Growing up, I read many, many versions of The Arabian Nights Tales. They were either gifts or borrowed from libraries.
I have always wished I had a more complete version than those available. Now that is possible. Penguin have published three volumes and, for once, we on this side of the Atlantic we have a bargain. The English price is 20pounds sterling. The price here is $20.00 each. And they look like a bargain.
I have been celebrating translators, and just as I did in the previous post in celebrating Arthur Waley, there seems room to celebrate another.
Richard Burton, the explorer, is surely worth celebrating. He resembles Rudyard Kipling, whom he preceded by half a century, in that each had a huge appetite for life, and a vast output of works. However, their literary output differs greatly and we will not pursue the similarity any further.
Richard Burton is most famous for his translation of One Thousand and One Nights, which he published in 1885, and I have always fancied owning a full copy of his translation.
Rutledge published his translation in four volumes some years ago, and they were not very expensive. However, the four volumes never seemed to be on the shelves together and I was always afeared that I would be able to complete the set. I did fleetingly see a thick one volume edition but was, for some reason, not attracted to it. The abridgments, good as I am sure many of them are, do no seem to do justice to the range and vitality of the tales.
What can be said about the impact on the English language and culture of Richard Burton's translation? That he married the thousand tales from a seemingly exotic culture to the English language, together with a huge cast of memorable characters? That the tales spangle and sparkle as they weave their gaily coloured ribbons through the fabric of our culture. That each generations learns anew of Ali Baba, of Sindbad and of Alladin.
Alladin? Where would we be without Alladin?
And Scheherezade? What a wonderful framing device! Scheherezade is our proxy story teller. Goading us on to the next tale.
Robert Irwin, in his The Arabian Nights: A Companion (I B Taurus, 2004),
gives us an extensive view of the importance of the tales and their place within the Arab world (broadly defined). Consider his Chapter 4, The Story Teller's Craft. He makes a careful distinction between the various kinds of story telling and of story tellers. He admits that the history of story telling in the Middle East and beyond is obscure and poorly researched. This seems a shame given the richness that the Nights suggests.
Little emerges in translation from this region. The efforts of Interlink in the United States and SAQI in England, and, of course the redoubtable American University in Cairo, are to be hailed and rehailed.
In the meantime, we have these wonderful new three volumes from Penguin to explore. All hail to Penguin!
Update October 26, 2010
Just to be clear. Goodreads does not appear to have the format I am referring to for the Penguin edition. The details I mention above are for the three volume paperback edition.
I have always wished I had a more complete version than those available. Now that is possible. Penguin have published three volumes and, for once, we on this side of the Atlantic we have a bargain. The English price is 20pounds sterling. The price here is $20.00 each. And they look like a bargain.
In my columns here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...
I have been celebrating translators, and just as I did in the previous post in celebrating Arthur Waley, there seems room to celebrate another.
Richard Burton, the explorer, is surely worth celebrating. He resembles Rudyard Kipling, whom he preceded by half a century, in that each had a huge appetite for life, and a vast output of works. However, their literary output differs greatly and we will not pursue the similarity any further.
Richard Burton is most famous for his translation of One Thousand and One Nights, which he published in 1885, and I have always fancied owning a full copy of his translation.
Rutledge published his translation in four volumes some years ago, and they were not very expensive. However, the four volumes never seemed to be on the shelves together and I was always afeared that I would be able to complete the set. I did fleetingly see a thick one volume edition but was, for some reason, not attracted to it. The abridgments, good as I am sure many of them are, do no seem to do justice to the range and vitality of the tales.
What can be said about the impact on the English language and culture of Richard Burton's translation? That he married the thousand tales from a seemingly exotic culture to the English language, together with a huge cast of memorable characters? That the tales spangle and sparkle as they weave their gaily coloured ribbons through the fabric of our culture. That each generations learns anew of Ali Baba, of Sindbad and of Alladin.
Alladin? Where would we be without Alladin?
And Scheherezade? What a wonderful framing device! Scheherezade is our proxy story teller. Goading us on to the next tale.
Robert Irwin, in his The Arabian Nights: A Companion (I B Taurus, 2004),
http://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-...
gives us an extensive view of the importance of the tales and their place within the Arab world (broadly defined). Consider his Chapter 4, The Story Teller's Craft. He makes a careful distinction between the various kinds of story telling and of story tellers. He admits that the history of story telling in the Middle East and beyond is obscure and poorly researched. This seems a shame given the richness that the Nights suggests.
Little emerges in translation from this region. The efforts of Interlink in the United States and SAQI in England, and, of course the redoubtable American University in Cairo, are to be hailed and rehailed.
In the meantime, we have these wonderful new three volumes from Penguin to explore. All hail to Penguin!
Update October 26, 2010
Just to be clear. Goodreads does not appear to have the format I am referring to for the Penguin edition. The details I mention above are for the three volume paperback edition.