“The Egyptian Afterlife: The Translation of Edgar Allan Poe in Egypt”

Abstract

This paper surveys and evaluates the translations of Edgar Allan Poe in Egypt through an overview and an assessment of the translations of his works. These translations started in 1954, more than a hundred years after his death, and continued to appear until 2010. The paper investigates the quality of Poe's translations and examines the differences between the short story collections of the sixties and the eighties and the later translations of his fiction that were produced after 2000. The poetry of Edgar Allan Poe in translation is also inspected. While tracing the music of Poe's poetry in translation, the paper investigates the audience of such poetry. It, therefore, assumes that Poe was granted multiple afterlives that varied to suit different contexts and diverse temperaments. Finally the paper attempts to find out whether Poe's poetry and fiction are, still in need of newer generations of Egyptian translators who would use more melodic rituals, and brighter rhetorical spells to create more vibrant afterlives for Edgar Allan Poe. The paper is published in a collected volume entitled Translated Poe by Lehigh University press in a series entitled Perspectives on Poe.