A. S. Al-Garrallah. Poetry Translation as the Golden Path to Hidden Manuscripts: Frank Ernest Johnson's Translation of the Muʻallaqat

Aiman Sanad Al‑Garrallah 

Al–Hussein bin Talal University, Ma‘an, Jordan
E–mail: aiman-sanad@hotmail.com

Poetry Translation as the Golden Path to Hidden Manuscripts
Frank Ernest Johnson's Translation of the Muʻallaqat

Abstract. This study argues that Frank Ernest Johnson's “The Seven Poems, Suspended in the Temple at Mecca, Translated from the Arabic” (1893) goes beyond all other translations of the Mu‘allaqat for specific reasons — not least of which is the uniqueness of the source and target texts that Johnson's edition encompasses. This study suggests that this sui generis text, in bringing to the fore information of great value, contains a version of the Mu‘allaqat consisting of a unique number of lines, variant readings and, most importantly, three rare lines with which Arab specialists and Orientalists seem to be unfamiliar. This study discovers a new text of the Mu‘allaqat, an invaluable treasure of Arabic pre‑Islamic poetry, and, in the context of textual criticism, compiles the number of lines of the Mu‘allaqat in seventeen texts, including Johnson's “The Seven Poems”. Thus, three Mu‘allaqat of Tarafa b. al‑‘Abd, ‘Amr b. Kulthum, and ‘Antara b. Shaddad, which are recognised as unique in terms of the number of lines, contain verses that are controversially attributed to three poets. In addition, these three Mu‘allaqat are distinguished by the presence of other verses that are not found in authoritative sources, notably the poets' Diwans, anthologies of the Mu‘allaqat, and commentaries on the Mu‘allaqat compiled between the 8th and 20th centuries. It is noteworthy that Johnson's text is interspersed with the only known English translation of certain verses, the very presence of which is of considerable value in the field of translation studies. This advantage permits a stylistic analysis of the translation of these rare verses, as they have been translated only by Johnson, to the best of the researcher's knowledge.

Keywords: pre‑Islamic poetry, the Mu‘allaqat, manuscripts, witnesses, translation studies, textual criticism

Acknowledgments. The study was implemented in the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in 2023.

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2024-30-2-97-110

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Received by the Editorial Board: 14.12.2023