[As I have not read the Nights yet, this is not a commentary on them, but rather a comparison of the many translations available. This used to be a comment on my not-yet-review of the first volume of the Lyons translation of the Nights, but I thought it would be more helpful if it was a review. I've expanded on some of my earlier comments and tried to be more critical than "I like this one" or "this one seems odd", which was all I had time to write at the time I posted the comment. This is restricted to editions I have, as well as those of the Amazon review mentioned below, but I will put other editions into the review if they're submitted in the comments.As many readers of foreign literature will tell you, trranslation can drastically affect your enjoyment of a book. There have been a couple of times when I have disliked something until I read it in a new translation, as with Camus' the Stranger. My reaction to the original translation by Stewart Gilbert was lukewarm. I didn't dislike it, but I felt that something was missing which didn't allow me to hear his authorial voice. Reading the Matthew Ward translation restored that something, and allowed me to enjoy the novel more thoroughly.Nowhere is this truer than the classic Arabian Nights. There are many, many translations, both complete and partial, all of which are written in disparate styles and which all handle the more unsavory elements in different ways, and choosing one can be daunting. TO that end, I have written commentary for the passages of eight different translations, and have tried to assess them in a manner which lays out the advantages and disadvantages of each.I got this idea from an Amazon review where someone typed out the opening passage from the first story, which contains both sexual and racial content, to see how four different translators handled them. I'll incorperate both her and my translations. The first four are hers (though in the case of the Burton, I also own it), and the rest are mine.Mardrus and Mathers:Now there were in the King's palace certain windows that looked on to the garden, and, as King Shahzaman leaned there and looked out, the door of the palace opened and twenty women slaves with twenty men slaves came from it; and the wife of the King, his brother, was among them and walked there in all her bright beauty. When they came to the pool of a fountain they all undressed and mingled one with another. Suddenly, on the King's wife crying: 'O Masud! Ya Masud!', a gigantic negro ran towards her, embraced her, and, turning her upon her back, enjoyed her. At this signal, all the other men slaves did the same with the women and they continued thus a long while, not ceasing their kisses and embraces and goings in and the like until the approach of dawn.(I like the sound of it. It's readable, the sexual and racial content is handled very well, however it's not originally translated from the Arabic, but from the French, and has been criticised for inaccuracy by purists. Dr. Mardrus took many liberties with the texts, including the addition of extra tales from a supposed newly discovered secret manuscript that no one actually saw, and the expansion of sexual material. Not everyone will care, I don't think I'll even care once I've read a translation originally from the Arabic, because it really is a lot of fun to read, but it's worth knowing.)The English translations of Dalziel's Illustrated Arabian Nights, from Barnes and Noble Classics:One day, Shahriar had started on a great hunting match, about two days' journey from his capital; but Shahzenan, pleading ill health, was left behind. He shut himself up in his apartment, and sat down at a window that looked into the garden. Suddenly a secret gate of the palace opened, and there came out of it twenty women, in the midst of whom walked the Sultaness. The persons who accompanied the Sultaness threw off their veils and long robes, and Shahzenan was greatly surprised when he saw that ten of them were black slaves, each of whom chose a female companion. The Sultaness clapped her hands, and called: "Masoud, Masoud!" and immediately a black came running to her; and they all remained conversing familiarly together.(Seems fairly competant, but the translator removes all hint of sexual indiscretion, which means that any reaction from the man watching will seem like an overreaction if all they're doing is conversing. Yet I would recommend this version for children, because though it is sanitised, it does not go nearly to the same lengths as...Andrew Lang:Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels. It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death.