Arabic Language

For Marwa Helal and me, the histories of our two countries—Egypt and Sudan—are inextricably linked, our shared Nile both the most obvious and fertile metaphor.

Musician and composer Robert Wyatt, renowned for his vocals and complex blends of pop, jazz, and world music, bridges the generation gap with the emerging “first lady of Arabic hip-hop” Shadia Mansour.

“Writing a novel requires a lot of digging out, chucking away, selecting, molding, shaping, and reshaping of all the above; and then hoping for the best.”

“What does ‘exile’ mean in a globalized world? To feel you’re an exile, you have to have a country you belong to.”

The year Columbus found and founded our New World also marked the final end of one particular Old World, the half millennium of rich coexistence and commingling of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish peoples, traditions, and languages in the south of Spain. 

Translation, like any public act, must be strategic to have any effect. 

I can’t remember where I first met Nuruddin Farah, but it was at some sort of conference.