Yasmine Seale is a British-Syrian writer and literary translator who works in English, Arabic, and French. Her translated works include ''The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights'' and ''Aladdin: A New Translation''. She is the first woman to translate the entirety of ''

The Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

'' from French and Arabic into English. In 2020, she received the

Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize The Queen Mary ''Wasafiri'' New Writing Prize (originally known as the ''Wasafiri'' New Writing Prize) is an annual award open to anyone worldwide who has not yet published a complete book. It was inaugurated in 2009 to celebrate the 25th anniver ...

for Poetry.

Career

Seale has written essays, poetry, and visual art, and has translated literary works from Arabic and French. In 2018, her translation of ''Aladdin'' was published by W. W. Norton & Company. In 2021, her translation of ''

'', titled ''The Annotated Arabian Nights'' was published by W. W. Norton. The 2021 publication is an abbreviated version of her translation of ''Arabian Nights'', and a more substantial version is planned for publication by W. W. Nortion in 2023. In 2021, Seale won a 2022

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...

grant to support her translation from Arabic of ''If You See Them Fall to Earth'' by

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma′il al-Nabulsi (an-Nabalusi) (19 March 1641 – 5 March 1731), was an eminent Sunni Ulama, Muslim scholar, poet, and author on works about Sufism, ethnography and agriculture. Family origins Abd al-Ghani's family ...

. She is also translating the work of

Al-Khansa Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah (), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ (, meaning "snub-nosed", an Arabic epithet for a gazelle as metaphor for beauty) was a 7th-century tribeswoman, living in the Ara ...

for the

Library of Arabic Literature The Library of Arabic Literature () is a bilingual book series that publishes English translations and Arabic editions of Arabic texts from the seventh to nineteenth centuries. Premise The Library of Arabic Literature publishes editions of signi ...

. She co-translated the poetry collection ''Agitated Air: Poems after Ibn Arabi'' with Robin Moger, which was published in 2022. Her translation of the poetry collection titled ''Something Evergreen Called Life'' by the writer formerly known as RaMa and now known as Rania Mamoun was published in 2023. In addition to her written work, she gives workshops on theory and practice of English-Arabic translation.

Critical reception

''Aladdin: A New Translation''

A review for ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' states, "Seale's splendid translation introduces readers to the surprising depth of Aladdin’s adventures while maintaining a classical feel" and "This exhilarating translation will thrill fans of darker, more complex fairy tales and upend readers' preconceived image of Aladdin." A review in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' states, "This new translation of the classic tale is, like the lamp at its center, darker, grubbier, and more twisted than its Disneyfied iteration, emphasizing its transgressive qualities", and "Seale's text has a fluidity and an elegance that give even this diet of "dreams, smoke, and visions" a satisfying heft." In a review for ''Gramarye'', Ruth B. Bottigheimer writes, "Seale's translation maintains a lively narrative rhythm; her smooth rendering reflects her deep knowledge of 17th- and 18th-century French", and "Seale revises the Nights’ black-white prejudice by regularly omitting the African part of the wicked magician's identity. This is appropriate, I think, for a stand-alone translation of 'Aladdin' that is intended for a broad readership."

''The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights''

A review for ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' states, "Western adaptations have sometimes misrepresented the original tales, often to satisfy Orientalist fantasies of the Middle East. Meanwhile, though female peril and ingenuity are at the heart of the story, until now no woman has published a full English translation of the story cycle. All of which makes this new edition—translated by Yasmine Seale, a female British-Syrian poet—quietly momentous." In a review for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', Michael Dirda writes, "In general, Seale's Englishing of "Alf Layla wa-Layla"— "The Thousand Nights and a Night" — redresses the 19th-century's Orientalizing bent and occasional racism, while also reminding us that women, and not just Scheherazade, are at the heart of these wonderful stories." In a review for '' The National'', Ben East writes, "Seale's own background as a French and Arabic speaker makes her the perfect person to translate from both languages, and to ensure the Diyab stories themselves have a cultural underpinning that makes sense in the 21st century as well as the 18th." In ''

'', Yasmine AlSayyad describes the book as "an electric new translation" and writes, "The most striking feature of the Arabic tales is their shifting registers—prose, rhymed prose, poetry—and Seale captures the movement between them beautifully." Robyn Creswell writes in '' The New York Review'' that Seale's translation "has a texture – tight, smooth, skillfully patterned – that make previous versions seem either garish or slightly dull by comparison."

''Agitated Air: Poems after Ibn Arabi''

In a review for '' ArabLit Quarterly'', Marcia Lynx Qualey writes, "In this collection, eale and Mogereach began with a translation of one of

Ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

’s works, then emailed this translation to the other. In the light and shadow of this new partner-translation, each made a new iteration, and then sent it back to the other, and again, and again, until either the poem or the poet-translators were exhausted" and "What's different about ''Agitated Air'' is that we have one original and multiple reflections of/on the same short work, by two poet-translators in conversation or debate." Reem Abbas writes in a review for the '' P. N. Review'', "Hopelessly grasping as the interpretation of one's own desires may sound, Seale and Moger to manage to translate Ibn Arabi's own spiritual translations into English in language that is equally sheer with desire and torment (شوق)."

Selected works

Poetry

* "Conventional Wisdom" (winner of the 2020 Queen Mary Qasafiri New Writing Prize)

Translation

* ''Aladdin: A New Translation'' (ed. Paulo Lemos Horta, 2018) * ''The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights'' (ed. Paulo Lemos Horta, foreword by Omar El Ekkad and afterword by Robert Irwin, 2021) * "The Gap" by Maya Abu al-Hayyat (short story) (published in ''All Walls Collapse: Stories of Separation'', edited by Will Forrester and Sarah Cleave, 2022) * ''Agitated Air: Poems After Ibn Arabi'', with Robin Moger (ed. Dominic Jaeckle, 2022) * ''Something Evergreen Called Life'' by Rania Mamoun, 2023

Essays and articles

* "The Travels of a Master Storyteller," ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

,'' May 2021 (first published as foreword to Elias Muhanna's translation of

Hanna Diyab Antun Yusuf Hanna Diyab (; born ''circa'' 1688) was a Syrian Maronite writer and storyteller. He originated the best-known versions of the tales of ''Aladdin'' and ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' which have been added to the ''One Thousand and ...

's ''The Book of Travels'') * "After the Revolution: Three novels of Egypt's repressive present," ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'', January 2018 * "Camera Ottomana," on Ottoman photography, ''FRIEZE,'' September 2015 * "Q v. K," on Turkish alphabet politics, '' LRB'' blog, October 2013

Personal life

Seale was raised in Europe and grew up speaking English, Arabic, and French.Seale, Yasmine. "Diaphanous, diasporal we: The formative influence of a mischievous journal and its politics of precision." ''TLS. Times Literary Supplement'', no. 6082, 25 Oct. 2019, p. 13. Her mother is Syrian, and her father is Tunisian-Russian and was raised in the United Kingdom. Seale is the great-niece of Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani.

References

External links

* *
Yasmine Seale on erasing and remaking The Thousand and One Nights
" ''

The Poetry Review ''The Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Wayne Holloway-Smith. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motio ...

,'' 110:1, Spring 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Seale, Yasmine Living people Arabic–English translators British women poets English–French translators English people of Syrian descent English people of Russian descent English people of Tunisian descent Literary translators Poets from London Syrian women poets 21st-century British women writers 21st-century English translators 21st-century British poets 21st-century Syrian women writers 21st-century Syrian writers Year of birth missing (living people)