("I used to love my wife, but she did a bad thing, so I'm going to kill her!" I can only imagine parents trying to explain away the unnamed bad thing to their children. Not recommended, at all. As you can see, it's completely different from any translation we've previously looked at, makes use of heavy paraphrasing, and results in the story being made incoherent, maybe even to the children for whom it was intended.)Sir Richard Burton (this is an interesting one:Thereupon Shah Zaman drew back from the window, but he kept the bevy in sight espying them from a place whence he could not be espied. They walked under the very lattice and advanced a little way into the garden till they came to a jetting fountain amiddlemost a great basin of water; then they stripped off their clothes and behold, ten of them were women, concubines of the King, and the other ten were white slaves. Then they all paired off, each with each: but the Queen, who was left alone, presently cried out in a loud voice, "Here to me, O my lord Saeed!" and then sprang with a drop leap from one of the trees a big slobbering blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a truly hideous sight. He walked boldly up to her and threw his arms round her neck while she embraced him as warmly; then he bussed her and winding his legs round hers, as a button loop clasps a button, he threw her and enjoyed her.(I would ignore Burton's version outright, if not for the fact that it does have certain advantages. Yes, it is racist, turning Saeed into an almost cartoonish figure because of the words used to describe him and the sexual act. Burton blatantly inserts his own materials into the text at will, something I can tell even not having any knowledge of the Arabic originals. The other translators do a little of this too, but not as much as Burton. Yet I have read other parts of these tales in his translation, and I would say that they are worth at least a quick glance because of the fascinating and esoteric quality of his prose. In reading the Burton, you almost have to learn a new way of reading, because Burton never met an obscure word or phrase he didn't like, and he freely inserted them into the Nights. He would sometimes make up words when the ones available to him didn't suit the story. His energy and sense of diction is at many points amazing, and even with the racism, I found myself beguiled while reading him. Also, if you can't be bothered spending money for the Lyons translation, which is what I recommend below, his versions can be found for free online.)John Payne:Now there were in King Shahzeman's apartments lattice-windows overlooking his brother's garden, and as the former was sitting looking on the garden, behold a gate of the palace opened, and out came twenty damsels and twenty black slaves, and among them his brother's wife, who was wonderfully fair and beautiful. They all came up to a fountain, where the girls and slaves took off their clothes and sat down together. Then the queen called out, "O Mesoud!" And there came to her a black slave, who embraced her and she him. Then he lay with her, and on likewise did the other slaves with the girls. And they ceased not from kissing and clipping and cricketing and carousing until the day began to wane.(This was the basis for the Burton translation [some even criticised Burton for plagiarism, though he claimed he got permission from Payne to reuse passages]. The writing is a little flowery, in typical Victorian style, but isn't too bad otherwise. Payne's accomplishment here is hard to overstate. He taught himself Arabic, and using this knowledge, translated the first and one of the most complete versions of the Arabian Nights we now have. It's just too bad he only produced five hundred copies, which left Richard Burton's translation to take over and be the more influential of the two.)Jonathan Scott (the so-called Aldine Edition):While he was thus absorbed in grief, a circumstance occurred which attracted the whole of his attention. A secret gate of the sultan's palace suddenly opened, and there came out of it twenty women, in the midst of whom walked the sultaness, who was easily distinguished from the rest by her majestic air. This princess thinking that the king of Tartary was gone a-hunting with his brother the sultan, came with her retinue near the windows of his apartment. For the prince had so placed himself that he could see all that passed in the garden without being perceived himself. He observed, that the persons who accompanied the sultaness threw off their veils and long robes, that they might be more at their ease, but he was greatly surprised to find that ten of them were black men, and that each of these took his mistress. The sultaness, on her part, was not long without her gallant. She clapped her hands, andcalled "Masoud, Masoud," and immediately a black descended from a tree, and ran towards her with great speed. Modesty will not allow, nor is it it necessary, to relate what passed between the blacks and the ladies. It is sufficient to say, that Shaw-zummaun saw enough to convince him, that his brother was as much to be pitied as himself. This amorous company continued together till midnight, and having bathed together in a great piece of water, which was one of the chief ornaments of the garden, they dressed themselves, and re-entered the palace by the secret door, all except Masoud, who climbed up his tree, and got over the garden wall as he had come in.