Middle Eastern literature has had a respectable presence in the Czech Republic for a number of years. Its position on the literary market is due to the work of eminent specialists in Arabic and also literary-oriented linguists with an interest in written work from various regions of the Middle East. By contrast, Czech literature is only beginning to find a place for itself in Arabic translations. However, there is a surprisingly strong interest in books by Czech authors in the countries of the Middle East. This is the experience of the leading translators and native speakers of Arabic, thanks to whom classic and modern works of Czech literature have been published in the Arab world.

Among the leading representatives of this area of translation, there are five figures from the Arabic–Czech translation scene who are worthy of special mention: Charif Bahbouh, founder of the oriental publishing house Dar Ibn Rushd and a publisher, writer, translator and professor of Arabic in one person. The next is Chalid Biltagi, a specialist in Czech and Slovak studies and translator of older and modern Czech and Slovak literature. Then there is the Syrian doctor and translator of Czech and Slovak literature Ghijat Mawsili, followed by Burhan Kalak, a translator and former Palestinian diplomat in Prague. The final name which should be mentioned is that of the well-known Syrian director, also a translator, Moris Issa.

What links all of these figures from the Czech–Arab literary world is a series of short-term visits or even long-term immigration to what was then Czechoslovakia, later the Czech Republic. They were not afraid to open themselves up to a foreign culture and society. They sampled the local traditions and customs, and developed a taste for the Czech language. They began to read the greats of Czech literature such as the writers Karel Čapek, Božena Němcová, Jaroslav Hašek, Jan Neruda and Jaroslav Seifert.

Through their tenacity and zeal for a good cause, they quickly mastered the beauties and complexities of the Czech language, plucked up their courage (in some cases at the expense of their modest translation experience) and began to translate the texts of the classics which they were keen to bring to an Arab audience.

Karel Čapek in Beirut

The novelist, journalist, playwright and translator Karel Čapek wrote a number of works influenced primarily by his philosophical sensibilities and strong awareness of the advance of scientific and technological progress. The Tales from Two Pockets, published in 1929, are written in the style of a detective story and also contain Čapek’s characteristic humour. There are two sets of twenty-four tales and they were first published in the Lidové noviny newspaper where Karel Čapek worked as an editor from 1921. A selection of twenty-four of Čapek’s short stories from the total of forty-eight reached Arab bookshops thanks to the translation work of Burhan Kalak. The publication was brought out by the Italian publishing house Al Mutawassit, based in Milan, to mark the 125th anniversary of Karel Čapek’s birth, i.e. on 9.1.2016. Shortly after that, the book was presented at the book fair in Beirut and reached booksellers in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, and subsequently the whole Arab world.

The introduction to the Arabic version of this book of Čapek short stories was provided by the well-known Arabic scholar and pedagogue Luboš Kropáček.

“The true essence of Karel Čapek’s short stories is humanism. The author looks into the very depths of an individual, searching for what is positive in a particular person, even if, for example, he has committed some kind of transgression. I think that it would hardly have occurred to Karel Čapek that nearly one hundred years on some Arab would come along and translate his short stories. The tales are genuinely very interesting and technically perfect. I think that they will provide the Arab reader with an excellent reading experience,” says the author of the Arabic translation, Burhan Kalak.

Karel Čapek’s ‘The Tales from Two Pockets’ published by Al Mutawassit.

War with the Newts was then translated by the Syrian doctor and specialist in Czech and Slovak studies Ghijat Mawsili.

Another of Čapek’s works to be translated into Arabic was his anti-war drama The Mother, published in 1938. It was translated into Arabic and published in 2011 by the founder of the oriental publishing house Dar Ibn Rushd, Charif Bahbouh. In the same year he also translated Čapek’s The White Disease, another anti-fascist work, published in 1937. Another item in Charif Bahbouh’s Czech–Arabic translation repertoire is the book Czech Stories and Tales, which is an Arabic translation of an anthology of short stories by leading writers. Following in the wake of Karel Čapek, it presents short stories by other important Czech writers such as Jaroslav Hašek, Jan Werich, Božena Němcová, Jan Drda, Ota Pavel, Jiří Marek and Martin Petiška. The Arabic version of the book was published in 2009.

