reading only ARABIC books for a week in english

Hello everyone and welcome back to my YouTube channel, my name is Jack Edwards, How are you doing? Now, you may have noticed that recently on this channel I've been posting lot of videos about reading. For me, one of the best things about making those videos is that encounter so many books that would never have come across otherwise, and really want to keep challenging myself to do more of that and so wanted to start new series on this channel -- this is that, by the way -- where will spend week at time reading literature that i've never encountered before from specific part of the world, and so when started thinking about this and looked at... the world, the very first thing that stuck out to me that i've never read before but would absolutely LOVE to is -- drumroll please -- Arabic literature!! Three lovely, lovely viewers very kindly sent me emails recommending me some Arabic literature to read and so picked some out of those lists, and here they are! These are all books that were originally written in Arabic but they've been translated into English so that can... understand them. Trust me, WISH could have read these books in the original Arabic but unfortunately don't know Arabic, so slight technical difficulty. The first book though is by Darwish and this is River Dies of Thirst and it was translated by Catherine Cobham. Then we have this chunky boy -- mean, don't mean to fat shame book but, like, she's HUGE. She's mammoth, of course. This is called Time of White Horses, this is by Ibrahim Nasrallah originally but translated by Nancy Rogers. Next we have Season of Migration to the North by Tayib Salih translated by Dennis Johnson Davies. When put this on my Instagram story had literally hundreds of messages telling me how great this book is so am very excited to get started with this one. Then we have Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi and this is translated by Marilyn Booth. And, finally, Gold Dust by Ibrahim al-Koni and this is translated by Elliot Colla. So, this is the selection of books that I'm going to be reading this week -- tried to go for books that were all set in different places, so Gold Dust is set in Libya, then Celestial Bodies is set in Oman, Season of Migration to the North is set in Sudan, and then Time of White Horses and Darwish's poetry are kind of Palestinian based, so we've got real mix and i'm excited to get started, so let's go. On tonight's program ladies and gentlemen we have something that's gonna make you sick Okay, so, simply because of the sheer volume of messages had about this book -- Season of Migration to the North -- this is going to be the first one read so welcome to day one. Okay, so some time has passed since last filmed and... have spent all of that time just reading Season of Migration to the North? ...Maybe. BUT, it is page-turner, it's so fast-paced, it's energetic. There are so many unexpected twists and turns at every corner, it's quite unpredictable and chaotic and relate to that on personal level. Season of Migration to the North is set in Sudan and it's basically about an unnamed narrator who returns to his village after working in England. But, when he gets back there's new kid on the block who's very well respected, well-liked, and his name is Mustafa Sae'ed. The narrative voice is very passive, kind of like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby -- y'know how he's kind of infatuated and just fascinated by Jay Gatsby as person, that's kind of how the narrator feels towards Mustafa Sae'ed. Mustafa is basically very intriguing, enigmatic, mysterious person in the village and they actually become friends through family connection, and one night get so steaming drunk -- like these guys are trolled -- that in his drunken state Mustafa just randomly starts reciting English poetry -- which can just say, wish that happened to me because that is not even comparable to the drunken nonsense that spout. And so basically the narrator is like... wait damn minute. And it turns out that Mustafa had actually lived and been educated in the UK, and this is where we learn Mustafa's life story. Now don't know if any of you have read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad but this is basically the reverse of that book, because Heart of Darkness is all about the journey down the Congo to colonise Africa and in Conrad's novel there is character who's quite similar in the way he's very enigmatic and that character's name is Kurtz. Mustafa is basically the reverse of that because his journey is up the Thames. Instead of the colonisers coming to Africa he is the colonised individual coming to the UK. Basically, when Mustafa is in England, he finds that he has quite lot of success... with the ladies. But that is because they sort of exoticise him and fetishise him and they sort of see him as colonial conquest, something quite mystical and foreign that they can play with. And there's this beautiful description about how his incense sort of intoxicates these women. Anyways, long story short, Mustafa basically tells his story about all of these women and then his kind of criminal reputation and the reason that he had to leave England. Also, no spoilers obviously, but there is quite nice character arc because the narrator isn't as passive as he