(I'm not sure what to think of this one. The way in which he glosses over the sex is kind of hilarious. it's not really censored, because he mentions the word "amorous", which makes it obvious what's going on, but he still skirts around it. He freely inserts new material not in the original for the sake of a better story, and the syntax is weird [piece of water?], so perhaps not a good fit for purists, which I am to an extent, but it could be fun to read.)malcolm and ursula Lyons (this is the newest translation from Penguin Classics):In the royal palace there were windows that overlooked Shahriyar’s garden, and as Shah Zaman was looking, a door opened and out came twenty slave girls and twenty slaves, in the middle of whom was Shahriyar’s very beautiful wife. They came to a fountain where they took off their clothes and the women sat with the men. ‘Mas‘ud,’ the queen called, at which a black slave came up to her and, after they had embraced each other, he lay with her, while the other slaves lay with the slave girls and they spent their time kissing, embracing, fornicating and drinking wine until the end of the day.(I think this is the best version, and it's my personal recommendation. The English is clear and readable, there are annotations, not nearly to the extent of Burton, but they are there and help, and the language has been optimised to sound good to the ear.)And finally, the partial translation by N. J. Dawood, also from Penguin Classics:While Shahzaman sat at one of the windows overlooking the King's garden, he saw a door open in the palace, through which came twenty slave-girls and twenty Negroes. In their midst was his brother's queen, a woman of surpassing beauty. They made their way to the fountain, where they all undressed and sat on the grass. The King's wife then called out: "Come Mass'ood!" and there promptly came to her a black slave, who mounted her after smothering her with embraces and kisses. So also did the Negroes with the slave-girls, revelling together till the approach of night.(Another good and fun one. It's only a partial translation, a little over 400 pages, but considering the quality, I don't mind that much. It's not censored, but as with most of the translations, handles the sexual and racial content in such a way that the reader knows they exist, but does not descend into caricature or racism.)
A library of books is the fairest garden in the world, and to walk there is an ecstasy.Within the span of the ninth to the thirteen centuries my library consists of these: Beowulf, The Pillow Book, The Tale of Genji, As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, The Sagas of Icelanders, Njal's Saga, and this. What a show of power, then, that a monumental collection the likes of which the Anglo world has never even attempted to replicate is popularly framed as a collection of children's tales, sexy times, and a text that is of little worth without the supposed genius of one bastardizing Orientalist. I'm not going to pretend that I enjoyed all of this, or most, or even more than a mere handful of tales in their entirety and bits and pieces of the rest of the thousand and one nights, but I do recognize its worth. It's rather sad that most prefer to coddle this or simplify it to extremes, for these times are in desperate need of critical consideration when it comes to the culture that brought about this work.The most contemporary descendant of this work in my library is The Corpse Exhibition: And Other Stories of Iraq. Do you know how sad that is? Look, in a lot of ways the uglier parts of the Islamic Golden Age have been inherited by the European Golden Age in the forms of anti-blackness, antisemitism, rape culture and so much else illustrated by the contents of these tales (slaves of the Trans-Saharan trade weren't allowed into Islam for fear they would realize the horrifying hypocrisy of it all), but that does not justify this persistent void in history, in literature, in Disney movies and so-called common sense. Wiki says, "The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional athletes today." Wiki also describes hoards of sciences and art and appreciative insight, taught today as "discovered" by Europeans along with whatever else was judged as fit pickings. Everything else apparently is sufficiently covered by mentions of terrorism and hijabs.You know those stories that involve proto-legends of ancient civilizations, glorious in their existence and devastating in their fall, always hoped to have remnants, always yearned towards by a few of the wiser characters? Where is that for the civilizations of these tales? Where is that deep and abiding interest in the historical complexities these tales incorporate, the genre bending that describes the bridgework between Ancient Greece and modern Grimm, an inheritance that does not bend over backwards to insist white people have always and ever shall be the people? I'm not justifying Orientalism, or god forbid implying that even more of the ancient architecture and cultural artifacts of this era should be stripped away from their homelands and carted off as so much stolen booty to the likes of the British Museum. What concerns me is this terrifying lack of caring about the worlds that brought these tales together and, for all popular media likes to pretend, are still with us today. China, Persia turned Iran, Rûm on one side and Rome on the other, India before Pakistan and Bangladesh, Damascus in contemporary Syria, Constantinople turned Istanbul in contemporary Turkey, Cairo in contemporary Egypt, Greece, even much belittled Sudan and, of course, Irāq. Looking