Here's what's hot at Borders. A few of the titles on their display table in the Arabic section:
Facing toward the storefront (top picture)
-Top row left to right: a book about Sultan Qaboos (head of state of Oman), "Mussolini" (I forget the subtitle), "Rasputin," "Zionist Leaders," "New York and the Reign of Fear."
-Top row left to right: a book about Sultan Qaboos (head of state of Oman), "Mussolini" (I forget the subtitle), "Rasputin," "Zionist Leaders," "New York and the Reign of Fear."
-2nd row: something about spies, something about the execution of Arab leaders, "Saddam Wasn't Executed: ???, American Lies and the Game of Look-Alikes" (وعدي وقصي لم يقتلا أكاذيب أمريكا ولعبة الشبيه), last book on right "Nuclear Secrets."
-3rd row: "Armageddon: The End of America and Israel," "Osama," ?, "Behind Every Dictator is a...," I forget the last title, but there is a picture of Condi Rice, George Bush, and Dick Cheney on the cover and the top copy had a bunch of x's scratched over Bush's face.
-Bottom row: "Diary of an Arab Diplomat," "Evildoers/Malcontents of History," "Political Assassinations," "Saddam Wasn't Executed," "A Spy in the President's Palace" (with a black Star of David on the cover).
Facing to the rear: (bottom pic)
-Top row, left to right from 2nd book: "Censorship and Redaction (blacking out information) in the American Press," "Years of Hope," "Stalin (I forget the subtitle and can't make it out)" and "Karl Marx, Man Against Religions."
-Middle row, from 2nd book: "Arab Banana Republics," "Loss/Ruin of Nations," translation of former U.S. Congressman Paul Findlay's "They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby."
-Bottom row, from 2nd book (again): "The Israeli Lobby," Hitler's "Mein Kampf," "Blackwater: Armies of Darkness/Oppression," and the last one is something about changes in the Arabian peninsula, but I forget the details.
And the for the Grand Prize:
Grammatically and semantically, this translation may not be perfect, but the essence is there. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment. I'm not making this up:
"Speeding the Emergence of the Anti-Christ: Zionism and Devil Worship Pave the Way for the Emergence of the Anti-Christ with his Flying Saucers from the Bermuda Triangle."
Grammatically and semantically, this translation may not be perfect, but the essence is there. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment. I'm not making this up:
"Speeding the Emergence of the Anti-Christ: Zionism and Devil Worship Pave the Way for the Emergence of the Anti-Christ with his Flying Saucers from the Bermuda Triangle."
2 comments:
Cheerful! Well, there was "Years of Hope," whatever that may be about.
Publishing - not to mention the whole culture of reading - is in a parlous state in the Arabic-speaking world.
But at least we have Borders - the English section is marginally less abysmal - I've actually been kind of impressed by some of what they're carrying.
"Years of Hope" had Arafat on the cover. I am judging books by their cover here, but I'd guess that one was about hope for Palestinian statehood under Arafat.
The UN Arab Human Development Report a few years ago (written by an Arab with a largely Arab staff, I understand) highlighted the problems with Arabic publishing and translation, giving statistics such as the widely quoted one that more books are translated into Spanish in a year than have been translated into Arabic in history.
Perhaps this is changing somewhat. It seemed like they had nearly every book of Dan Brown's translated at Borders...
Also, increasing fluency in English means many Arab readers are simply picking up the English copies, rather than going for a translation. Good or bad in the long run for the Arabic language and culture?
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