Bibliotheca Polyglotta

ʕĪsà ʕUbayd, Muqaddima (1921)

Complete text

III-§1.a

ونظنّ ألا يوجد مَن يدّعی علينا أنّ رواياتنا قصصية كانت أو مرسحية مقتبسة من روايات أجنبية ،

wa-naẓunn^u ʔal-lā yūǧadu man yaddaʕī ʕalay-nā ʔanna riwāyāti-nā qaṣaṣiyyaẗ^an kānat ʔaw marsaḥiyyaẗ^an muqtabisaẗ^un min riwāyātⁱⁿ ʔaǧnabiyyaẗ,

We believe that nobody can accuse us of taking the inspiration for our pieces/accounts – whether they are stories or plays – from foreign ones,

AR: riwāyaẗ, marsaḥ, muqtabis (iqtibās), ʔaǧnabī
EN: …

أو أنّ رواية غربية أوحت لنا بضعة مناظر أو ساعدتنا على تكييف أشخاصنا ،

ʔaw ʔanna riwāyaẗ^an ġarbiyyaẗ^an ʔawḥat la-nā biḍʕaẗ^a manāẓir^a ʔaw sāʕadat-nā ʕalà takyīf ʔašḫāṣi-nā,

or allege that a Western account has provided us with the model for some scenes or helped us shape our characters,

AR: riwāyaẗ, ġarbī, manāẓir, takyīf, ʔašḫāṣ
EN: …

أو أنّ هؤلاء الأشخاص لا وجود لهم في الأمّة المصرية ،

ʔaw ʔanna hāʔulāʔi ’l-ʔašḫāṣ lā wuǧūd^a la-hum fī ’l-ʔummaẗ al-miṣriyyaẗ,

or that the characters do not have real counterparts (lit., have no existence) in the Egyptian nation/people.

AR: ʔašḫāṣ, ʔummaẗ, miṣrī (Miṣr / Miṣriyyaẗ)
EN: …

فإن ميلي الغريزي للتحليل يدفعني إلى التغلغل في درس أعماق حياتنا الداخلية النفسانية لأصوّرها بأمانة وإخلاص كما هي لا كما يجب أن تكون ،

fa-ʔinna mayl-ī al-ġarīzī lil-taḥlīl yadfaʕu-nī ʔilà ’l-taġalġul fī dars ʔaʕmāq ḥayāti-nā ’l-dāḫiliyyaẗ al-nafsāniyyaẗ li-ʔuṣawwira-hā bi-ʔamānaẗ wa-ʔiḫlāṣ ka-mā hiya lā ka-mā yaǧibu ʔan takūn^a,

My intuitive keenness of analyzing drives me to immerse myself in the study of the innermost depths of our psychology to describe it as it is, reliably and faithfully, and not the way it should be.

AR: mayl, taḥlīl, dars, ʔaʕmāq (ʕumq), ḥayāẗ, dāḫilī, nafsānī, taṣwīr, ʔamānaẗ, ʔiḫlāṣ, ka-mā huwa/hiya
EN: …

ولهذا السبب وحده أحجم بعض أشخاص الفرق عن تمثيل رواية من رواياتي

wa-li-hāḏā ’l-sabab waḥdi-hī ʔaḥǧama baʕḍ^u ʔašḫāṣⁱ ’l-firaqⁱ ʕan tamṯīl riwāyaẗ min riwāyāt-ī

For this reason alone, some theater directors have refrained from taking pieces of mine to stage;

AR: sabab/ʔasbāb, ʔašḫāṣ, tamṯīl, riwāyaẗ
EN: …

لأنّهم وجدوها حقيقية مؤلمة قاسية ، إذ لا يصحّ كما يقولون إظهار كل الحقائق .

li-ʔanna-hum waǧadū-hā ḥaqīqiyyaẗ^an muʔlimaẗ^an qāsiyaẗ^an, ʔiḏ lā yaṣiḥḥ^u ka-mā yaqūlūn^a ʔiẓhār^u kullⁱ ’l-ḥaqāʔiq.

they found them too real, distressing and cruel – it’s bad manners/not right, as they say, to bring all truths to light.

AR: ḥaqīqaẗ (ḥaqāʔiq) / ḥaqīqī, ʔiẓhār (ẓāhir)
EN: …

وإنّا لا نتعرّض الآن لدرس هذا الموضوع الدقيق (ن) لمعرفة إنْ كانوا على خطأ أو صواب ، فسنخصّص لدرسه فصلاً مطوّلاً في كتابنا "ملاحظات ونظرات فنّية"

wa-ʔinnā lā nataʕarraḍu ’l-ʔān^a li-darsⁱ hāḏā ’l-mawḍūʕ al-daqīq li-maʕrifaẗⁱ ʔin kānū ʕalà ḫaṭaʔⁱⁿ ʔaw ṣawābⁱⁿ, fa-sa-nuḫaṣṣiṣ^u li-darsi-hī faṣl^an muṭawwal^an fī kitābi-nā "Mulāḥaẓāt wa-naẓarāt fanniyyaẗ"

We will not dare to study this delicate topic in further detail now [p. xiv] to find out whether they are right or wrong, as we will dedicate an extensive chapter to its study in our book Observations and Perspectives on Art / Aesthetic Contemplations.¹

1. Mulāḥaẓāt wa-naẓarāt fanniyyaẗ – the book announced by the author here (and which is perhaps the same as he pointed to already earlier in this Preface) does not seem to have seen the light of the day, as ʕUbayd died only the year after the publication of this foreword. Sabry Hafez, however, would not exclude that it existed and actually was published; cf. what he says about this and other (perhaps lost) publications: »At the end of his two collections, ʕĪsā ʕUbaid advertised his forthcoming publications including two novels, Bayn al-Ḥubb wa-l-Fann (Between Love and Art) and Yaqẓat Miṣr (Egypt’s Awakening); a collection of short stories, al-ʔUsraẗ (The Family); another collection in French, Sur les bords du Nil; a collection of critical essays, Naẓarāt wa-Mulāḥaẓāt Fanniyyaẗ (Artistic Reflections); and several plays. It was customary at this time for writers to fill the final page of their books with what seems more like a declaration of their literary intentions than an authentic list of completed works awaiting publication. But in ʕĪsā’s case, one is inclined to take his list seriously, not only because his advertisements were very detailed and because he succeeded in publishing in 1922 the first book on the list which appeared in the final page of his first collection, but also because Muḥammad Bāqir ʕUlwān of Harvard University discovered in Cairo in 1973 the manuscripts of two of his lost plays« – S. Hafez, The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse…, Saqi Books, 1993: 292, n. 72. – The adj. fanniyyaẗ, m. fannī, is a nisbah formation from fann which for ʕUbayd mainly means art as ‘technique’, technē. Naẓarāt ‘views, opinions’ is rendered as ‘perspectives/contemplations’ here – ‘perspectives’ seems to be more idiomatic, while ‘contemplations’ is inspired by the title Naẓarāt, a collection of essays and stories by M. L. al-Manfalūṭī (see above), often translated as Contemplations.

AR: dars, daqīq (diqqaẗ), faṣl, mulāḥaẓaẗ, naẓarāt, fannī (fann),
EN: Observation

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