above, the works I mentioned previously are all of recently Anglocentric rehabilitated Japanese and Northern European construction. Yeah, I could put more effort into expanding my reading, but don't tell me there aren't ideological forces interested in keeping the trek beyond the infantilized The Arabian Nights a hard one.What I found in this were traces of fairy tales, science fiction, horror stories of corpse-eaters and refrains of that much esteemed Odyssey. Hospitality was paramount, hygiene was mandated, and riches were glossed over as much as the titles of colonial lords and plantation owners were in later years. Gender was every so often malleable, entertainment was a consideration of disguise and ethics, and the descriptions of jewels and gardens and what I could get of the poetry were beyond compare. Islam is the main tenet, but much as Beowulf did with pagans and The Divine Comedy with philosophers, quality of past ancestry outweighs lack of present belief. Tropes run as rampant across these tales as they do across television shows and sociopolitical relations, and more often than not the fictioned morales and implied -isms were a mirror to the Anglo mores of today. It wouldn't surprise me that, for every reader frightened by the myriad similarities between the Golden Age of nine centuries past and their present, there is another combing the pages to fuel their Islamophobia. There may be insinuations in these pages that Christians bless themselves with the shit of their religious leaders, but the hegemony they were written in has long since passed, and contemporary retribution is justified by nothing.More than two thousand pages have passed since I opened Volume One, and all I can say is that I didn't have the toolkit to appreciate the sociocultural wealth that has amazingly survived till this day. True, it's not that esteemed by even its proper home of the Arabic canon, but it wouldn't hurt if more readers could engage with this with more than entertainment or Fox News in mind, cause no, the Middle East didn't pop out of nowhere. No, the best place for this work is not an uncritical pedestal and a lah-de-dah translation. All that does is steamroll that indoctrinated gap between the Ancient Greeks and the European Renaissance even more, and the world of today is much too small for that to hold. Whether they are written or spoken, words can destroy kings and ruin empires.There is nothing new under the sun. Are you ready to seriously consider the old?P.S. Yes, I'm including this in my Summer of Women 2015 count. Anyone who begs to differ, bring it on. Women were reading and writing a hell of a lot earlier in Islam than in Anglo Christianity, and appealing to historical stereotypes is a poor excuse indeed.
What do You think about The Arabian Nights (2004)?
I am planning to read through this whole book someday, I swear. But it's going to be a slow process. Here, in list form, are the reasons I may or may not finish The Arabian Nights.Reasons I May Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:-Scheherazade (or whichever of the twenty ways to spell her name you prefer) is kind of a badass genius. Since her father is the king's vizier, she gets exempted from said batshit crazy king's plan to marry and then kill every single available virgin in the city. But she volunteers for the job anyway, based purely on her plan to keep telling the king stories until he decides she's much too interesting to kill. -Her method of telling the stories is really complicated and interesting. She starts a story in which a man with some unsolvable problem attempts to solve it. He meets three other men. They then meet a djin. The men all tell stories to the djin. The djin tells stories. They tell a story in which a person meets another person, and tells them stories. The whole book is like some kind of reverse Jenga game: she keeps piling stories on top of stories and we can't help but be baffled that she even manages to keep them all straight in her head, much less prevent them from collapsing around her. -It's pretty dirty. There's lots of orgies and naked slave girls running around, and since Scheherazade's sister sleeps in her bedroom and is there when the king visits her every night, I got the sense that there were some kinky three-ways going on before Story Time started. Reasons I May Not Finish This Ridiculously Long Book:-It's racist and misongynist to a level I have never experienced before (and I've read Stephenie Meyer and Ian Fleming, so I know misongyny when I see it). Here's an example: so, the king finds out that his wife has been cheating on him, and with a black slave, no less. Not only that, most of the cheating women (and it is always the women who sleep around) in the book are found ravenously sexing up black men. It's at this point that we break for a lovely footnote by the translator that explains how black men, owing to their insanely massive genitalia, are the paramour of choice for cheating wives. He adds that several men he knows will not allow their wives to visit Africa with them, since the danger of their being seduced by a well-hung Negro is just too high. I am not making any of this up. -The book is ridiculously long. Did I mention that already?