In relation to the situation with translations of Czech books in Arab countries, Charif Bahbouh states in an interview for Be In Magazine: “Arabs are interested in Czech literature, and when it is translated into Arabic they are keen to read it. At the book fair in Tunisia, where the Dar Ibn Rushd publishing house has represented the Czech Republic on a number of occasions, we have recorded an unprecedented level of interest. However, we were the only ones to present translations of Czech literature into Arabic directly from Czech. There was also a considerable demand for books by Bohumil Hrabal, Jaroslav Hašek, Milan Kundera and Franz Kafka, but these had been translated from French or German.”

Another of the giants of Czech literature is the poet and Nobel prize winner Jaroslav Seifert. His verses have also been rendered into Arabic. The credit for this goes to the well-known Syrian director and translator Moris Issa. A 200-page collection of Seifert’s poems translated into Arabic was published in Damascus in 1985.

Likewise, the Syrian doctor and translator of Czech and Slovak literature Ghijat Mawsili, who studied in Czechoslovakia and lived there for a time, can boast an impressive number of translations of Czech books into Arabic. With regard to classic literature, he has translated The Grandmother by Božena Němcová and also the four-part humorous novel The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. More recent authors whose works he has chosen to translate include Jiří Kratochvil, Stanislav Komárek and Michal Ajvaz.

Jiří Kratochvil (*1940), a novelist, playwright and journalist, has been awarded a number of major literary prizes for his creative efforts. Ghijat Mawsili selected two works by Kratochvil for translation. The first of them is a novella entitled Lie Down, Beast, the Czech version of which was published in 2002, and the Arabic in 2013. In this work the author indirectly alludes to the events of 11 September 2001; however, he transfers them to a Czech setting and to the 1950s in the form of another type of evil. The second work of his which Ghijat Mawsili translated into Arabic is the novel The Promise, the original version of which came out in 2009, and the Arabic version two years later. In it the writer deals with the issues of guilt and punishment. This work is an experimental literary expression which utilizes postmodern and surrealistic elements very effectively.

Another writer whose work was translated by Ghijat Mawsili is Stanislav Komárek (*1958), a philosopher, poet, biologist and anthropologist. His novel entitled The Little Black House came out in Czech in 2004. The Arabic publication penned by Ghijat Mawsili was published in 2012. The Little Black House as presented by the author is a kind of deposit box for a private world whose everyday life is even more thrilling than the history of the 20th century unfolding around it.

Mawsili’s trio of modern translations is concluded by the book The Other City by the writer Michal Ajvaz (*1949) from 2005. This novelist, translator and poet is also known for his novella The Luxembourg Gardens, for which he was awarded the Magnesia Litera prize in 2012. The work The Other City abandons its hero in the middle of a mysterious “other” Prague, the living bowels of the meaning of life. The Arabic translation of this book was brought out in a version by Ghijat Mawsili in 2013 by the Al Shaar publishing house.

For the future Ghijat Mawsili is planning a translation of some extracts from the work of Jáchym Topol and Tomáš Zmeškal.

Chalid Biltagi: The Grandmother as a bible

Another important figure in translated literature is Chalid Biltagi, a specialist in Czech and Slovak studies, who now lives in Egypt. Judging by the high number of translations of Czech and Slovak books into Arabic, he has developed a great fondness for Czech/Slovak literature.

Chalid Biltagi

When he was still an inexperienced Egyptian youth, he recited by heart poems by Jan Neruda and Bouquet by Karel Jaromír Erben at the university in Cairo.

“I became familiar with Czech literature at university, in the very first year of my studies. I knew some of Neruda’s poems, for example the Cosmic Songs, by heart, and I also knew Bouquet by Karel Jaromír Erben. We learned about these and many other authors at university. We also read the didactic texts of John Amos Comenius. Of course, we also looked at famous representatives of Czech prose – Božena Němcová and Karel Čapek. The Grandmother by Božena Němcová was a kind of bible for us…” says Chalid Biltagi.

The first short story which Chalid Biltagi published in a magazine (an Egyptian literary weekly) was The Luminous Depths, again by Karel Čapek, a favourite subject for translation. He also translated Čapek’s science-fiction drama R.U.R., which came out in an Arabic version in 2012; a second edition of this book is to be published this year by the Dar Verne publishing house in Alexandria. Chalid Biltagi also translated the stage play penned by the two Čapek brothers Adam the Creator; however, the Arabic manuscript was sadly lost.