was at the beginning by the time we get to the end and he says "All my life had not chosen, had not decided. Now am making decision" and we're like "YES! Thank you! Finally do something!" because for lot of the novel he's kind of this voyeuristic figure just standing at the edge of the room and just watching and listening but not really contributing very much and, yeah, would really recommend this book for quick, fast-paced novel with lots of twists and turns -- enjoyed it! And now i'm gonna sleep. Okay, so the second book that i've read is Gold Dust by Ibrahim al-Koni. Firstly, let's talk about that cover my compliments to the chef. This book is set in the Sahara desert, mostly Libya think, and it follows the nomadic Tuareg tribe, and it is beautiful and so poetically written. Ostensibly -- so kind of on surface level -- it's about man and his camel, and let's make one thing abundantly clear: this man ADORES his piebald camel, like they're besties. However, you definitely can still enjoy this book even if you aren't, you know, camel enthusiast, because it's book about two creatures that just have this connection, and they can't be away from each other -- it's physically painful to not be in each other's presence, and they will always find their way back to one another eventually. And honestly someone tell me why had literal tears in my eyes when this man and his camel were reunited? guess it's probably because the camel was described in such anthropomorphic ways -- so that just means it kind of has human characteristics, so for example he calls the camel "brother" and he also says that it is human being in camel's skin" and they just have this really wonderful symbiotic relationship which is captivating. Gold Dust is also very mystical book, so we have encounters with pagan goddess, but the one thing would say is that it's quite misogynistic in the way that it talks about women and wives and daughters in very much the same way that they're traded like animals, so Gold Dust does depict some kind of outdated ideas. would also say it's quite slow and there's not an awful lot of character development, but then again the book does say "patience is life" and actually did want to read you this section just so you can get an idea of what the writing style is like, "Only the desert can clean the soul. It enables you to defy the endless open space, challenge the horizon, and explore the emptiness that leads beyond the horizon, beyond the desert void it was here, only here, in the labyrinth of never-ending desert plains that the extremes converge open expanse horizon and desolation to form firmament that expands outward, towards eternity" and isn't that just STUNNING?!? And yeah, this is masterclass in writing. would really recommend this book. Now that i've finished with Gold Dust, it is time to move on to the next book -- how smooth was that? This is Celestial Bodies, it's set in Oman which I'm really intrigued about because one of my good friends from university was actually from Oman and grew up there, so very excited to read about the place that she grew up and hopefully learn bit more about it and I'll let you know how it goes. Today finished Celestial Bodies, now don't know if am too dumb or too impatient to understand this book, but it was baffling. It's set in Oman and weaves this really complex tapestry of family history but instead of telling that family history in nice, linear, straightforward way, it just chucks everything into blender, mashes it all up, and is like... ta-da. And was LOST. just found it very confusing and disorientating when character who has literally died two pages ago just suddenly pops up alive and kicking and serving coffee, and although it's quite short book it takes ages to read because you have to constantly be working out what is going on. There's family tree at the beginning that looks like this, and genuinely had to check this about every 30 seconds to try and work out who was who, and so for me I'm kind of like "okay, respect you, but don't understand you." Also, the family tree is missing quite lot of connections which would have been, y'know, helpful in terms of not getting completely lost. The novel is set in the late 20th century, early 21st century and it's this period of real transition between traditional values and modernity and there's quote that wanted to read to you, it says: "Life appeared to her sharply divided in two parts, like night and day, what we live and what lives inside of us." The blurb, however, is very misleading because the blurb basically talks about how there are three sisters, one who is married after heartbreak, one who marries from sense of duty, and one who rejects all offers while waiting for her beloved... but those three characters are hardly in the book! They're kind of peripheral characters! think the thing found most frustrating about Celestial Bodies is that all of the characters wanted to learn more about were hardly in it, and the most boring, dull characters were right at the forefront. And those characters were actually really developed so, as you go through the novel, you start to recognise: 'okay we're now seeing it from Zarifa's perspective.' Zarifa is probably the best example of that because she's always quoting proverbs and my favourite one was this one "The feet walk fast for the loving