São Paulo – Despite the Arab fame for good storytelling, their tales are not part of the everyday reading of most Brazilians. Specialists say that the number of works from the region offered in Brazilian bookshops has grown and that is a reflex of an East that is better known in these lands. But it is consensus: the volume of books signed by Mohameds and Moustaphas and brought to Brazil is a grain of sand when compared to the size of the Brazilian editorial market.
Among the Arab titles that reached bookshops last year are “Adonis”, a poetry book by the Syrian who goes by the same name, published by Companhia das Letras and translated by Michel Sleiman; the fourth volume of the classic “Arabian Nights”, published by Globo and translated by Mamede Mustafá Jarouche; and “Yalo”, released by Record and translated by Safa Jubran.
The 2012 catalogue of publications by Record also included “You Changed My Life”, by the Algerian Abdel Sellou, and “Anatomy of a Disappearance”, by the Libyan Hisham Matar. The former was translated from French. The latter from English. In 2010 came “The Calligrapher’s Secret”, by the Syrian Rafik Schami, translated from German by Estação Liberdade, the publishing house that this year released “Ha-tif al-Maghib”, by the Egyptian Gamal Ghitany, translated from Arabic by Safa Jubran.
Jubran, who is a reference in Arabic in Brazil, noticed growth in publication of books by authors from the region, but says it is not very intense. Michel Sleiman, a poet and Arabic Language and Literature Professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), is of a similar opinion. “There has been growth, but in the [Brazilian] editorial market it is insignificant, very small,” said Sleiman. What has been happening, according to Jubran, is that publishing houses have started to prefer direct translations from Arabic, instead of going from translations into English or French, for example.
One of the reasons for which Brazilian publishing houses turned their focus a little more to the Arab world was the 9/11 terrorist attacks, believe specialists. “The Middle East has been the focus of the news, ever since the discovery of oil, it has been news. And with September 11, the Arab and Islamic world became even more visible, gained shape, started having a more mature image here,” said Sleiman. With this, he believes, the group of translators from Arabic to Portuguese has appeared. According to Sleiman, however, there is no publishing house with an editorial line turned to the Arab world.
Despite having discovered direct translation from Arabic, Brazilian publishing houses in general continue following the recommendations of European houses. “They bet on translation of a work if they hear that it has already been translated into another language and caused some impact,” said the translator.
Some of them, however, plan to change that. “We have contact with some Arab publishing houses, but the most concrete results, in some cases, came from publishing houses that represent them in Europe. It is time to make more direct contact. We already have some with Egypt and Lebanon,” said the director of Estação Liberdade, Angel Bojadsen.
The editorial director is hopeful regarding the partnership with Jubran and believes it may go beyond “Ha-tif al-Maghib”. Having a trustworthy Arabic translator is important to publishing houses, as they normally do not have professionals who know the language. Carlo Carrenho, an editorial market specialist and creator of site Publishnews, stated that the language is the main problem for publication of Arab works here. In Brazil, according to him, the market is flooded with translations from English, French and Spanish. With other languages, says Carrenho, there is the same difficulty, also with regard to the publishing of Brazilian works in other countries.
Carrenho stated that he has not noticed growth of publication of books by Arab authors in Brazil. The bottlenecks, to him, are in the lack of best sellers coming from the Arab world, of programs to support translation of books from the region (something there is in Brazil) and lack of promotion of Arabic literature here, as well as the difficulty to find translators. Brazil has a programme through the National Library, which provides assistance for foreign publishing houses to translate works that are originally written in Brazilian Portuguese. The specialist mentioned the lack of knowledge of similar programmes among the Arabs.
A world in the East
Publishing houses like Bojadsen, who opened doors to Arabic literature, show themselves enchanted with the rich culture there. “Working with the Arab world seems normal and is even imposed, due to the coverage and diversity it offers, due to the historic weight and several cultures. On the other hand, the editorial work is limited and authors suffer much to promote their work,” he said. Estação Liberdade publishes work from the Far East. “Looking to the near East is a result of our opening to other worlds,” he said.
Bojadsen has already met Gamal Ghitany and Rafik Schami, with the former a little before the eruption of the Arab Spring, in Cairo. “Literature comes before the Arab Spring, but it served to trigger things,” said the editorial director, explaining that he has a project to bring together works by all directors in the Arab and Muslim world who published books through Estação Liberdade, including the Afghan Atiq Rahimi and the Algerian Rachid Boudjedra, who already has work “Topographie idéale pour une agression caractérisée” translated. “What is interesting is that all these authors have very interesting life stories that are the basis for their respective literature. Training, literary influence, exile, repression and resistance, engagement, it is all there.”
*Translated by Mark Ament
