Naguib Mahfouz: A Western and Eastern Cage of Female Entrapment ...

Most Arabs know Mahfouz, if not from his novels, then from the Egyptian films that have popularized his novels. In “Mahfouz: A Great Novel and a Wanting Translation,” El-Enany explains that “Western readers conversant in Arabic have long been familiar with the work of Arab authors (including Mahfouz) whose appeal extends beyond their national borders to reach the timeless core of human experience” (187). After Mahfouz’s novels started to be translated and more of the Western world exposed to his work, people worldwide saw Cairene culture through the intricate communities of the alleys of Mahfouz’s youth. However, readers often confuse culture with religion because Islam has been the predominant religion of the Middle East, including Mahfouz’s Egypt. Translations of Arabic works have not always conveyed their problematic nuances, especially as the translations became more popular in the second half of the twentieth century. As a matter of fact, not until 1966 did the first translation of Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley appear, long after he was recognized as a leading novelist in Arabic.

Although one can appreciate to a great degree the value and expertise of Mahfouz’s work, to fully appreciate his art a reader of his novels would have to read Arabic, since reading in translation often obscures the author’s intent and fails to capture the ultimate truths and deeper themes of the novels. El-Enany draws attention to the issue of translation by comparing The Trilogy, originally written in Arabic, to the “present translation [which] fails to capture the spirit of the Arabic text and does little justice to Mahfouz’s style” (188). El-Enany provides an effective example when, in referring to The Trilogy, he discusses what Khadija says to her brothers as she tries to emphasize the importance to them of approaching her father in regard to allowing their banished mother to return home: “If we’re all content to keep silent and wait, days and weeks may go by while she’s separated from her home and consumed by grief. Yes, talking to Papa is an arduous task, but it’s no more oppressive than keeping quiet…” (212). El-Enany argues that “this is not the idiom in which a girl who is hardly literate will speak; in fact, it is hardly the idiom in which anybody would speak.