Translating Egypt’s Revolution: The Language of Tahrir

341 Pages·2012·73.169 MB·

by  Samia Mehrez

Translating Egypt’s Revolution
This unique interdisciplinary collective project is the culmination
of research and translation work conducted by AUC students of
different cultural and linguistic backgrounds who continue to wit-
ness Egypt's ongoing revolution. This historic event has produced
an unprecedented proliferation of political and cultural documents
and materials, whether written, oral, or visual. Given their range,
different linguistic registers, and referential worlds, these documents
present a great challenge to any translator.
The contributors to this volume have selectively translated chants,
banners, jokes, poems, and interviews, as well as presidential
speeches and military communiqués. Their practical translation
work is informed by the cultural turn in translation studies and
the nuanced role of the translator as negotiator between texts and
cultures. The chapters focus on the relationship between transla-
tion and semiotics, issues of fidelity and equivalence, creative trans-
formation and rewriting, and the issue of target readership. This
mature collective project is in many ways a reenactment of the new
infectious revolutionary spirit in Egypt today.

Translating
Egypt’s
Revolution
The Language of Tahrir
Edited by
Samia Mehrez
The American University in Cairo Press
Cairo New York
First published in 2012 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
Copyright © 2012 Samia Mehrez
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Dar el Kutub No. 11218/11
ISBN 978 977 416 533 7
Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mehrez, Samia
Translating Egypt’s Revolution: The Language of Tahrir / Samia Mehrez. —Cairo: The
American University in Cairo Press, 2012
p. cm.
ISBN 978 977 416 533 7
1. Egypt—History—1981
2. Revolutions
I. Title
1 2 3 4 16 15 14 13 12
Designed by Adam el-Sehemy
Printed in Egypt
For Egypt: the revolutionaries and the martyrs whose
creative energy, unwavering courage, and enormous sacrifice
continue to inspire us all

Contents
Note on the Contributors ix
Note on Transliteration xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Translating Revolution: An Open Text 1
Samia Mehrez
1. Mulid al-Tahrir: Semiotics of a Revolution 25
Sahar Keraitim and Samia Mehrez
2. Of Drama and Performance:
Transformative Discourses of the Revolution 69
Amira Taha and Christopher Combs
3. Signs and Signifiers: Visual Translations of Revolt 103
Laura Gribbon and Sarah Hawas
4. Reclaiming the City: Street Art of the Revolution 143
Lewis Sanders IV
5. al-Thawra al-DaHika:
The Challenges of Translating Revolutionary Humor 183
Heba Salem and Kantaro Taira
6. The Soul of Tahrir: Poetics of a Revolution 213
Lewis Sanders IV and Mark Visonà
vii
7. The People and the Army Are One Hand:
Myths and Their Translations 249
Menna Khalil
8. Global Translations and Translating the Global:
Discursive Regimes of Revolt 277
Sarah Hawas
Appendix 1 307
Appendix 2 313
Appendix 3 319
viii Contents
Note on the Contributors
Chris Combs has a BA in Spanish and history from Mount Saint Mary’s
University in Maryland. Early in his career, he became fluent in Brazil-
ian Portuguese and developed an interest in translation. Since he began
learning Arabic in 2002, Chris has spent three years living and study-
ing in the Middle East, and was pursuing a graduate diploma in Middle
East studies at the American University in Cairo when Egypt’s revolu-
tion began. He currently serves as director of international programs at a
trade association near Washington, D.C., and aims to continue working
with Arabic in his career.
Laura Gribbon has a first class bachelor’s degree in international develop-
ment with NGO management from the University of East London. She
is currently studying for an MSc in Middle East politics at the School of
Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Her profes-
sional background is in youth and community relations, working in the
United Kingdom and Northern Ireland on the politics of identity. Laura’s
work focuses on the discovery of unheard voices and she has a keen inter-
est in conveying messages through images and the non-verbal. Arriving
in Cairo in early January 2011, and living close to Tahrir, Laura was often
in the midan speaking to people and taking pictures.
Sarah Hawas graduated from the American University in Cairo in 2011
with a BA in comparative literature. In the past, she has translated for
creative writers, journalists, bloggers, and social movements in Palestine,
Egypt, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Sarah is fluent in English
and Arabic, with a reading knowledge of Hebrew and French. She is
ix