Revolutionary Poetics and Translation

Revolutionary Poetics and Translation

Department

English & Comparative Literature Department

Abstract

The poetry recited in 2011 in the context of the Egyptian revolution, and its later translation into a variety of languages, contributed to local and global understandings of that historical moment. This essay examines some of the ways in which new poetic production in 2013-2014 extends and reconfigures the revolutionary movement in Egypt, the difference between the new poetics and the poetry inspired by the 2011 revolution, and the effect that translating new poetry concerned with the events that have been unfolding since 2011 can have on global understandings of the unfolding narrative of the uprising. I argue that the poetry of Tahrir published in 2013 renews the revolutionary ideals epitomized in the poetry that appeared in 2011. The poetry of Amin Haddad, as a case in point, translates the dreams and aspirations of Tahrir, resituated in 2013 and 2014 with the publication of a new volume. I examine Haddad’s poetry against English translations of poetry since 2011 and argue that translation of this new poetry is an ethical and political act that simultaneously reads and registers the iterations of Tahrir and the developing narrative of revolution in the contemporary local poetry scene.

Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Book Chapter

Book Title

Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution

Editors

Mona Baker

ISBN

9781138929876

Publisher

Routledge

City

London

First Page

107

Last Page

122

Keywords

Revolutionary poetics, Translation, Egyptian revolution

Disciplines

Arabic Language and Literature | Comparative Literature

Revolutionary Poetics and Translation
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