Translated by Phoebe Bay Carter. Monday, August 29th: I woke up this morning to a scream piercing my eardrums and a cold fist of steel clenching my heart. My first thought was that Judgment Day was upon us. But then I recognized my brother’s voice buried inside the growling scream. My heart practically jumped out of my chest at the next scream – a scream of animal fright, in the voice of my sister-in-law. Then the sound of something living hitting the floor. I jumped out of bed and raced out of my room, where I found my mother also running for my brother’s room. My father, meanwhile, was bent over his prayer mat, trying to kill as many skin cells as possible on his forehead in order to make his prayer bump more pronounced.
I don't really get a sense of Hind as childish .... she seems like a confident young woman. Her writing style in her diary is confident and very clear (apart from the wrong day for August 30th, is that Hind's error?).
It works in terms of reading without my knowledge of Arabic. I suppose it matters for how much you would need to/want to retain the original text's tone....
Yes I think you're right, childish isn't quite the right word for her -- perhaps more of a youthful exuberance and defiance. The wrong day is my error, not Hind's, thanks for catching that! I've fixed it in the new draft.
Also, it's been brought to my attention that Super Woman does not exist. There is Super Girl, and Wonder Woman, but no Super Woman. I was already taking some liberties in translating this line, even without inventing a new superhero: the line in Arabic is وشعرت بقوة خارقة تتملكني. Which is more along the lines of "I felt filled with super strength" or perhaps "I felt like I'd gained super powers." She doesn't actually compare herself to a specific super hero. I do kind of like the idea of Hind thinking there is a Super Woman though...but that might just be me over-identifying with the character. I will probably change this to "I felt like I'd gained super powers" in the next draft (unless someone has another suggestion?)
Thank you for the acknowledgement Phoebe! :)
I don't really get a sense of Hind as childish .... she seems like a confident young woman. Her writing style in her diary is confident and very clear (apart from the wrong day for August 30th, is that Hind's error?).
It works in terms of reading without my knowledge of Arabic. I suppose it matters for how much you would need to/want to retain the original text's tone....
Yes I think you're right, childish isn't quite the right word for her -- perhaps more of a youthful exuberance and defiance. The wrong day is my error, not Hind's, thanks for catching that! I've fixed it in the new draft.
Also, it's been brought to my attention that Super Woman does not exist. There is Super Girl, and Wonder Woman, but no Super Woman. I was already taking some liberties in translating this line, even without inventing a new superhero: the line in Arabic is وشعرت بقوة خارقة تتملكني. Which is more along the lines of "I felt filled with super strength" or perhaps "I felt like I'd gained super powers." She doesn't actually compare herself to a specific super hero. I do kind of like the idea of Hind thinking there is a Super Woman though...but that might just be me over-identifying with the character. I will probably change this to "I felt like I'd gained super powers" in the next draft (unless someone has another suggestion?)