An Arabic translation of a William Butler Yeats poem by students from the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at Qatar University College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS) will be featured on the official Irish website of Yeats 2015, celebrating 150 years since the poet and Nobel laureate’s birth as well as his literary legacy on a national and global level.
The translation by QU-CAS students has been selected from among a large number of submissions.
The project, initiated and supervised by Dr Anastasia Remoundou-Howley, assistant professor of English literature, was undertaken collectively by 12 students of English literature as part of a course in modernism during which Yeats was studied.
Commenting on the achievement, Dr Remoundou-Howley said: “It has been an amazing and rewarding experience working with my students on this creative project.”
Dr Remoundou-Howley underlined the significance of the QU contribution to Yeats 2015, featured next to various recitations by distinguished figures from the field of arts, politics and academia such as Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins; the late Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and Professor Helen Vendler (Harvard).
“The QU contribution to Yeats 2015 acts as the perfect herald for the cultural trip to Ireland that is being scheduled for the spring of 2016,” it was observed.
The sense of pride and joy were equally reflected in the participating students’ responses.
English literature graduate Zahia Mohamed al-Marri said, “Being a part of Yeats 2015 was a source of pride for me. It is definitely the highlight of my college years.”
Another graduate from the same class, Aljazi al-Naemi, said “translating Yeats into the Arabic language was such an amazing experience for me and my fellow peers in the course on modernism with Dr Anastasia.”