ამინ არ-რეიჰანის „ჯუჰანი“ და მისი თარგმანების პრობლემატიკა

აბსტრაქტი

სტატიიდან აღებული ავტორის ინგლისურენოვანი რეზიუმე:

Key words: Juhan, arabic/russian translations, Ameen Rihani.

In this article we discuss Rihani’s small novel “Juhan”, where the writer develops the theme of linking of two different religions and cultures, East and West through love. Before considering the translation problems, we analyze the novel itself, written in Eng- lish by the author in 1917. English “Juhan” was not published when it was written, but in the same year it was translated and published in Arabic language as well by ‘Abd al-Masih nino surmava Haddad with the title “Outside the Harem”. Arabic translation was published many times in the following years and English original manuscript (typed on the typing machine, with the author’s handwritten corrections in some places) was kept in the writer’s home mu- seum and only in 2011 the printed version of the novel was published.

English publication of 2011 is regarded as the most complete text. “Juhan” is one of the first fictional works in Arab literature of 20th century written about East and West theme. It is well known that Rihani was active defender of the wom- en’s human rights and he openly wrote about the issues tabooed in the eastern society in early 20th century. Unlike the contemporary writers, in the novel “Juhan”, Rihani created the character of daring, young revolutionary Turkish woman desiring to bring modernized western values to her people. Juhan is some kind of symbol of awakened East. The main character has many common with the author as well. The story reflects the events of World War I, action takes place in 1915, in Turkey and the couple of main characters are German von Wallenstein, the military advisor in Istanbul equipped with unlimited authorities and young Turkish aristocrat woman Juhan.

Thus, “Juhan” describes absolutely new events and conflicts; “Juhan” contains not only the feminist ideas; it shows the conflict between two different, oriental and occidental worlds. Following by two main characters symbolizing East and West by the way of love to one another ends fatally as these ways never meet. The characters have absolutely dif- ferent goals in these relationships – eastern women fights for the longed freedom, she dreams to give birth to a child, who would combine oriental and occidental values while the western man strives for unlimited power, his “Asian dream” is to see the empire under German protectorate. At the end of the work the author shows the failure of the idea of marriage between east and west.

Though both characters had made attempts to show willingness to compro- mise: general acquired eastern traditions and Juhan – the western ones, the idea of their marriage has failed. Juhan is against marriage though the hope is in her future. Juhan’s son, Mustafa will be the very “prophet” able to combine eastern and western values. This is the main idea of the novel. We would like to specially focus on the end of the fictional work. It is different in English original work, Arabic and Russian translations. In the first and second Arabic editions (1917 and 1922) “Juhan” ends with the scene of the general’s murder scene and Juhan’s suicide. Translator (‘Abd al-Masih Haddad) has completely changed the final and withdrew the section about Mustafa that is a very significant and indivisible part of the novel, containing the main idea of the work, in our opinion.

Rihani’s “Juhan” was translat- ed into Russian from the Arabic version though the Russian translation is based not on the most recent edition but on the incomplete one of 1922 and hence, the Russian translation is incomplete as well. Russian translation was included into the collection published in 1981: Arabic Romantic Prose of 19th – 20th Centuries. Translator Derdirova specified that the translation was made from Cairo edition of 1922. Thus, before publication of Russian amin ar-reihanis „juhani“ da misi Targmanebis problematika version there were published several editions: New York edition of 1917, Cairo edition of 1922, Beirut editions of 1933 and 1945.

Existence of several versions in Arabic language has caused certain confusion in Russian criticism. In this respect, we cannot share Dolinina’s, as though Ameen Rihani has changed the final of the story in the third edition and added Mustafa’s episode. Aida Iman- gulieva shares this opinion about Mustafa’s episode: “When “Juhan” was re-published in 1933, Rihani changed the final. Juhan has not died; she lived far from Istanbul, raising son born from her German lover”. We regard that Dolininga’s and Imangulieva’s opinion about final of the novel is wrong, as original, English manuscript contained this episode from the outset. Actually, Ameen Rihani has not made any changes either in Arabic or in English texts.

Dolinina and Imangulieva refer to the third edition of 1933, which, unfor- tunately, was not found, but if in any Arabic edition before 1948 there really is the full version, this means that the publisher, together with the Arabic text, had also the English original manuscript, for comparison with the Arabic text and its completion. Currently, electronic version of Arabic translation of Ameen Rihani’s novel, in a form of PDF file is available in the internet, though it should be mentioned that this is not a complete and corrected version but rather the incomplete one, supposedly, the edition of 1922. We suppose that the novel was posted and spread in Internet by Hindawi orga- nization: www.hindawi.org and the text was taken from there by the other sites as well and even printed.

In 2016, in Damascus, Union of Arab Writers have published “Juhan” within the “pocket-book” series though, in this case as well, this was the incomplete ver- sion. Supposedly, in this case the publisher has relied upon the electronic version, without proper checking and comparing with the original. Thus, Arabic readers, in many cases, get familiar with the incomplete text and the publishers should consider this issue more carefully and publish full translation of “Juhan” in Arabic language that corresponds to the English original and in case of translation of this work into the other languages the transla- tors should primarily rely upon the original version.

Thus, incomplete Arabic and Russian translations of “Juhan” by Ameen Rihani are the clear example of how the translation can be so different from the original work. The translator’s mission should be in maintaining accuracy of the text and transferring the literary values from one language system to the other with minimal losses.

გამოქვეყნებულია ჟურნალში „სჯანი“, ტ. 20/2 (2019), გვ. 200–209. ნაშრომის გახსნა