heart's sake, but when you feel no longing your feet drag and ache." Isn't that just such nice way to think about life, that you should always just be passionate about everything you do and you'll enjoy life so much more. So, although wanted to really love this book, just... just didn't, and don't think would recommend it to other people to read. But, equally, it did win the Man Booker International Prize in 2019, so maybe am just too stupid for this. don't know. What do know is that i'm pleased that it's over... onto the next book! Okay, when tell you DEVOURED Darwish's poetry. River Dies of Thirst is sensational, it is an exquisite selection of poems. Some of them are written in verse, some of them are written in prose, and they're basically all about being an ordinary citizen in war-torn country and not single word is wasted. In this whole collection he covers range of topics, sometimes it's about trauma, sometimes it's about politics, sometimes it's about more abstract concepts like fame. For example, he says "Fame is the enemy of instinct and spontaneity, the difference between what is said and what ought to be said, and the transformation of one person into two -- having conversation in room with closed windows, which one of us deceived the other, me or you?" Wowee. The only poem skipped in this collection is one called 'An Infectious Disease' because just thought in 2021 don't want to read about that and i'm kind of getting the vibe that Darwish is probably the most respected Arabic poets and can see why because this is DIVINE. This man had me in the palm of his hand! mean, look how many pages folded down -- also, yes do fold down the pages, hate me if you want, that's fine -- and on the back of the book they have his acceptance speech for the 2004 Prince Claus Fund Award and thought would just read it out because think it really captures the essence of this collection really well and, y'know, he can sell it to you better than can, so he says person can only be born in one place, however he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into nightmare. Poetry is perhaps what teaches us to nurture the charming illusion, how to be reborn out of ourselves over and over again and use words to construct better world, fictitious world that enables us to sign pact for permanent and comprehensive peace with life." So i'm just in AWE, want to be Darwish when grow up, and now it is time to move on to the final book! That book is Time of White Horses and, honestly, this book is stallion in itself... this is beast. think it's approaching 700 pages, so hope can get through as much of this as possible in the next two days, but we shall see. Okay, so it has been seven days. I've spent the last two days reading Time of White Horses and -- confession time -- didn't quite manage to get to the end of it but got considerable way, and honestly this book is single-handedly curing my big book fear -- because i'm so bad at reading big books, like once it's over 500 pages, i'm out. This, however, has me GRIPPED. So this book covers large expanse of time and the opening talks about relationship between man and horse which is very similar to Gold Dust with the camel. Initially, the village and the whole country is being ruled by distant and disorganised Ottoman Empire and then throughout the book as the British forces start to arrive we see this change in the social and political landscape but it's basically just one coloniser taking over from another and these colonisers decide the fate of this tribe. It also speaks bit about the disappearance of Palestinian identity and the years building up to the 1948 Nakba (which think translates to 'catastrophe'). Essentially, what happened was during the 1948 Palestine War there was mass exodus in which half of Palestine's Arab population fled or were expelled from the country, so about 700,000 people. And ultimately it comes down to guy called Khaled who has to kind of save his people from descending tyranny. And, y'know what's funny is this book is at least three times longer than Celestial Bodies, but it's so much more engaging and i'm finding it so much more enjoyable to read. So, to conclude, am big fan of this book and definitely will be finishing it, and also I'm definitely going to be making conscious effort to read more Arabic writers because I've really enjoyed reading this selection of books. If were to recommend you guys selection of these books to read, think would recommend Season of Migration to the North, Darwish's poetry, and Gold Dust. Celestial Bodies is probably the only one wouldn't necessarily recommend but these three especially are brilliant. It's safe to say that i've really enjoyed the challenge of pushing myself out of my comfort zone and reading some stuff i've never come across before, and so my challenge to you for this month is to try and do the same try and read something that you've never encountered before and learn about some new cultures, some world history, and have jolly good time. So, thank you very much for watching this video, hope you enjoyed it. If you did, you can subscribe down below and give it big fat thumbs up -- appreciate that very much but, in the meantime, have wonderful day and I'll see you very soon with another video. Bye bye! In case don't see you good afternoon good evening and good night