Bibliotheca Polyglotta

ʕĪsà ʕUbayd, Muqaddima (1921)

Complete text

III-§1.a

ثمّ إنّ مجرّد اختیار المنفلوطي تلخيص رواية "سيرانو دی برجراك" تلك الرواية الخيالية الوجدانية ، ألا يعدّ دليلاً كافياً على وجود نزعة كامنة في الكاتب المصري تجنح به إلى تصوير الجمال النقيّ والكمال السامي البعيدين عن الحقيقة بُعد السماء عن الأرض؟

ṯumma ʔinna muǧarrad^a ’ḫtiyār al-Manfalūṭī talḫīṣ riwāyaẗ "Sīrānū dī Birǧirāk" tilka ’l-riwāyaẗ al-ḫayāliyyaẗ al-wiǧdāniyyaẗ, ʔa-lā yuʕadd^u dalīl^an kāfiy^an ʕalà wuǧūd nazʕaẗ kāminaẗ fī ’l-kātib al-miṣrī taǧnaḥ^u/tuǧniḥ^u bihī ʔilà taṣwīr al-ǧamāl al-naqiyy wa’l-kamāl al-sāmī al-baʕīdayn ʕan il-ḥaqīqaẗ buʕd^a ’l-samāʔ ʕan il-ʔarḍ?

Moreover, should not al-Manfalūṭī’s deliberate choice to [considerably] shorten the plot of Cyrano de Bergerac¹ – this [highly] idealistic imaginative/romantic story – be regarded as sufficient proof of the presence, in Egyptian authors,² of a hidden inclination to show [nothing but] impeccable beauty and sublime perfection, both of which are as remote from reality as heaven is from earth?

1. Originally a five-act play (publ. 1897) by the French writer Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), ‘Arabized’ by al-Manfalūṭī as al-Šāʕir, aw Sīrānū dī Birǧirāk (al-Qahiraẗ 1921; various later editions). 2. al-kātib al-miṣrī is not preceded by a demonstrative pronoun like hāḏā here. Therefore, we assume that ʕUbayd refers to ‘the Egyptian writer’ in general, not specifically al-Manfalūṭī.

AR: Manfalūṭī, talḫīṣ, riwāyaẗ, Sīrānū dī Birǧirāk, ḫayāl, wiǧdānī (wiǧdāniyyaẗ), dalīl, nazʕaẗ, kātib, miṣrī (Miṣr / Miṣriyyaẗ), taṣwīr, ǧamāl, naqiyy (naqāʔ), kamāl, sāmⁱⁿ, ḥaqīqaẗ
EN: …

فهذه النزعة النفسية ستدفع بالكاتب المصري إلى مذهب الوجدانيات "الأديالسم" وستعرقل سير الأدب العصري في تطويره الجديد ،

fa-hāḏihī ’l-nazʕaẗ al-nafsiyyaẗ sa-tadfaʕ^u bi’l-kātib al-miṣrī ʔilà maḏhab al-wiǧdāniyyāt "al-ʔidyālsm" wa-sa-tuʕarqil sayr al-ʔadab al-ʕaṣrī fī taṭwīri-hī ’l-ǧadīd,

This psychological inclination will push Egyptian writers in the direction of the emotionalist/sentimentalist approach, [i.e.] idealism,³ and it will obstruct new developments in modern literature.

3. ʕUbayd gives both an Arabic term (maḏhab al-wiǧdāniyyāt) and the foreign word, ‘al-ʔidyālism’.

AR: nazʕaẗ, nafsiyyaẗ, kātib, miṣrī (Miṣr / Miṣriyyaẗ), maḏhab al-wiǧdāniyyāt / ʔidyālsm, ʔadab, ʕaṣrī, taṭwīr, ǧadīd
EN: emotionalist/sentimentalist approach, idealism, modern

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