—Madeline
Very entertaining and clever in the set up and framing of the stories. Some very funny and others devilishly wry, with only a one that just did not pull me in. I noticed two main themes among many others: 1. Men are constructed as the focus for most of the stories (yes, I know that Shahrazad is bold and takes a huge risk and a few female witches rear their crafty heads). Their pride and arrogance in their positions of power pretty much are the set up for the stories; and 2. The value of the story itself. Throughout the matroyshka-like path of stories, several characters are allowed to tell their tale (often to save their skins as well!). Will probably come back to these for another fun adventure.
—Craig
صد و شصت سال پس از ترجمه فارسی هزار ویک شب، یک ناشر و مترجم در ایران متن کامل و جامعی از این کتاب معروف را به زبان فارسی برگردانده اند. این ترجمه بر اساس متون معتبر عربی و با بهره گیری از ترجمه های معتبر انگلیسی و فرانسوی انجام شده استنشر مرکز که از جمله ناشران با سابقه ایران است، از سال ۱۳۷۶ به ابراهیم اقلیدی، که در ادبیات عرب و جهانی دستی دارد، پیشنهاد داد برگردان فارسی کاملی از این کتاب را به دست بگیرد اقلیدی نیز علاوه بر فراهم کردن منابع تحقیق و نسخه های معتبر این کتاب، تحقیقی جدی درباره کتاب و داستان های آن و نیز اصلی و الحاقی بودن این داستان ها انجام داد که در مقدمه مفصل خود بر کتاب تمامی این مراحل را آورده است اکنون و پس از یازده سال از آغاز به کار این طرح بزرگ،۶ جلد از نزدیک به ۲۰ جلد این اثر به بازار کتاب راه یافته است. این ۶ جلد بیش از ۱۳۰۰ صفحه قطع رقعی را شامل می شود و چنانکه دست اندرکاران نشر مرکز گفته اند، بقیه مجلدات آن نیز آماده انتشار و قرار است کل کتاب در بیش از ۴ هزار صفحه عرضه شود دلیل اصلی تاخیر در انتشار همزمان تمامی مجلدات، نبود منابع مالی است که در عرصه نشر ایران امری پذیرفته شده است، به خصوص که تمامی مراحل این طرح را ناشری از بخش خصوصی بدون هیچ کمک دولتی اجرا کرده است نشر مرکز در انتشار این مجموعه ابتکار تازه ای به خرج داده است و آن انتشار آن در دو فرم متفاوت استنگاهی به ۶ جلد ابتدایی کتاب نشان می دهد که ناشر به جای انتشار شب به شب داستان های هزار و یک شب، آن را در قالب بخش بخش و مقوله بندی شده و موضوعی انتشار داده و مترجم هم در مقدمه کتاب وعده داده است که "علاوه بر متن کامل موضوعی، متن کامل شب به شب هم پس از انتشار و توزیع متن مقوله بندی شده، به بازار کتاب عرضه شود ناشر و مترجم برای انتشار طبقه بندی شده قصه ها دلایلی را ذکر کرده اند که مهمترین آن نخوانده شدن برخی از قصه های مهم وکوتاه در لابلای کتاب به جهت حجم بالای کتاب است که در نسخه کنونی نزدیک به ۴ هزار صفحه می شود و این از ترجمه تسوجی (در ۱۶۰ سال قبل) دو