On the animating affect of ṭarab and its (un)translatability

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the (un)translatability of ṭarab—typically understood as feeling ecstasy in response to poetic and musical performances—in the recitation of Arabic poems and their translation in a US context. I compare Dunya Mikhail’s Arabic and English performances of selected poems from al-Ḥarbu taʿmalū bi-jidd [The War Works Hard, 2000; 2005] with an English performance by the translator, Elizabeth Winslow. Through this comparison, I theorize ṭarab as an affective force that transcends language in general and Arab(ic/ness) more specifically. Drawing on Jonathan Shannon’s affirmation of the multiplicities of ṭarab contexts, I argue that ṭarab is evoked in distinctly diverse iterations in the performances of the poet and the translator as well as in the poet’s different voicings of the poem, in written and oral forms. This theorization of ṭarab expands the term’s application beyond its limited association with Arabic poetry and music to a broader aesthetics of wajd and orature.