Bibliotheca Polyglotta

ʕĪsà ʕUbayd, Muqaddima (1921)

Complete text

III-§1.a

فأدب الغد سيُقام في عرفنا على دعامة الملاحظة والتحليل النفسي الرامِيانِ إلى تصوير الحياة كما هي بلا مبالغة أو تقصير ،

fa-ʔadab al-ġad sa-yuqām fī ʕurfi-nā ʕalà daʕāmaẗ al-mulāḥaẓaẗ wa’l-taḥlīl al-nafsī al-rāmyānⁱ ʔilà taṣwīr al-ḥayāẗ ka-mā hiya bi-lā mubālaġaẗ ʔaw taqṣīr,

For, in our opinion, tomorrow’s literature will be erected on the pillars of observation and psychological analysis,¹ both of which aim to portray life as it is, without exaggeration or reduction,

1. Perhaps, al-taḥlīl al-nafsī should even be rendered as ‘psychoanalysis’ here. Given ʕUbayd’s positivist-scientistic approach, the term may not only mean the study of a person’s character but already an established scientific discipline. Sabry Hafez, however, would not think so: »The emphasis on psychology and psychoanalysis can be understood only in their literary sense and not as a specialized knowledge of the subject. They are meant as an interest in the character’s psyche through artistic and intuitive insight into the personality and its motivation for the action action« – S. Hafez, The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse, Saqi Books, 1993: 293 (n. 86).

AR: ʔadab, ġad^an, mulāḥaẓaẗ, taḥlīl, nafsī, taṣwīr, ḥayāẗ, ka-mā huwa/hiya
EN: observation, psychological, analysis, portray life as it is, without exaggeration or reduction

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