Book-worm

I am a book-worm, and I do enjoy the company of a good book. Nowadays, with modern technology and all the online books available, access to information has become easier than ever before.

Yet, and however useful and hands-on having all these books at our fingertip may be, nothing equals the joy of the physical contact with a book, having a book in one's lap, especially in a place under the sun or by the beach in just out of this world.

Today, in modern day Tunisia, the picture is slightly different, in that one can hardly spot a peson holding or reading a book for purposes other that taking a test. Newspapers, however, seem to have the lion's share.

The thing is that those daring to take a book and read it out there are in most cases looked at with disgust by others. I remember when I was teaching at secondary school and when I happened to be in the staff room having a go at some novel; and most of my colleagues, derisively asking me why on earth did I still read. You have a job now!! So what is the point???!!!

What makes me sad is that books no longer have their reveered place in the minds and hearts of the vast majority of people. We always come by newspaper articles speaking about how cultured the Tunisian citizen is, but the thing some of us tend to forget is that Tunisians read a lot, yes, but they read newspapers in the first place, especially the footbal sections. No grudge against sports!!! 

Proposed translation

With the hectic life I lead it took me some time to translate the text into Arabi. This is my own trnaslation, which is, of course, not the best possible.

و اكتشفت بعد فترة وجيزة أنّ صفة "ضخم" لم تكن لتفيه حقّه، فجسد ابن آفين، الذي هو عبارة عن فوضى من كتل اللحم المتراكم فوق بعض، كان أشبه بنصب تذكاري. تردّدت في الاقتراب منه حينما قابلته عينيا لأوّل وهلة و هو جالس على أريكة في بهو الفندق فلم أكن قد قابلت في حياتي شخصا في مثل ضخامته.

كان واحدا من ذوي الأجساد البدينة الذين قد تصادفهم أحيانا في الزحام، و الذين لا يمكنك، مهما حاولت، أن تمنع عيناك من النظر إليهم حيث كان جباّرا في بدانته، فالاضمحلال هو الشعور الطاغي عليك حين ترى انتفاخ و استدارة جسده.

A text to translate

This is a passage I like. Please feel free to contribute with anything
you like. I will provide my own translation in the few coming days 
but please feel free to contribute with anything you see fit, even 
unfinished senteneces.

As I soon discovered, the word “big” hardly did justice to him. Effing’s son was immense, monumental in his bulk, a pandemonium of flesh heaped upon flesh. I had never met anyone of his dimensions before, and when I first spotted him sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby, I hesitated to approach him. He was one of those monstrous fat men you sometimes pass in a crowd: no matter how hard you struggle to avert your eyes, you can’t help gawking at him. He was titanic in his obesity, a person of such bulging, protrusive roundness that you could not look at him without feeling yourself shrink.

Paul Auster, Moon Palace, p. 235. 1989 edition printed by Clays Ltd

Translation

I have have been cherishing, for some time now, the idea of translating some literary texts into Arabic and putting them on this blog, and then inviting others to contribute to my work with their suggestions. My aim is to bring people together and to do something for the betterment of all of us.

I think novels would be a good start and I have been juggling several titles, butI have to admit that a decision on which novel to start with is not easy to make. I believe I have to start with something I like, something I go on doing even when I am not in the mood. I read Moon Palace two years ago and I may start with an extract from it.