It is my pleasure to inform you that the Open Access ebook of the volume Retranslating the Bible and the Qur’an, which I edited together with Marijke de Lang and Joseph Verheyden for Leuven University Press, is now available online on OAPEN.
This book contains the proceedings of the international online conference (21-23 March, 2022) on “Retranslating the Bible and the Qur’an: Tensions between Authoritative Translations and Retranslations in Theory and in Practice”, which CETRA, the KU Leuven Centre for Translation Studies, organised in collaboration with the United Bible Societies. Our aim was to bring together Translation Studies scholars and translators working with sacred writings, in particular the Bible and the Qur’an, to stimulate dialogue between theory and practice. Most of the papers appearing in this volume were presented at the colloquium, but some were solicited afterwards.
By spanning both historical and current aspects, and by treating the Bible and the Qur’an together, this book breaks new ground and paves the way for future research on the myriad discursive and religious aspects of retranslation. With cases ranging in time from the early Reformation to the present, and traversing linguistic contexts from Russia to Sweden, Slovenia to Saudi Arabia, the essays capture diverse dimensions of retranslation work.
Many thanks to the contributors for the pleasant spirit of collaboration, and, of course, for their insightful articles: Naima Afif, Helge Daniëls, Sameh Hanna, Yazid Haroun, Rim Hassen, Hilla Karas, Elvira Kulieva, Marijke H. de Lang, Christian Moe, Johanna Pink, Richard Pleijel, Sohaib Saeed, Alexey B. Somov, Joseph Verheyden, Andy Warren-Rothlin and Marija Zlatnar Moe. We also wish to thank the reviewers for their constructive reports.
For the visitors of this blog, who only care about Russian language and literature, these are the two most appealing chapters of the book: “The authority of the old for producing the new: the thorny path towards a new authoritative Russian Bible translation” by Alexey B. Somov, and “In the shadow of orientalism: tracing the legacy of Ignatiĭ Krachkovskiĭ in Russian Salafi Qur’an translations” by Elvira Kulieva.
Here you have two kindly written reviews:
“50-odd years after Eugene Nida, this volume forms a welcome update on the conceptual and practical complexities that arise when sacred texts are interpreted for diverse audiences, in various translations. […] A must-read for anyone interested in the translation and interpretation of religious texts and / or the relationship between retranslation and canonicity.” — Kris Peeters, University of Antwerp
“This high quality volume offers a fascinating range of perspectives on constructing and challenging authority in the triangle of tensions between sacred source texts, their translations and retranslations, as these tensions play out in Jewish, Christian and Islamic communities in various times and places, from the undermining of the authority of the Holy Vulgate in early Humanism and Reformation to Kader Abdollah’s retranslation of the Holy Qur’an as a literary masterpiece.” — Lourens de Vries, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
We expect the printed book to be delivered shortly as well. You can order it here.
Van Poesjkin tot Poetin en snel terug 