Neal Spackman and Dr. Dil Parkinson, Asian and Near Eastern Languages
I was successful in translating 9 short stories by the Syrian author Zakaria Tamer. Mr. Tamer is a contemporary writer who currently lives in London. His works are known throughout the Middle East but few of them have been translated into English. My translations are the first ones of these stories in English.
My ORCA project doubled as my honors graduation project, and so I took a “writing the thesis” class to get me jumpstarted on the work. I followed a general process of putting a mostly literal translation into English, soliciting help from peers to put it into good English, and then going over the translation with my advisor to correct errors.
I discovered shortly after my first couple stories that I was slightly underqualified for this type of work. While all of the translations I did are good, I required a lot more help than I initially expected. That is not a problem; just an admittance of needing more help.
Towards the end of my project, I was rather unmotivated to finish just because of the arduous nature of Arabic translation. It was kind of like pulling my own teeth. Still, I knew I wanted to finish and things like the ORCA and the Robert K. Thomas scholarship helped me to remember my obligations and commitments that I had previously made. I was able to finish that goal, as well as a couple others. The project assisted me in maintaining a level of Arabic sufficient to get a job, which was one of my main goals. Another of my main goals was submitting the final product for publication.
I will be submitting my work to the University of Texas, which publishes Arabic literary translations, after one more short revision. I have already defended my honors thesis and passed, so I know the quality is good. The reason why I have not yet submitted it is because of homework, keeping up two part time jobs, and taking care of the house for my pregnant wife. Over the Christmas break I should be able to get everything in and start the process of publication.