هزار صفحه بیشتر است. ضمن آنکه ارائه طبقه بندی شده کتاب به خواننده در انتخاب مجزای هر نوع داستان هم مدد می رساند. دو جلد از این شش جلد به نام "پریانه ها" منتشر شده و ۴ جلد بعدی به نامهای "از عشق و پارسایی"، "داستان های سفر؛ دریایی ها"، "حکایت دلگشای پرندگان و حیوانات"، "داستان های سفر؛ سفر به ناکجا" عرضه شده است درهر جلد علاوه بر مقدمه مفصل مترجم و محقق اثر، مقدمه ویژه مترجم برآن جلد هم آمده و فلسفه وجودی و شان نزول این قصه ها که از زبان شهزاد قصه گو بیان می شود، توضیح داده شده است نگاهی به ترجمه اقلیدی از کتاب نشان می دهد که وی ضمن حفظ فخامت زبان، سعی کرده است اشعار آمده در متن اصلی را هم با اشعاری فارسی جایگزین سازد به نوشته اقلیدی، شعر ها در ترجمه تسوجی ( ۱۶۰ سال پیش)توسط شاعری به نام سروش در متن کتاب گنجانده شد، اما مترجم کنونی تمامی اشعار آورده شده در متن عربی را بازسرایی کرده و در این زمینه تنها ۲۰ مورد از اشعار انتخاب شده توسط سروش را مناسب تشخیص داده و در متن گنجانده است نگاهی ابتدایی به ترجمه اقلیدی و مقابله آن با ترجمه تسوجی نشان می دهد که وی ضمن حفظ چارچوب زبانی اثر در انتقال به زبان مقصد، آن را روزآمد کرده و توانسته به خوبی از عهده این کار برآید. نثر ترجمه روان، ساده و البته در نقطه هایی سجع دار است که از آگاهی مترجم از ادبیات کهن ایرانی خبر می دهدقصه های هزار و یک شب که به زبان عربی آن را "الف لیله و لیله" می گویند، حدود ۳۰۰ سال قبل توسط آنتوان گالان فرانسوی ترجمه شد و ۱۵۰ سال بعد عبد الطیف تسوجی به سفارش دربار محمد شاه قاجار آن را به فارسی برگرداند که به نوشته اقلیدی "ترجمه تسوجی با وجود خطاها و ایرادهای فراوانی که دارد، تاکنون بهترین نمونه ترجمه به زبان فارسی است، او ترجمه ای زیبا ودلنشین از این اثر به دست داد که خود از نمونه های آغازین نثر فارسی مدرن در ایران به شمار می رود اما خلاصه بودن و فشردگی ترجمه تسوجی ،زبان نسبتا کهن این ترجمه، ترجمه نشدن نه دهم از اشعار عربی، خطاهای فراوان ترجمه فارسی و وجود غلط ها و دگرخوانی ها در نسخه عربی مورد استفاده و نبود امکانات روز چاپ و نشر سبب شد تا کسان دیگری هم به صرافت ترجمه این اثر به فارسی بیفتند نخستین بار موسی فرهنگ در سالهای ابتدایی دهه سی به مدیر انتشارات گوتنبرگ پیشنهاد داد به جای تصحیح و ویراستاری ترجمه تسوجی متن کامل گالان برگردان فارسی شود، که به دلیل عدم موافقت، او تنها ویراستاری وغلط گیری ترجمه تسوجی را انجام می دهد و تعداد اندکی قصه را به کار اضافه می کند پس از آن این نسخه و نیز نسخه تسوجی بارها و بارها از سوی ناشران مختلفی تجدید چاپ می شود والبته غلط های مطبعی فراوانی هم به متن راه می یابد.در سال های ابتدایی دهه ۸۰ انتشارات هرمس ویراستاری تازه ای از متن تسوجی را با برخی توضیحات و پانوشت ها در دوجلد کاغذ نازک و در بیش از ۲۳۰۰ صفحه به بازار کتاب عرضه کرد به نقل از بي بي سي فارسي
—HM
