Testimonials

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Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem's translation of a poem by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was very inspiring and made non-Arabic readers aware of the Crown Prince's deep insight into the meaning of life.

I was pleased to come across the translation (by Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem) of a poem by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Minister of Defence. Both the translation and the multifacetedness of Sheikh Mohammed impressed me a great deal.

I've always believed in the theory that Arabic poetry, when translated to any other languages, loses the artistic touch typical of our language and, therefore, ultimately its meaning. Dr. Shihab Ghanem's recent translations of Arabic poetry have totally disproved this sort of thinking.

Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem's poetry in Lifestyle has given me a new insight into the true meaning of life.

It is with great enthusiasm that I buy your paper on Thursdays to satisfy my curiosity about the subject the poet has chosen to portray. I was always under the impression that such poets did not exist in this part of the world. It is, therefore, a pleasant surprise to discover such a talented poet. His work takes the reader into a world of serenity.

In a long-awaited initiative, which ought to have been the result of the efforts of an establishment, "Shades of Love" was published. It contains a collection of poems of Dr. Shihab Ghanem translated by the poet. The cover of the elegant volume is the 9th painting of the "Waw" series created by the artist Abdul Qader Al-Rais. The reader stops long at poems such as "Radiance", "Butterflies and Roses", "The Search", "Your Eyes" and "Whispering".

Bilingual poets are a rarity in any part of the world and Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem may well be unique… His translations are widely appreciated, not least because they allow English-language readers to appreciate a form of literature they would otherwise find inaccessible.

By bringing out English translations of Arabic poetry, Dr. Ghanem, who has been likened to the legendary Arab poet, Khalil Gibran with regard to his interest in the larger meaning of love has done an invaluable service to both Arabic and non-Arabic speakers in the world.

I think Dr. Ghanem is one of the select few who have mastered the art of translating Arabic poetry into English so beautifully.

Along comes a little pellucid gem… Pearls & Shells, translated by the well-known bilingual poet Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem is the kind of anthology not just for the discerning poet but for just about anybody who savours this literary art form.

Last year Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem published in book form a selection of his poems rendered into English by the poet himself, which came as quite a revelation even to those familiar with his regular excursions in the local English language press. Now he has come up with another slim and elegant volume containing his translations of poems by other UAE poets – an even more significant contribution to the literature of the Emirates.

All praise goes to the unstinting effort of Dr. Shihab Ghanem who has poetry within an exact science of engineering. He has translated many works of great Arab poets and continues in an unabated manner to reveal to the world of the quality of Arabic literature. In one of his book of translation of his own Arabic poems, "Shades of Love", he described in a philosophical way that "even a damned liar has to be truthful in love".

There is no doubt that the poems published are examples of high quality translation which deserve to be read to enjoy the poetry and also for translation studies at educational institutions.

His Shades of Love is an unprecedented attempt by an Arabic Writer to translate his own work into English to acquaint non-Arabic readers with contemporary UAE poetry. The original Arabic proves that Shihab is a talented poet, that poetry flows fluently on his tongue, but the English translation may not prove the same. On the other hand the poet could truly bring forward metaphors that impact images of the original.

"Shades of Love" is a collection of verse revolving as the name suggests, primarily around love but there are poems dedicated to the Taj Mahal and his brothers and sisters, while in 'Without a Nest at Eighty" he dedicates an impassioned poem to his late father, Professor Muhammad Abduh Ghanem, himself a poet of great repute and the first university graduate in the Arabian peninsula.

Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem is one of the most respected and recognized Arab poets in this country. "Shades Of Love" provides an insight into the vibrancy of the original Arabic poems through its excellent translation. As the poems are translated 'freely' from Arabic to English and the translator is the poet himself, the ideas and imagery contained in the poems can easily be understood and enjoyed. Dr. Ghanem has successfully put together a vivid and colourful bouquet of beautifully translated verse.

A prominent figure in the country's circles, Dr. Shihab M. Ghanem has become the first UAE writer to have published a book of English poetry. And while there are other poets whose original works have been translated into English by others, Ghanem has chosen to do it himself.

Dr. Ghanem relishes the gift of poetry, and among the most sensitive of his poems are the ones about members of his immediate family: his three children, his brothers and sisters, and his father, himself a well-known poet and the first person from the Arabian Peninsula to acquire a University degree. While some of the contents of "Shades of Love" cannot be mistaken as anything other than translations, with footnotes explaining the more obscure allusions, there are others which could stand on their own as poems in English.

"Shades of Love" is the title chosen by Dr. Shihab Muhammad Abduh Ghanem for his English collection of poems which consists of translations of poems selected from his Arabic books of verse. I have in my hands the second edition which appeared soon after the first edition. Poet and engineer Shihab Ghanem is a talented poet who hides behind a lot of modesty. In one of the reviews of the collection, a foreign writer made an interesting comparison between Dr. Shihab Ghanem and Jibran Khalil Jibran, seeking the aspects of similarity in the larger meanings of love that are common to the creative writings of the two eminent poets.