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<\/a>Clarice Lispector was born in Ukraine but came to Brazil still a toddler and was naturalized as a Brazilian. She died at 56 years old, in 1977, and left one of the most beloved body of works of Brazilian literature. She\u2019s considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. \u201cThe Hour of the Star\u201d is one of her most trnslated works.<\/p>\n
The translator of the book into Arabic, Maged ElGebaly, is the coordinator of the Portuguese Department at Aswan University. The book is his first translation from Portuguese to Arabic to be published. A major in Arabic and Spanish, he was the translator of Egypt\u2019s Ministry of Culture, has a master\u2019s degree in Linguistics by the Caro and Cuervo Institute and doctor\u2019s degrees in Translation, at Ain Sham University, and Languages, at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP).<\/p>\n
ElGebaly says that his first contact with the work of Clarice Lispector was in 2003, when he read \u201cFamily Ties\u201d, during Portuguese courses to foreigners at Brazil-Colombia Culture House. When he began his doctorate at USP, he then was introduced to the classic novels of the Portuguese literature.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong these novels, the feminine perspective, the intimate, psychological and philosophical writing by Clarice Lispector in \u201cThe Hour of the Star\u201d fascinated me. It\u2019s one of those books that you intend to read only the first page and just can\u2019t put the book down until the end. The character from Northeast Brazil Macab\u00e9a conversed with the passive resistance of many Egyptian and Arab young women that currently move from the villages and towns to the large cities to study and work,\u201d says ElGebaly.<\/p>\n
From this, the Egyptian began to study Clarice\u2019s work to translate \u201cThe Hour of the Star.\u201d In 2015, publishing house Kotob Khan bought the rights of Clarice\u2019s works to Arabic and contacted ElGebaly, the coordinator of the only Portuguese bachelor\u2019s degree in the Middle East. The translation was concluded in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took hours and hours of conversations with the work\u2019s textuality to be able to decipher the \u2018epiphany\u2019 in the dialogues taken by the characters\u2019 voices, with the narration occurring in two levels: by Rodrigo and by Macab\u00e9a,\u201d said ElGebaly to ANBA. According to him, it was crucial to decipher the voices in the narration and explain and balance out the silences and the implicit with counterparts in Arabic as for the text to not be truncated or incomprehensible to the reader.<\/p>\n ElGebaly had the support of friends to decipher some excerpts, especially from Khalid Tailche, an Iraqi professor who has a doctor\u2019s degree at USP. \u201cIt was necessary, in decoding the work in Arabic, to build the Brazilian sociocultural entries and the philosophical references of each character in Arabic,\u201d says the translator. Clarice\u2019s deep insight and metaphorical language, however, fused well with literary Arabic, according to ElGebaly.<\/p>\n Besides this work, the Egyptian translated into Arabic \u201cTale of a Certain Orient,\u201d by Brazilian writer Milton Hatoum, as part of his doctoral thesis at USP, but the work was never published. However, he has taken part in the organization of books on Portuguese literature and has written and published chapters on Literature and Linguistics books. ElGebaly plans to continue to work with the translation of Portuguese works into Arabic.<\/p>\n He’s in Brazil to update the Portuguese literature researches. He attended the International Symposium of Literature and Press at the Maranh\u00e3o Federal University, in which he presented, alongside Liliane Correa, a research on the diary and press coverage of the visit of Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II to Egypt. ElGebaly also attended other activities in Maranh\u00e3o, Par\u00e1, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, all focused on cultural relations and Arab and Brazilian literature. He also visited the state of Santa Catarina.<\/p>\n Translated by S\u00e9rgio Kakitani <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>