in the sunlight, with the shadow of a leafy plant falling on it
Photo by Artemis Faul on Unsplash
I Have a Musical Name
By Iman Mersal
This poem by Iman Mersal juxtaposes a child's hopefulness with an adult's nostalgia.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Rooster’s Egg: A Fable of Ancient Thebes
By Salwa Bakr
A great fear and alarm took hold of her when she heard the high priest's words.
Translated from Arabic by Chip Rossetti
The Dark and The Daylight
By Mahmoud El-Wardani
She had gestured with her free hand while the other had gripped his hand and the card.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins
Happiness
By Iman Mersal
I have no patience to contemplate the sea
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
I Look Around Me
By Iman Mersal
as a silent way of killing- / but flashing glances / from eyes I barely glimpse
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Memories of Chernobyl
By Mohamed Makhzangi
The entire city began to wash itself ceaselessly . . .
Translated from Arabic by Samah Selim
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In Perfect Happiness
By Iman Mersal
I will make sure they are really there / in perfect happiness, / and that I am alone
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
He Marks the Weak Point
By Iman Mersal
Of course,the concrete pillars are not lacking in delicacy,and the columns of old houses are a nostalgia all their own.He added that he marks the weak pointand distributes its weight among the relatively…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Sometimes Wisdom Possesses Me
By Iman Mersal
One day wisdom will possess me / and I will not go to the party.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
When Clothes Were Small
By Tamer Fathy
the cutting blade's coldness / gives me my body
Translated from Arabic by Taline Voskeritchian & Chris Millis
Things Elude Me
By Iman Mersal
One day I will pass by/ the house that used to be my home.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
Amina
By Iman Mersal
My perfect friend, / why don't you leave now.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
The Veiler of All Deeds
By Hamdi Abu Golayyel
When Abu Gamal revealed Shaykh Hasan's secret to the residents of Number 36 . . .
Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth
Learn
Mrs. Saniya’s Holiday
By Na’am al-Baz
Forget the admirer, Saniya. This guy will not take care of you.
Translated from Arabic by Alexa Firat
Learn
Flirting with the Moon
By Haggag Hassan Oddoul
They will kidnap you, daddy's girl.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins
Shooq
By Sayed Ragab
The train moved off and her journey of despair began.
Translated from Egyptian Arabic by Humphrey Davies
The City, the Spirit, and the Letter: On Translating Cavafy
By André Aciman
No poem by Cavafy is as simple or as complicated as The City.
A white chick.
Photo by Osman Kahraman on Unsplash .
It’s a Chick, Not a Dog
By Jar al-Nabi al-Hilw
My mother knew he was walking after her. Almost certainly she knew. Do you want me to tell you why?
Translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth
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A Clean Kill
By Radwa Ashur
He plunges it in completely. Moments pass. The bull remains standing, motionless.
Translated from Arabic by Gretchen Head