Selected Issues in the Modern Intercultural Contacts between Arabic and Hebrew Cultures : Hebrew, Arabic and Death

200 Pages·2017·0.98 MB·English

by  Mahmoud Kayyal

Selected Issues in the Modern Intercultural Contacts between Arabic and
Hebrew Cultures: Hebrew, Arabic and Death
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Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies
Edited by
David S. Katz (Tel-Aviv University)
Volume 57
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsjs
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Selected Issues in the Modern
Intercultural Contacts between
Arabic and Hebrew Cultures:
Hebrew, Arabic and Death
By
Mahmoud Kayyal
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kayyāl, Maḥmūd, 1961- author.
Title: Selected issues in the modern intercultural contacts between Arabic
and Hebrew cultures / by Maḥmūd Kayyāl.
Other titles: Brill's series in Jewish studies ; v. 57.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Brill's series in
Jewish studies ; volume 57 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016036672 (print) | lccn 2016040739 (ebook) | isbn
9789004332256 (hardback : alk. paper) | isbn 9789004332263 (E-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Hebrew literature, Modern--Translations into Arabic. | Arabic
literature--Translations into Hebrew. | Translating and
interpreting--Political aspects--Israel. | Translating and
interpreting--Social aspects--Israel.
Classification: lcc PJ4768 .K387 2016 (print) | lcc PJ4768 (ebook) | ddc
892.409/007--dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036672
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0926-2261
isbn 978-90-04-33225-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-33226-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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A flag loses touch with reality and flies
A shop window adorned with women’s dresses,
Beautiful, in shades of blue and white, all in
Three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and Death
Yehuda Amichai, Yom Zekaron le-Meti ha-Melḥamah (Memorial Day For The War
Dead) (1973)1
∵
1 From : “Me-Aḥuri Kol Zeh Mestater Osher Gadol” (Behind All This Some Great Happiness is
Hiding).
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Contents
Preface ix
Transliteration Guide xiii
Introduction 1
1 Charting Unfamiliar Experiences: Ideology and Hegemony in the
Translation of Modern Hebrew Literature into Arabic 26
2 The Shallow Waters of Hebrew: Three Paradigms of Translating Modern
Arabic Literature into Hebrew 71
3 “Golani Don Juan”: The Linguistic Interference of Hebrew in Palestinian
Literature Produced in Israel 106
4 “It’s the Babushka’s Fault”: Hebrew Writing by Palestinian Authors as
Viewed by Arab Critics 127
Conclusions 157
Bibliography 161
Author Index 183
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Preface
In 1998, the Israeli press reported on a meeting of the Committee for the Pre-
vention of Incitement, attended by representatives from the United States of
America, Israel, and the Palestinian National Authority. At this meeting the
Palestinian representative quoted from the work of an Israeli author, Ephraim
Sidon (b. 1946), which, in his opinion, contains incitement against Palestinian
society. The quote even appeared in the newspaper report itself:
Even if the Fedayeen were to abandon their ways and the residents of the
West Bank accept Gush Emunim with songs and joyful wailing (‘Kololo’) or
transfer their refugees to the North Pole and wave flags of surrender night
and day, we will never sit down with them nor engage them in dialogue.2
The report says that contrary to the usual diplomacy observed on such occa-
sions, the Israeli delegation burst out laughing.3 Sidon’s remarks, which were
translated into Arabic, in fact comprise words of satire precisely intended to
express the author’s protest against the defiance of the Israeli Government to-
wards the Palestinian people and their representatives.
A thorough examination I made regarding the origin of this misunderstand-
ing led me to the book of the exiled Palestinian author, Khalīl al-Sawāḥirī
(b.  1940), Ḥarb al-Thamānīn Yawm(an) fī al-Shiʽr al-Isrāʼīlī – Dirāsa wa-
Mukhtārāt Shiʽriyya (The Eighty-Day War in Israeli Poetry – a Study and
Selected Poems), published in 1985.4 In this book, al-Sawāḥirī presents various
examples from Hebrew poetry that demonstrate the differences of opinion in
Israeli society regarding the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Al-Sawāḥirī’s
poor command of the Hebrew language, his lack of familiarity with Hebrew
literature and Israeli mentality, and his prejudices against Israeli culture and
society led him to many stylistic and thematic misunderstandings.
In al-Sawāḥirī’s view, “profound hatred for the Palestinian ‘other’ to the point
of audaciously demanding to be rid of him at any cost” is blatant in satirist
2 Eichner, 1998. Fedayeen [fidā’iyūn], those who sacrifice themselves; Gush Emunim is an Isre-
ali right-wing activist movement (see note 241 p. 63 below). From this point on, translated
quotations from Hebrew and Arabic into English are my own translation, unless mentioned
otherwise.
3 Ibid.
4 al-Sawāḥirī, 1985.
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x preface
Ephraim Sidon’s poems.5 A translation of the poem, which the Palestinian rep-
resentative later quoted, appeared in the book, accompanied by al-Sawāḥirī’s
interpretation that Sidon urges the Israeli authorities not to negotiate with the
Palestinians.6
Indeed al-Sawāḥirī’s misinterpretation almost caused a diplomatic incident
between the Palestinians and Israelis, though in the view of the Israeli Pal-
estinian author Salmān Nāṭūr (1948–2016), al-Sawāḥirī’s writings offer a good
example of the willingness of Palestinian intellectuals to conduct fruitful dia-
logue with Israeli culture despite the Israelis’ occupation, oppression, and kill-
ing of Palestinians.
Nāṭūr emphasizes that al-Sawāḥirī’s considerations, opinions, and inter-
pretations were certainly influenced by Israel’s cruel attitude to the Palestin-
ians. He notes, moreover, that when he objected to Sidon being presented as
a radical right-wing poet, al-Sawāḥirī replied, half sarcastically, half seriously:
“How can one distinguish between seriousness and irony in their [the Israeli
authors’] writing?”7 Nevertheless, in Nāṭūr’s view, the critical point is that Is-
rael’s expulsion of al-Sawāḥirī from his homeland did not prevent him from
taking interest in Hebrew literature from his new place of residence in Jordan.
The sequence of events described above indicates that the contacts be-
tween Arab culture and modern Hebrew culture cannot be detached from the
political conflict in the Middle East and the ideological discourse that accom-
panies it. In fact, Arabs perceive these contacts to be the coercive relations
between a colonial power and its colonies, between the occupier and the oc-
cupied, between the enforcer and the enforced, and between the majority and
the minority.
In this study, I will examine several issues in these intercultural contacts,
while addressing the debated existence of coercive relations and their effect
on such contact. The discussion will focus on inter-literary contacts, since lit-
erature offers a good mirror of the dynamic intra-cultural and inter-cultural
processes. This study will address the development of contacts between the
Arabic and the Hebrew literary canons, as well as identify the characteristics
5 Ibid., p. 21.
6 al-Sawāḥirī, 1985, pp. 22–23. al-Sawāḥirī notes that Sidon’s work appeared in the newspaper
Maʽariv on 12.9.1981; yet upon examination, I found that the newspaper was not issued on
that date. However, since Sidon had a weekly column of rhymes in Maʽariv and the date was
probably a printing error by al-Sawāḥirī, I tried to locate the quoted poem in other issues of
the newspaper. Regrettably, I was unable to find it.
7 Nāṭūr, 1987, p. 24; 1995, p. 28; 1996, p. 96.
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