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Michael Finocchiaro's Reviews > Arabian Nights: An Adult Selection, Tales From A Thousand And One Nights
Arabian Nights: An Adult Selection, Tales From A Thousand And One Nights
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Arabian Nights is one of the great literary works of all time but precautions need to be made if you want to read it to your kids. First off, there is a LOT of violence in the stories and a TON of sex. Don't be an idiot like me and start reading an unabridged copy to your kids or you will have to be explaining very early on why so and so killed his wife and imprisoned another...
That being said, there are few works with as much imagination and wonder in them and taken in lighter doses, it is a beautiful way of expanding your children's imaginations.
For adults, one has to take a lot of this in its historical context and try hard to put aside the misogyny which is rampant in the text. Perhaps easier said than done. But there are so many eternal stories here - Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - that they must be read at least once to get the non-Disney-died versions (like the Anderson and Grimm fairy tales that were similarly contorted to fit mass consumption and commercialisation by Walt&Co).
That being said, there are few works with as much imagination and wonder in them and taken in lighter doses, it is a beautiful way of expanding your children's imaginations.
For adults, one has to take a lot of this in its historical context and try hard to put aside the misogyny which is rampant in the text. Perhaps easier said than done. But there are so many eternal stories here - Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - that they must be read at least once to get the non-Disney-died versions (like the Anderson and Grimm fairy tales that were similarly contorted to fit mass consumption and commercialisation by Walt&Co).
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Arabian Nights.
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Reading Progress
January 1, 2006
–
Started Reading
January 1, 2006
–
Finished Reading
September 10, 2016
– Shelved
October 26, 2016
– Shelved as:
fiction
October 26, 2016
– Shelved as:
middle-east-lit
October 26, 2016
– Shelved as:
classics
November 21, 2016
– Shelved as:
novels
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Nov 17, 2019 05:44AM
Translation counts big with this one too. Some translations are laboriously painful; whereas others are quite brilliant.
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Thanks! So which one’s do you recommend in particular?
I wish I could say which one I liked best. The first one I read was brilliant, but I didn't understand enough about language and translation then to understand that it could be totally different. I've been trying to find that translation since. I've actually got two different translations on my bookshelf that are hopefuls right now.
I can tell you that I absolutely loathe the full Richard Burton translation, which has some 16 volumes to it (10 original volumes plus 6 supplemental). It contains every single story, which is fantastic, but the language is overwrought and laborious.
In addition to the two I have, I'm highly curious about the Husain Haddawy translation. It's a newer translation that is from a 14th century Arabic text by a native speaker of Arabic. Over time, I've learned that I tend to enjoy translations by native speakers who grew up in the culture (or closest modern equivalent to the culture) more. There are exceptions, of course. I'll take Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey over any other edition out there.
I can tell you that I absolutely loathe the full Richard Burton translation, which has some 16 volumes to it (10 original volumes plus 6 supplemental). It contains every single story, which is fantastic, but the language is overwrought and laborious.
In addition to the two I have, I'm highly curious about the Husain Haddawy translation. It's a newer translation that is from a 14th century Arabic text by a native speaker of Arabic. Over time, I've learned that I tend to enjoy translations by native speakers who grew up in the culture (or closest modern equivalent to the culture) more. There are exceptions, of course. I'll take Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey over any other edition out there.
Do you know that Aladdin, Ali Baba and the forty theives, The voyages of Sinbad the sailor did not feature in the original Arabic collection of the 1001 Nights they are additions that were fabricated by French translator Antoine Galland and other European translators...
Really? I mean, I think that the names were there in the original and I had thought that the stories were censored and sanitized like the Grimm brothers and Andersson did with European folk tales in the 18th century. Can you suggest a book about this transformation, James?
James wrote: "Do you know that Aladdin, Ali Baba and the forty theives, The voyages of Sinbad the sailor did not feature in the original Arabic collection of the 1001 Nights they are additions that were fabricat..."
I've read about that before!
I've read about that before!
IF I remember correctly, the violence is inherent in the originals, but the sex came out of Burton's translations. So one of the other translations my be more suitable for young people.
Sounds like there is a great book there waiting to be written about the transformation of the original Arabic texts and their reinvention over time into Disney-appropriated stories
Check out this article on tor.com:
Thanks James, that is a great article! Much appreciated. I should check on whether there is a more accurate translation from Arabic in to French, but I can't find on wikipedia whether the original texts which Galland translated and embellished even exist...
If an English translation would work for you, you might try the Husain Haddawy translation. It's supposed to be the complete text of the Mahdi edition. That edition is considered to be the definitive Arabic edition of a 14th century version, which is the oldest surviving version of the stories. I have no idea if there is a French equivalent though.
Thanks, that is the translation I read in fact
Ah, the way Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has things setup for translations is so awkward. Though I'm not sure if I know a better way. On my end, it shows as you having read one of the abridged Burton translations.
Zoe's Human wrote: "Ah, the way Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has things setup for translations is so awkward. Though I'm not sure if I know a better way. On my end, it shows as you having read one of the abridged Burton translations."Ditto -- which was why I made the Burton comment. So maybe I am way off base.
@Zoe and @Airman no all good. I have dabbled in a few different translations. The thing is that since it was itself a translation and fabrication, its all a big hot mess which, sort of like Exile on Mainstream by the Stones, sprawls over the pages with a lively and intoxicating originality.
