Book launch: Time of White Horses

On Monday, 25.3.2019, the Wahat al-Salam Spiritual Centre held an evening in honour of the publication of Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah, the Palestinian writer, who lives in Jordan .

The evening was held in cooperation with the Maktoob series of the Van Leer Institute.

Professor Mahmoud Yazbak spoke about Palestinian history from the Ottoman period to the Nakba of 1948, in parallel to the time in the Time of White Horses, and told about the mood of Palestinian society during this period.

Bruria Horowitz, a translator from Arabic to Hebrew, spoke about the challenges of translation from one language to another, about the difficulties of translation stemming from cultural differences, and about the work of the Maktoob translators’ circle, with emphasis on the Jewish-Palestinian cooperation taking place there.

Kifah Abd al-Halim, who is responsible for media and copyright issues at Maktoob, elaborated on the importance of Maktoob in making Arabic literature accessible to Israeli society, and emphasized the fact that Maktoob is always conscientious about obtaining permission for translation from Arab writers and never translates literary works whose authors object to their translation into Hebrew for political, social or moral reasons.

WAS-NS member Dr. Tawfiq De’adle facilitated the evening with grace and skill, paying special attention to the nuances and differences between the source language and the translation language, reading passages from the book in Arabic and Hebrew, and spoke with the translator about the cultural differences expressed in the transition and translation between the two languages.

It was a fascinating and rewarding evening. Thanks to all the participants. We hope to see you again at our upcoming Maktoob book launches at the WAS-NS Spiritual Centre.