We held a translation conference on campus last week. It was a collaboration between CMUQ and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, and it was a successful one. The conference attracted Arabs and non-Arabs, professional translators and students of translation, and curious academics and students from other disciplines. It also attracted lots of press attention. It was covered by all local newspapers, and one Saudi on-line newspaper. The conference was well-organized by Bloomsbury who worked with student volunteers from CMUQ.

 

 

 

When the idea of the conference was thrown on the table last summer, I expressed my immediate interest in co-organizing and hosting it. On a professional level, it complements a course I’m teaching on translation, and on a personal level, and as a bilingual this is all I do all day- translate. Allow me to elaborate here…

 

 

 

Translation is a part of our daily activities. It is a part of our make-up as bilinguals, as we mingle between two languages constantly.

Translation is a pact between our brain and our tongue that does not only translates our thoughts into words, but also determines the language of these words according to situations, participants, and subject matters. Code-switching, can show our competence in the languages involved. We usually, when code-switching, retain the grammatical structure of the dominant language, whether Arabic or English. And hence come some of the funny words that we utter like, “charagt mobaili”- I charged my mobile phone.

 

 

 

 

  

In the conference press release I stated my reasons behind teaching a translation course called “Bridging Civilizations”- besides holding a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics and Translation. I said that through translation you contribute in fostering well-rounded students who are comfortable with English as well as Arabic. Teaching translation as both theory and practice is crucial to our students as translation is a part of their make-up as bilinguals.  Translation is prominent in connecting voices and experiences and transferring them across different linguistic communities. Lack of a common language can certainly hinder the possibility of connecting with others. “

 

 

 

 

When teaching the course, I ensure that I invite professional translators to speak to my students and give them a personal perspective of what translation is and talk about their experiences in different fields and genres. This year I have invited Dr. Ahmad Mohit who was on a short visit to Doha. He is a psychiatrist MD who has followed literature and translation as his personal interest since age 15. He has been translating poetry into and from Farsi. His presentation itself was poetic, as well as his translated samples. One of the examples that he presented was his translation of a poem by Forough Farrokhzad, one of the most influential Iranian female poets. Dr. Mohet asserts that: “Nobody has described the agony of the senseless daily repetition of a woman’s life in a traditional society like Forough.”

 

 

 

Here is his translation of one of her poems:

 

The Journey of a body

Over the line of time

and making the arid line of time

pregnant with a body

A body of a conscious image

returning from a banquette in a mirror…

And this is how

One dies

and One

Remains .

 

One can be like clockwork dolls

And see the world with two glassy eyes

One can sleep year after year

with a body filled with straw

covered by spangles and veils

 In a box made of broadcloth

And with the vulgar pressure of any hand

cry in vain and say!

Oh! How happy I am!

 

I Plant my hands in the garden

I will grow, I know, I know, I know

 And the swallows will lay eggs

In the ink stained groves of my fingers.