Chapter one
1. Preliminaries
1.1 Introduction Translation is the act of rendering a written text from one language into another. It is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language, which is why the outcome has to be close to the original meaning. If the goal of the translation is to understand the culture, it is more useful to comprehend the meaning. The translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception is that there exists an exact simple correspondence between any two …show more content…
It is a mix of what the author sees in his city, the historical facts, the stories, as well as the rivers, orchards and places devastated by war. As it is clear from reading Basryartha, it is not a novel or a collection of short stories, which is why the Amazon publishers of the English version label it as “A literary tribute.” It is different from our understanding of a novel, which requires a continuous interpretation on each page. The cataloguing of the Arabic version of the National Iraqi library classifies it as قصص/بصرياثا, Basrayatha/stories (1993). Everyone who reads it will agree that it is an interesting book, but at one point or another disagree on what type of scholarly book it is. The author does not mention if it is a biography, records, document or historical notes, but it is clearly a ‘Picture of a City’ where the author still …show more content…
The Verso edition begins with the narrator’s first memories of his city and ends with the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. The top layer of the narrative is thus roughly chronological, following the shape of Khudayyir’s life. However, most sections still have historical aspects, which reach back through Iraqi/Basra memory. Later sections also reflect his life, exploring the art and philosophy that have shaped his consciousness and his fictional city. The narrator of the book is Khudayyir, though sometimes the book takes on a shared voice, that of the people of Basra from his
1. Preliminaries
1.1 Introduction Translation is the act of rendering a written text from one language into another. It is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language, which is why the outcome has to be close to the original meaning. If the goal of the translation is to understand the culture, it is more useful to comprehend the meaning. The translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception is that there exists an exact simple correspondence between any two …show more content…
It is a mix of what the author sees in his city, the historical facts, the stories, as well as the rivers, orchards and places devastated by war. As it is clear from reading Basryartha, it is not a novel or a collection of short stories, which is why the Amazon publishers of the English version label it as “A literary tribute.” It is different from our understanding of a novel, which requires a continuous interpretation on each page. The cataloguing of the Arabic version of the National Iraqi library classifies it as قصص/بصرياثا, Basrayatha/stories (1993). Everyone who reads it will agree that it is an interesting book, but at one point or another disagree on what type of scholarly book it is. The author does not mention if it is a biography, records, document or historical notes, but it is clearly a ‘Picture of a City’ where the author still …show more content…
The Verso edition begins with the narrator’s first memories of his city and ends with the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. The top layer of the narrative is thus roughly chronological, following the shape of Khudayyir’s life. However, most sections still have historical aspects, which reach back through Iraqi/Basra memory. Later sections also reflect his life, exploring the art and philosophy that have shaped his consciousness and his fictional city. The narrator of the book is Khudayyir, though sometimes the book takes on a shared voice, that of the people of Basra from his