Arabic classic One Thousand and One Nights It has been translated for many centuries, resulting in very different versions – in some of them, the story does not last until 1001 nights, only a few hundred, which makes it almost impossible to determine what remains of the story. The consensus is that the book, based on a collection of stories from Arab culture, begins with the story of Sheherzad, who marries a king who kills his wives on the first night to avoid betrayal. To save her skin and put an end to the genocide, the young woman begins to tell the king the story, always keeping the last one open so she can save him to hear the last one the next night. Now, the book has been updated in English by author and Arabic literature expert Yasmin Sil – the first in a woman’s language.
+ Click here to buy the book One Thousand and One Nights
“It’s a loose collection of stories without a single author, edited and transmitted by editors and compilers, translators and writers, each of whom has respected, cut and shaped it for centuries. No one can say for sure what it is One Thousand and One Nights. Written in Arabic, the book followed the path of all human speech: it was subject to change, censorship, oblivion, and adaptation. Whatever it means in Cairo in the 12th century, it has never been a stable thing and it has never stopped changing shape, “the Franco-Syrian author explained in an article in the UK Poets Society. Guardian, Editor Paolo Lemos Horta explains that the version is a remake of Richard Francis Burton’s translation, originally published in 1885, “stripped from Orientalism, racism and sexuality which he added to the story and incorporated.” The expectation, he said, is that the new version “will eventually remove Burton from his post.”
Known in English as Arabian Nights, The story is a compilation of 9th century Middle Eastern and Indian folklore, driven by the story of Sheherzad for survival. Antoine Galland’s first European translation of French in the early 18th century, including the first famous stories Aladdin And Ali Baba and 40 thieves, Taken from a long-running manuscript by an unknown author. He mentioned in his diary that a Syrian had given him stories which were lost in the Arabic manuscript. In the absence of further news, Galland has been credited as the author, and for three centuries we believe the stories he has added reflect his stay in Istanbul, “Horta told English Publications. The travel book containing the stories was found in the Vatican Library in 1993 and was translated into English.
He says the best example of how female characters are reconsidered in Seal’s translation is the horror story Sidi Numan, where a husband doesn’t understand why his wife eats only a grain of rice for dinner, follows her at night and makes her happy. Later in a corpse, when he confronts her, she turns him into a dog and she takes revenge by making him a horse. “It simply came to our notice then. It’s easier for him to believe that his wife is a supernatural being than to be involved with the part of her that escapes her hands. ” Get rid of “, concludes the editor.
Click here to buy + The Annotated Arabian Nights
* Sales made via this content link may incur some fees for Editora Abril