In this, as in many of Mahfouz's works, we perceive time, here personified in the ageless Alley, to be the novel's central focus. The aspirations and tragedies of its inhabitants are witnessed with total indifference by the Alley within which the circle of life and death is forever run again. In this it is a view in close focus of the human drama at large, selected by a literary craftsman of impressive skills. And in _Midaq Alley,__ as in life itself, there is much gaiety, color, and excitement to enliven the passing scene.
Translation Note
Arabic is, of course, a language far different in syntax and sounds from English and gives expression to a highly distinctive people and a complex culture. The translator has, then, an almost limitless range of choices and dilemmas over vocabulary and arrangement when attempting to convey the spirit of a work of fiction. The present translation offers an approximation of how Mahfouz might have expressed himself had English been his native tongue.
Very little deliberate editing was, however, in fact found necessary; some phrases and short passages that tended to be repetitious have been dropped or condensed and the names of characters and places have been simplified, while left in recognizable form. The changes made have been kept as insignificant as possible consistent with a text that should move easily and naturally for an English-speaking readership. A few words relating to aspects of Egyptian national and Muslim cultural life for which we have no parallel have been given brief descriptive definitions within the text where essential. The only alternative, a glossary and notations, would seem unfortunate in a work of creative fiction, a cumbersome and largely unnecessary barrier between the work and its readers.
This English translation of Midaq Alley (translated by Trevor Le Gassick) was first published in 1966 by The American University in Cairo Press.
Its original Arabic publication was in 1947 as Zuqaq al-Midaq.
Mahfuz, Najlb, 1911-2006