La Porte

Bilingual edition, Arabic–French — English title: The Door

With this bilingual edition of Ghassan Kanafani’s “The Door”, pairing a carefully established Arabic text with a rigorous translation, Houda Ayoub’s Arabic translation workshop at the École normale supérieure, rue d’Ulm, brings a little-known text within reach of a wide French-speaking readership for the first time.

Do you see this door? Take a good look at it! I wore my nails down clawing at it like a raving mad cat, I broke my bones hurling myself against it... I cracked my skull trying to make a breach through which a single word of truth might fly out... And then? I would collapse like cotton wool, here, yes, here! Right where you stand, strutting like a peacock... Do you think you are the only one to have uncovered the secret? We all have... All of us... After a day, an hour, a year, a generation... What matters is that we uncovered it... Do you think that justifies killing yourself over it? [...] Look what you have made of yourself, you poor fool! Here you are! Go on, then, break down the door, break yourself! You cannot escape the trap into which you yourself leapt!