Another writer whose work can be rewarding and very appealing to translators is the Prague German-language writer of Jewish origin Franz Kafka. Through the same translator a three-part anthology came out, which – in addition to the famous Metamorphosis – also included the following short stories: Description of a Struggle; In the Penal Colony; The Great Wall of China; A Report to an Academy; He; The Married Couple; A Hunger Artist; Investigations of a Dog; The Burrow; and The Mouse Folk. The Arabic version of this short-story collection was brought out by the Cairo publishing house Al Arabi in 2014. This was part of a larger project which was carried out in partnership with the Czech embassy in Cairo, the Franz Kafka Society in Prague and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with other important personalities, not to mention admirers of Franz Kafka’s body of work among the general public.

“The work of Franz Kafka occupies an irreplaceable position in world literature. What’s more, he has an increasing number of admirers. Even in the modern age, the legacy of his personality and work is alive and well. Not long ago we held a debate about him on Egyptian television. We looked at Kafka’s personal and creative life in the context of his time,” comments Chalid Biltagi.

However, the first ever novel which Chalid Biltagi translated into Arabic was Immortality by Milan Kundera. At that time, with his lack of translation experience, he was still struggling with the choice of suitable Arabic equivalents, finding himself at the mercy of all the intricacies of the Czech language. In this case Milan Kundera, exceptionally, excused himself from his traditional final proofreading, since he does not speak Arabic. However, in the end everything came to a successful conclusion and the Arabic translation of the book was published in Egypt in 2003.

Václav Havel and the Arab Spring

Another figure with whom the Arab world is well acquainted is the former president, playwright and defender of democratic values Václav Havel. Chalid Biltagi chose to translate his political essay The Power of the Powerless into Arabic, and he rose to the challenge of conveying these complex political ideas. While Chalid Biltagi was working on the translation, Václav Havel was already suffering from serious health problems, and on the day the translator submitted his finished work to the publishers, the author of The Power of the Powerless died……

When, as part of our interview, I asked Chalid Biltagi why Václav Havel was important to him, he replied:

“Václav Havel is a well-known writer. His play The Garden Party was translated into Arabic some time back in the sixties. But for me, Václav Havel was even more important as a social and political reformer, as an instigator of the Prague Spring, from which the Arab Spring took its name, and of course as the leader of the revolution in 1989. His ideas about civic self-awareness have spread across many countries and have inspired countless political activists.”

Czech Modernism through an Arabian mirror

Books by modern Czech authors have also come to have their Arabic counterparts. Once again, the credit for this goes to Chalid Biltagi and the wide variety of literature he has translated. Thanks to his efforts, readers in Arabic-speaking countries can read books by Czech authors such as Petra Hůlová, Zuzana Brabcová, Martin Vopěnka, Emil Hakl, Patrik Ouředník and Miroslav Verner.

The writer Petra Hůlová (*1979) draws much of the inspiration for her books from her travels abroad. She is the winner of three major literary prizes – her first novel, All This Belongs to Me, was awarded the Magnesia Litera in the category Discovery of the Year. She received the Jiří Orten Award for her fourth novel, Plastic-furnished, Three-bedroom. The third of the prizes was the Josef Škvorecký Award for the adventure novel Tajga Station, which she received in 2008.

The work which the translator Chalid Biltagi chose to translate into Arabic from the author’s back catalogue was Guardians of the Civic Good, a book which reflects post-revolution developments in the Czech setting. This is another of her dark novels, charting the blossoming of freedom and the journey towards new opportunities on the one hand, and the proliferation of chaos and pessimism on the other. Here the translator finds parallels with the post-revolution period in Egypt, when as part of the regime change one corrupt body was merely exchanged for another.

The Arabic translation of Petra Hůlová’s debut novel All This Belongs to Me is due to be published by the Al Arabi publishing house this year.

Another contemporary Czech author whose books have been translated into Arabic is the writer Emil Hakl, real name Jan Beneš (*1958). This playwright, poet and editor has been awarded the Magnesia Litera prize twice – first in 2003 for his novel Of Kids and Parents, which was made into a film five years later by the director Vladimír Michálek. The second time was in 2014 for his book A True Story. Both of these books were translated into Arabic by Chalid Biltagi.

“I found out about the novel Of Kids and Parents through a Polish translator at a Czech studies seminar in the Czech Republic. He told us how successful it had been in Poland and that it had sold very well. So I said that I’d translate it too. When I read through the novel I got hooked and found it very entertaining. I’d say it’s a kind of “man’s novel”, like the author’s later work A True Story. Incidentally, the publishers surprised me recently when they told me that there was a lot of interest in Of Kids and Parents in other Arab countries and so they were going to do a reprint. Imagine that – this Czech novel is selling more than some original Egyptian novels!” remarks the translator Chalid Biltagi enthusiastically.

