The Thief and the Dogs

The Thief and the Dogs. A novella depicting life in post-revolutionary Egypt, written by Naguib Mahfouz. A vivid psychological study into the mind of Said Mehran, a thief who spent his whole life seeking justice, oh the irony.

Existentialism is a prominent theme in the novel, built by Mahfouz's narrative techniques: stream of consciousness, soliloquy, and interior monologues. The end result is a surreal novella, hauntingly vidid.

I truly enjoyed attempting to capture what was lost in translation in this translated text. I often found myself thinking "I know what you are saying here Mahfouz, although it makes no sense in English, I know what you are saying." The truth is: idioms, wit, humor, amongst many other things, are lost in translation. The reason behind why I understood something a non-arabic-speaking reader would have looked over is due to my understanding of the form and structure of the Arabic language. A lot of what was said in English was rooted in an Arabic way of thinking and an Arabic mentality. "Ha-Ha!" I cried aloud as I felt privileged and wealthy through my knowledge of the Arabic language, as if it empowered me in some way. Then, I began to ponder at the amount of rich content which must have flown over my head from the translated text's I have read in the past. The feeling I felt at that moment could never be comprehended through words, I can only compare it to the fusion of nausea and high blood pressure.

Although a lot can be lost though translation, I think it is important for us to read translated texts. Not only do translated texts provide us with an authentic unveiling of a new culture and a new part of the world, but they reveal to us eras of history which he haven't lived long enough to see. Translated texts reveal a new style of writing, a new form of narration, and a new experience in which story-telling is presented as you had never seen it before.

A translated text is a ticket taking you through time and across the whole world.