Translation activity from Arabic to Bosnian (1989-2010) - Next Page ...

Though we did not have an opportunity to look at all the translations of the religious literature,as far as we know these translations are also done without grants.Researchers of Arabic literature should be regarded as excellent mediators. Their reviews,articles and studies could attract attention of potential publishers to some new, yetundiscovered names, styles and phenomena in this literature. Sadly, we find that literaturestudies are in crisis and such articles are a rarity. Albeit, we must hope that things will change.It is evident that the space and means for promoting Arabic literature are not even remotelyexploited and there is an immense and urgent need for a stronger cultural cooperation betweenSerbia and Arab countries. We believe that such cooperation could encourage the translationactivity in both directions and give tremendous results if planned carefully. But, before thathappens, we should exploit all local and available resources to the maximum.ReceptionIn order to get even a slightly realistic picture of the complex issue of the Arabic literaturereception in Serbia, we shall examine print runs of the previously analyzed categories, salesdynamics, media coverage, distribution and presence in the specialized periodicals.Before analyzing the issue of print run, we must say that many of the annexed bibliographicalunits do not have number of copies attached to them. We vaguely remember once being toldby a prominent publisher that non-religious publications have print runs 500-3000 copies,though they mostly get printed in 1000 copies, as it is cheaper to print and brings less risk ofloss. Kahlil Jubran is the most translated representative of Arabic literature by far. His works, 16of them, were published in numerous editions, and translated from English and Arabic by ninetranslators! His most famous work, The Prophet was published 14 times during 16 years andeach print run was rarely less than 3000 copies. One edition (2007) was printed in 10.000copies, and in the year 2000, this work had 3 editions, 5500 copies all together. Considering theusual print run for direct Arabic translations, these two figures can easily enter sometranslators’ “Believe it or not” section in Serbia! Obviously, printing Jubran in Serbia pays off.We are not able to provide exact figures for the dynamics of book sale, but it is quite clear thatdirect translations from Arabic rarely live the second edition, and the third has so far been purescience fiction. Works of Arabic literature written in other languages have in general larger printruns, and judging by the bibliography, they are more likely to have repeated editions. Thoughvery numerous, religious translations have very small print runs and usually do not have furthereditions. As for the works of Arabic literature translated via intermediary languages have 1000-5000 copies print runs and The Thousand and One Nights seems to be most printed andreprinted and the highest number of copies.Comparing with the number of prosodic single volume books translated directly from Arabic, wesee that works of Arab authors who wrote in English and French prevail (45:54). If we should28