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Denys Johnson-Davies: The Translator Who Rushed in Where Angels Feared to Tread
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to outline Denys Johnson-Davies's translation career as told in his autobiography, give a general appreciation of his unparalleled role in translating and promoting Arabic literature in the English-speaking world, shed light on his adapting numerous Arabic folktales for children, and touch upon his translations of canonical Islamic texts. However, it would not be possible to fully appreciate his monumental contributions in this intercultural dialogue without examining, albeit briefly, some of the intractable odds against which he strove. In other words, had he been a French- or German-English translator, his would have been a completely different story, and perhaps not worth being voluble about. To achieve this goal, I will highlight certain relevant incidents in his career that illustrate both his tireless efforts and his attachment to Arabic literature, Arab authors, and Arab customs, for it is through this “spiritual affinity” that Johnson-Davies fulfills Schlegel's condition for a good authentic translation.
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Author and article information
Notes
On the occasion of Johnson-Davies's ninetieth birthday and official retirement, the British magazine Banipal published a special feature in its 2012 Spring issue no. 43 (to which this author contributed a personal testimonial on him).
See Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Penguin Books, 1978), 38; and Halim Barakat, The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (University of California Press, 1993), 13–15, 19.
See Raphael Patai, The Arab Mind (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), 198.
Ibid., 72-83.
E. L. Ranelagh, The Past We Share: The Near Eastern Ancestry of Western Folk Literature (London: Quartet Books, 1979), xi.
Ibid., 1.
Ibid., 163ff.
Edward W. Said (1990), “Embargoed Literature”. Reprinted in The Politics of Dispossession: Self-Determination 1969-1994 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1994), 374.
Quoted in YousefAbdel-Aziz, “Poetess SalmaAl-KhadraAl-Jayyusi Did the Job of an Organization,” Al-Hayat newspaper (London), March 30, 2008. (In Arabic—my translation).
Ibid.
In an interview on Dubai Satellite Channel's “Meeting Barween Habeeb” (April 20, 2008), Jayyusi reiterated the same accusation against the Zionist lobby.
Said, “Embargoed Literature,” 377.
Denys Johnson-Davies, Memories in Translation: A Life between the Lines of Arabic Literature (Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2006), 9. Henceforward abbreviated as Memories, all references to this work will be cited in the text.
See Said, Orientalism , 19, 52.
Patai, The Arab Mind , 174–175.