Reconsidering Nahdawi Translation: bringing Pushkin to Palestine

Abstract

Translation occupies a central position in any narrative of the Arabic literary renaissance, or nahdah, of the nineteenth century. The vast majority of these translations, however, have been discounted as less than literary because of the freedoms that they took in altering the source texts as they translated. Consequently, few scholars have looked closely at the translations that figure so prominently in the development of literary language, genres and style during this dynamic period. Turning critical attention to the practices of nahdawi translators highlights the agency of the translator in actively shaping the cultural discourse of the nahdah. In this article, I take the work of Khalil Baydas (1872–1949) as representative of the free translation practices characteristic of the nahdah. A prominent Palestinian journalist and translator, Baydas translated many works of Russian literature into Arabic, always making clear that he altered the stories as he translated them. A close reading of his 1898 translation of Alexander Pushkin’s novella The Captain’s Daughter sheds light on the complexity of Baydas’ translation practice. Shifting the focus to the deliberate choices that he makes in altering the text illuminates the different layers of information and context that are contained within the translation.