Talaat al-Shayeb


Talaat al-Shayeb was an Egyptian author, translator and intellectual. He translated and reviewed a nunber of international literature.

Early life

Talaat al-Shayeb was born in 1942 in Al-Batanun village, in the Shibin El Kom Center in modern Menoufia Governorate, then in the Kingdom of Egypt. His parents were an Egyptian. He studied in Al-muaalimeen college in Cairo University in 1958

Literary Work

Al-Shayeb considered one of the most outstanding Egyptian translator who translated from English to Arabic in Egypt in particular, and in the Arabic world in general. He was distinguished of his choices of the titles of the books that he was translating. Al-Shayeb was interested of socio-political and development subjects, in addition to the subjects that contains the third world and dialogue between cultures and civilizations.
Al-shayeb has translated many books and novels in languages like: French, English and Russian to Arabic, the total of which he translated has exceeded 20 work, including: Normal Girl by Arthur Miller, Silk by Alessandro Baricco, Nude Before God by Shiv K. Kumar, The Silent Angel novel by Heinrich Paulus, Follow Your Heart by the Italian Susanna Tamaro, Slowness by Milan kondera, The Pigeon by the German Patrick Zuskind.
Notable works translated by Al-Shayeb include The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order by Samuel Huntington, The Idea of Decline in Western History by Arthur Hermann, and The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders. He also translated the book In My Childhood, which a study of Arabic biography. As it is distinguished as a translation with a complete literary and narrative flavor of the doctoral thesis in Arabic literature by the Swiss researcher, In addition to a selection of international poetry, including the poetry collection Voices of Conscience. The book includes fifty poems in English from the International Poetry Bureau of several poets, some of which were translated from the languages of their original poets, before Shayeb translated them into Arabic.
Al-Shayeb also edited the complete encyclopedia of the works of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in addition to translating 3 books, including: Islam and the Islamic Nation, A New Plan for Asia, and The Challenge.
Al-shayeb had a high position in the field of the literate and translation Egyptian and Arab cultural community which qualified him to take the position of assistant director of the Egyptian National Center for Translation since its inception in 2007. He remained in his position for four years until his resignation in 2010 to devote himself to reading and translating and participation in local and international cultural confesses and forum.

Works

  • The Limits of Freedom of Expression: The Experience of Writing A story and A Novel During the Reign of Abdel Nasser and Al Sadat.
  • Clash of Civilization: Rebuilding the International System,
  • Normal Girl
  • The Intellectuals,
  • Follow Your Heart,
  • Fear of The Mirrors,,
  • I am The Moon: Selections From the Chinese Fable,
  • Written: To Emagine a New Story for Your Life,,
  • In My Childhood: Study in the Arabic Biography,,
  • The Plight of the African Writer,,
  • American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945,
  • The Idea of Decline in the Western History,,
  • Who Paid the Piper?: The Cultural Cold War,,
  • Arts and Literature Under the Pressure of Globalization,,
  • Perhaps One Day in Aleppo Other Stories: Selections of the American short story,,
  • The World is a Short Story,,
  • Sounds of Conscience, Fifty Poems of World Poetry,
  • Universal Cold War,,
  • The Mediterranean: the History of a Sea, No Sea Like It,,
  • Depth Obsession,,
  • Cold War Literate: Writing of the Universal Conflict,
  • European Foreign Policy: Is Europe Still Important?,,
  • The Silent Angel,
  • From Babylon to the Translator: Interpreting the Middle East,,
  • Cultural Cold War,,
  • A public History of the World: As Mankind Made It from the Stone Age to the New Millennium.,. It was Talaat Al-Shayeb's last work before his death and was published after his death.

Death

Al-Shayeb died on 1 April 2017 after a sudden health crisis during his participation in a symposium of Al-Torji Cultural Salon in New Damietta, where he died before arriving to the hospital.