Selected Issues in the Modern Intercultural Contacts between Arabic and Hebrew Cultures: Hebrew, Arabic and Death <UN> Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies Edited by David S. Katz (Tel-Aviv University) Volume 57 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsjs <UN> Selected Issues in the Modern Intercultural Contacts between Arabic and Hebrew Cultures: Hebrew, Arabic and Death By Mahmoud Kayyal LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kayyāl, Maḥmūd, 1961- author. Title: Selected issues in the modern intercultural contacts between Arabic and Hebrew cultures / by Maḥmūd Kayyāl. Other titles: Brill's series in Jewish studies ; v. 57. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Brill's series in Jewish studies ; volume 57 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016036672 (print) | lccn 2016040739 (ebook) | isbn 9789004332256 (hardback : alk. paper) | isbn 9789004332263 (E-book) Subjects: lcsh: Hebrew literature, Modern--Translations into Arabic. | Arabic literature--Translations into Hebrew. | Translating and interpreting--Political aspects--Israel. | Translating and interpreting--Social aspects--Israel. Classification: lcc PJ4768 .K387 2016 (print) | lcc PJ4768 (ebook) | ddc 892.409/007--dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036672 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0926-2261 isbn 978-90-04-33225-6 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-33226-3 (e-book) Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. 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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> A flag loses touch with reality and flies A shop window adorned with women’s dresses, Beautiful, in shades of blue and white, all in Three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and Death Yehuda Amichai, Yom Zekaron le-Meti ha-Melḥamah (Memorial Day For The War Dead) (1973)1 ∵ 1 From : “Me-Aḥuri Kol Zeh Mestater Osher Gadol” (Behind All This Some Great Happiness is Hiding). <UN> <UN> Contents Preface ix Transliteration Guide xiii Introduction 1 1 Charting Unfamiliar Experiences: Ideology and Hegemony in the Translation of Modern Hebrew Literature into Arabic 26 2 The Shallow Waters of Hebrew: Three Paradigms of Translating Modern Arabic Literature into Hebrew 71 3 “Golani Don Juan”: The Linguistic Interference of Hebrew in Palestinian Literature Produced in Israel 106 4 “It’s the Babushka’s Fault”: Hebrew Writing by Palestinian Authors as Viewed by Arab Critics 127 Conclusions 157 Bibliography 161 Author Index 183 <UN> Preface In 1998, the Israeli press reported on a meeting of the Committee for the Pre- vention of Incitement, attended by representatives from the United States of America, Israel, and the Palestinian National Authority. At this meeting the Palestinian representative quoted from the work of an Israeli author, Ephraim Sidon (b. 1946), which, in his opinion, contains incitement against Palestinian society. The quote even appeared in the newspaper report itself: Even if the Fedayeen were to abandon their ways and the residents of the West Bank accept Gush Emunim with songs and joyful wailing (‘Kololo’) or transfer their refugees to the North Pole and wave flags of surrender night and day, we will never sit down with them nor engage them in dialogue.2 The report says that contrary to the usual diplomacy observed on such occa- sions, the Israeli delegation burst out laughing.3 Sidon’s remarks, which were translated into Arabic, in fact comprise words of satire precisely intended to express the author’s protest against the defiance of the Israeli Government to- wards the Palestinian people and their representatives. A thorough examination I made regarding the origin of this misunderstand- ing led me to the book of the exiled Palestinian author, Khalīl al-Sawāḥirī (b.  1940), Ḥarb al-Thamānīn Yawm(an) fī al-Shiʽr al-Isrāʼīlī – Dirāsa wa- Mukhtārāt Shiʽriyya (The Eighty-Day War in Israeli Poetry – a Study and Selected Poems), published in 1985.4 In this book, al-Sawāḥirī presents various examples from Hebrew poetry that demonstrate the differences of opinion in Israeli society regarding the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Al-Sawāḥirī’s poor command of the Hebrew language, his lack of familiarity with Hebrew literature and Israeli mentality, and his prejudices against Israeli culture and society led him to many stylistic and thematic misunderstandings. In al-Sawāḥirī’s view, “profound hatred for the Palestinian ‘other’ to the point of audaciously demanding to be rid of him at any cost” is blatant in satirist 2 Eichner, 1998. Fedayeen [fidā’iyūn], those who sacrifice themselves; Gush Emunim is an Isre- ali right-wing activist movement (see note 241 p. 63 below). From this point on, translated quotations from Hebrew and Arabic into English are my own translation, unless mentioned otherwise. 3 Ibid. 4 al-Sawāḥirī, 1985. <UN> x preface Ephraim Sidon’s poems.5 A translation of the poem, which the Palestinian rep- resentative later quoted, appeared in the book, accompanied by al-Sawāḥirī’s interpretation that Sidon urges the Israeli authorities not to negotiate with the Palestinians.6 Indeed al-Sawāḥirī’s misinterpretation almost caused a diplomatic incident between the Palestinians and Israelis, though in the view of the Israeli Pal- estinian author Salmān Nāṭūr (1948–2016), al-Sawāḥirī’s writings offer a good example of the willingness of Palestinian intellectuals to conduct fruitful dia- logue with Israeli culture despite the Israelis’ occupation, oppression, and kill- ing of Palestinians. Nāṭūr emphasizes that al-Sawāḥirī’s considerations, opinions, and inter- pretations were certainly influenced by Israel’s cruel attitude to the Palestin- ians. He notes, moreover, that when he objected to Sidon being presented as a radical right-wing poet, al-Sawāḥirī replied, half sarcastically, half seriously: “How can one distinguish between seriousness and irony in their [the Israeli authors’] writing?”7 Nevertheless, in Nāṭūr’s view, the critical point is that Is- rael’s expulsion of al-Sawāḥirī from his homeland did not prevent him from taking interest in Hebrew literature from his new place of residence in Jordan. The sequence of events described above indicates that the contacts be- tween Arab culture and modern Hebrew culture cannot be detached from the political conflict in the Middle East and the ideological discourse that accom- panies it. In fact, Arabs perceive these contacts to be the coercive relations between a colonial power and its colonies, between the occupier and the oc- cupied, between the enforcer and the enforced, and between the majority and the minority. In this study, I will examine several issues in these intercultural contacts, while addressing the debated existence of coercive relations and their effect on such contact. The discussion will focus on inter-literary contacts, since lit- erature offers a good mirror of the dynamic intra-cultural and inter-cultural processes. This study will address the development of contacts between the Arabic and the Hebrew literary canons, as well as identify the characteristics 5 Ibid., p. 21. 6 al-Sawāḥirī, 1985, pp. 22–23. al-Sawāḥirī notes that Sidon’s work appeared in the newspaper Maʽariv on 12.9.1981; yet upon examination, I found that the newspaper was not issued on that date. However, since Sidon had a weekly column of rhymes in Maʽariv and the date was probably a printing error by al-Sawāḥirī, I tried to locate the quoted poem in other issues of the newspaper. Regrettably, I was unable to find it. 7 Nāṭūr, 1987, p. 24; 1995, p. 28; 1996, p. 96. <UN>