The novel Of Kids and Parents is a humorous, philosophical work where the plot centres on a father going for a walk with his son. They stroll through Prague’s Stromovka Park, reflecting on the contemporary world. They head towards their destination, but with each step they get closer and further away.

In the introduction to the book Emil Hakl states that: “A walk is a mystical act, combining sport with prayer, inner silence with the roar of long-extinct animals, while exchanging reproaches, anecdotes and jokes.”

Emil Hakl’s ‘Of Kids and Parents’ published by Al Arabi.

Another important Czech author who has made a name for himself in the Arab world is Martin Vopěnka (*1963). The most famous work by this writer, publisher and traveller is a trilogy which could be classified as sci-fi and fantasy and aimed at children. The trilogy is made up of The Sleeping City, Sleeping Justice and Sleeping Secret. The first part of this trilogy was published in the Czech Republic in 2011. The plot piles on all kinds of worries onto the shoulders of innocent children, who have to take the helm of life into their own hands, leaving them to decide in which direction to sail.

Five years later The Sleeping City, complete with illustrations by the Egyptian artist Saleh Bek, was published in Arabic by the famous Egyptian publishing house Kutub Khan, and soon afterwards it was presented at the Cairo literary festival. A reading was then held at Ain Shams University in Cairo with the author Martin Vopěnka and the translator Chalid Biltagi. The audience was made up of Egyptian students and lecturers from the department of Czech Studies and other philological departments.

Martin Vopěnka described his feelings about his visit to Egyptian academia: “The reception was amazing. I think that there are people everywhere who are open-minded and receptive to new things, and this is especially true of children, for whom I wrote this book, which has just been published here. I believe that children come into the world with open minds and – pathological cases aside – expect goodness, so this hatred and intolerance is instilled in them by us adults.”

Regarding the translation of his book The Sleeping City into Arabic, he adds: “I was particularly pleased because so many people speak Arabic and it is an old and esteemed language, so it’s very significant for me as a writer to be published in Arabic.”

The translator himself is glad that such a book is available to young Egyptian adults, because even though the Egyptian market has many books aimed at children and adults, those aimed specifically at young adults are few and far between. Literature of this kind can play a significant role in helping a teenager to form a healthy view of the world around them and may prevent them from falling under the spell of extremist groups.

A poster for Martin Vopěnka’s reading in Cairo.

We will remain in Egypt for a little longer with a book by the prominent Czech archaeologist and Egyptologist Miroslav Verner (*1941). From 1975 to 2000 he was the director of the Czech Institute of Egyptology at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague and in Cairo.

Chalid Biltagi met Miroslav Verner when the professor was leading archaeological research at the site of Abusir near Cairo. The translator was very interested in Ancient Egyptian history at that time and also took groups of Czech tourists to view Egyptian monuments in Cairo as well as on cruises from Luxor to the temple sites in Abu Simbel via Aswan, the gateway to sub-Saharan Africa. At that time Chalid Biltagi said to Miroslav Verner that he would like to translate his book Pyramids, Secrets of the Past into Arabic. The translator had been introduced to the book prior to this meeting by the Egyptologist Dr Tarek Awadi, who at that time was still a PhD student of Professor Verner in Prague. Chalid Biltagi adds that: “Much has been written about the pyramids, but Verner’s book is one of the few truly trustworthy studies of the Egyptian pyramids, their history and the socio-political conditions under which they were built. The book is written in a beautiful popular-scientific style, is richly illustrated and contains a wealth of interesting information which I, back when I was a tourist guide, really needed.”

The Czech edition of the book came out in 1997 and the Arabic version was published in 2004 in cooperation with the National Centre of Translation in Cairo.

Zuzana Brabcová (1959–2015) was a Czech writer and editor. In 2003 she was awarded a Magnesia Litera prize for her novel Ceilings, which was one of the reasons why it came to the attention of Chalid Biltagi. In this work the author deals with the imprisonment of the soul behind the doors of psychiatric treatment and opens the way for all kinds of internal conversations, lurching from reality to dream and back again, blurring the difference between fantasy and reality.

“I enjoyed Ceilings tremendously. It is an amazing novel and very challenging to translate. The narration is so magical that as soon as my Arabic translation came out various reviews immediately appeared, and so the book made its way into academic circles,” says Chalid Biltagi.

