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Thursday, August 28, 2008

I want to marry!!!

Not me :-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7554892.stm presents a young Egyptian female writer, Ghada Abdelaal whose blog turned into a book and will become a sitcome.The blog, for those of you who read in Arabic and understand Egyptian vernacular, is here http://www.wanna-b-a-bride.blogspot.com/.

I have not laughed so hard in a long time.. As good as The Big Fat Greek Wedding (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS1aFVVOJmg).

After having laughed, however, a question crossed my mind. How do you translate this into English. Translating Ghada's writings would involve (a) translating foreign humour and (b) translating a whole cultural perception totally alien to the English-speaking world. Not to mention that the vernacular will have to be translated into vernacular - i.e. Aussie dialect - or totally exoticised to remain Egyptian. In both cases one loses much of the original appeal.

Any ideas?

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