Additional information
by Nabil M. Abdel-Al (Author)
This anthology constitutes an amalgam of the author's output in the domains of interpretation, translation, and literary criticism over the years. It is a serious attempt to highlight the cardinal traits they have in common. This research reflects my personal vested trek into the inner workings of my current breadwinning profession (interpretation and translation), as well as my continuing and standing engagement with literary genres throughout the ages. Its uniqueness stems from the premise that it contains matters interrelated in more ways than one, although on the surface it appears to make up a queer admixture of different elements--hence the title, Convergences. Interpretation and translation are twin vocations, and between them, convergence is all encompassing. They are complementary and mutually supportive; they do not clash but overlap, indeed reinforce each other. Interpretation is the instantaneous, the simultaneous, in a word the express mode of communication; and translation is the meditative, the slow or the local medium of correspondence. They perform the same task of transforming a message from a source to a target language. However, there is a train of difference in the method of practicing these two inseparable professions: the mechanism used in performing them as well as in bringing the final product out to the clients for consumption. Literature, on the other hand, is the crucible for all types of teleologically permeable convergences and incredible divergences. It has a noble ontological message and brings out humanity's hidden treasures, experiences, thoughts, and choices. It also portrays people's elusive emotions, misery, happiness, social phenomena, and ticklish domestic affairs. The factual intent behind literature's lofty missive is grounded in understanding the scenes, events, and characters it depicts. This in turn revolves around the multiple interpretations that they elicit from the readership in general. As a matter of course, literary topics lend themselves to a bonanza of interpretations--fictional, religious, lexical--depending on their surrounding circumstances and the context in which the texts are couched.
