Accurate translations of her authentic and intimate voice

“Translating the Dead” is the name of a panel I attended at the #AWP26 conference and book fair last week. [1] The very fact that this was on the agenda speaks to a greater intentionality and thoughtfulness going into translations today. Today’s sensitivity about translations is a far cry from the turn-of-the-century standards that turned Memoirs of an Arabian Princess  into a no-name, somewhat rushed 1888 English translation and a completely distorted 1907 English translati

Salma, Salama, Salamah, Salima, Salimah, plus other variations, [1]  and Salme . Lest there be any doubt: Only the last one is the correct name of the Omani princess that was born on the island of Zanzibar in 1844. No birth record would have told us the Latin spelling, but we do have countless other indications that this is how she spelled her own name for Western usage. That starts with her Memoirs , which Sayyida Salme wrote in German. [2]  How can there be so many misspell

Sayyida Salme took a monumental step when she became Emily Ruete at the age of twenty-two in 1867, shattering rules, traditions, and...