However, Zuzana Brabcová is better known as the author of the bestseller The Year of Pearls, a story of lesbian love which opens the door to new desires and closes off the world of old-fashioned values. It is an extremely frank and sensational confession with autobiographical elements. The Arabic translation is expected this year. Zuzana Brabcová’s works have been translated into a number of foreign languages, which have included German, Danish, Swedish, Slovenian, Hungarian and Italian.

Another interesting contribution is the book Europeana by the writer and translator Patrik Ouředník (*1957). He writes in both Czech and French, and now lives and works in Paris. Europeana, with its subtitle A Brief History of the Twentieth Century, was published in 2001 and has been translated into thirty languages, making it the most widely translated Czech book published after 1989.

“I thought that this book could be interesting for readers. This is a genre which is difficult to pigeonhole as it’s somewhere on the border between fiction and non-fiction. In a humorous manner it subjectively evaluates the history of the twentieth century and various minor events. For me the magic of this book lies first and foremost in its language, which often seems to be childlike and naïve. The fragments of individual events, with an ironic undertone, compel the reader to read this entertaining book about the calamities of humanity in a single breath.” When asked how the work of translating this rather complex piece of experimental prose had gone, Chalid Biltagi remarked: “Really well. I tried to find the right shade of language which would match the original. That is the most difficult moment in the translation process – choosing the right level of language to best convey the emotional tones of the text. Capturing the correct message inside the work and decoding it using the appropriate language code.”

The Arabic version of Europeana was published in 2003 by the aforementioned Al Arabi publishing house.

Patrik Ouředník’s ‘Europeana’ published by Al Arabi.

Foreign language, familiar spirit

So this is the list of Czech works which have been translated into Arabic, thus reaching a readership from a completely different culture, but with a shared view of the world and its charms, perhaps those of a literary kind. Whether it is the prognostic writing of Čapek or the naively sweet poetry of Jaroslav Seifert, whether it is the plays of Václav Havel, which challenge and appeal for freedom, or the modern visions of contemporary writers who are experimenting with writing styles but who are actually writing about the same things as the older generation – about the individual, about his innermost ‘I’ and his opportunities and obstacles – everything is in demand in the world of foreign literature. And it also receives a positive response. Literature is one of the few bridges which leads between different cultures divided by foreign languages and traditions, showing that through the medium of the written word everyone can find themselves on the pages of books, no matter who wrote them. For behind all of these works has been and always will be the same author: Life.

When asked why it was right for people to read books, Chalid Biltagi replied: “I believe that books are life. In them we are ourselves and no-one else. If we want to understand one another, if we want to break down barriers, get closer to one another, be tolerant and behave humanely, then we must read books. Today people have a tendency to constantly express themselves, write their own story and thus draw attention to themselves. However, we should really be trying to read one another and be interested in other people’s stories, to complement each other rather than get in each other’s way.”

However, there are a number of obstacles on this bridge which helps the literature of different nations to cross over from one region to another. One of them is a lack of financial resources, while the second is the inexperienced new generation of Czech–Arabic translators. The Czech studies specialist Chalid Biltagi has already published twelve Arabic translations of contemporary Czech and Slovak literature, and he points to other, mainly female, Czech writers whose works deserve to be translated into Arabic. According to him, the foremost among them are the authors Kateřina Tučková (The Žítková Goddesses), Tereza Boučková (God’s and Other Tortures) and Markéta Pilátová (Yellow Eyes Will Lead You Home).

However, he also adds that it is necessary to foster a new generation of translators, and that it is equally important to encourage Egyptian – or Arabic – society to read more. This has long been the goal of the well-established Egyptian Czech Studies programme, headed by the indefatigable Chalid Biltagi, together with the relatively young Cairo Literary Festival.

Thus Czech literature is searching for and beginning to find its way towards an Arab readership. Naturally, we owe much of this to the most famous figures from the world of Czech culture. Although individuals such as Karel Čapek and Václav Havel are quite disparate in terms of subject matter and chronology, we are indebted to them for the distinctive mark they have left on the international scene. Visions of a future in which humanity destroys the Earth, the eternal question of the desire for freedom, the courage to revolt and the revelation which follows – all of this perhaps links us to the Middle East more than we ourselves would admit…

Chalid Biltagi adds: “All literature is first and foremost about people. In all of the books and novels which I have translated or read, I always see just one thing – that they are about us, about people, regardless of race or ethnicity, and that humanity shares the same concerns, desires, dilemmas and values, it is just that sometimes they are arranged in a slightly different order.”

Translated by Graeme Dibble