The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights (review)
2012; Wayne State University Press; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1536-1802
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoThe Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights. Translated by Malcolm C. Lyons, with Ursula Lyons. Introduced and annotated by Robert Irwin. London: Penguin, 2008 (paperback 2010). 3 volumes. 992pp., 800pp., 800pp. Do we really need yet another retranslation of famous Arabic story collection Al/ loyla wa-layla (A Thousand Nights and a Night, or simply, 100 1 Nights), better known in as Arabian Nights? After all, readers of already have access to a wealth of different translations, from Grub Street prints contemporary with Gallands first-ever French translation at beginning of eighteenth century, via translations made directly from Arabic by such eminent scholars as Edward William Lane (1839) and Richard Burton (1885), latter largely dependent on John Paynes earlier version (1882-84), to Powys Mathers's (1937) still widely read rendering of Joseph Charles Victor Mardrus's imaginative French version (1899-1904), N. J. Dawoods selection of the finest and best-known tales in contemporary English (1973: 10), and Husain Haddawy's translation (1990) of (fragmentary) Galland manuscript as edited by MuhsinMahdi(1992). Is there an advantage gained by yet another translation of stories found in Arabic text of Calcutta (vol. 1, vii). A striking response to this question is evaluation of T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), as recently quoted in Paul M. Nurses Eastern Dreams (2010; 207): Payne crabbed: Burton unreadable: Lane pompous - to which one could add for Mardrus/Mathers: stunningly pretentious (208), and for both Dawood and Haddawy: not complete. As a matter of fact, up to present day and notwithstanding plethora of existing translations, readers have not had access to a readable version of complete text of Nights in modem as translated directly from Arabic. This situation alone should suffice to justify new translation, a translation that is, in fact, all more needed to convey to readers an impression of text of Nights that would be as close to Arabic original as possible. Rather than rendering Nights in translation, many of previous translators, and in particular Lane, Burton, and Mardrus/ Mathers, offered their interpretation - interpretations that more often than not resulted from a reaction to contemporary circumstances of its production. Translating complete Nights is a time-consuming matter that needs both expertise of a scholar well versed in language of original text, a peculiar form of middle Arabic, and dedication of a translator willing to spend years of his or her life to produce translation of a work that here runs up to more than 2,500 pages. Clearly, not many scholars would have been capable of producing this massive work. And so it is a stroke of luck for English-language audience that Malcolm C. Lyons burdened himself with this enormous task. Lyons is professor emeritus of Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and a scholar who - besides being trained in classical Arabic language and literature - is probably best known to folklorists for his equally massive and highly detailed three-volume study The Arabian Epic: Heroic and Oral Story-Telling (1995). Lyons translated Nights, as did Burton, from edition known as Calcutta II (1839-42), which is commonly regarded as more reliable than earlier Bulaq I (1835) that formed basis of Lane's version. Lyons's translation is straightforward, modem, and readable and in particular avoids antiquated biblical diction that Burton used to authenticate his vision of Nights as a traditional text of Arabic literature. Meanwhile, Lyons's erudition is probably responsible for his recourse to clinical diction (vagina, vulva, penis) in notoriously known frivolous passages, such as one in story of Porter and Three Ladies, or his simple avoidance of translating Arabic terms (zubb, air) for male member altogether (vol. …
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