By Fire: Writings on the Arab Spring

Translator’s Introduction

Browsing in a Paris bookshop in the summer of 2011, I picked up two books by Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, the novella Par le feu (By Fire) and the nonfiction L’étincelle (The Spark) — both works about the Arab Spring. A juggernaut of revolts against authoritarian regimes, the Arab Spring began the previous winter with uprisings throughout several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. At hand, the experts said, may be an era of fundamental political reform throughout the region. Journalists and political analysts were virtually unanimous that the Arab world was convulsively re-creating itself while we watched. Some North African and Middle Eastern countries would be changed in some way by the firestorm. Ben Jelloun published the two books with Gallimard in 2011 at the height of the protests.

The New Yorker published my translation of By Fire in September 2013, which gave many American readers the first opportunity to learn about Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian man who is often credited with triggering the Arab Spring. By Fire makes it possible for American and European Anglophone readers to gain insights into the personal life of a tormented and economically marginalized man. Certainly, the international media covered the demonstrations from Tunis to Cairo by showing furious demonstrators clashing with the police, but often a reporter’s voice-over gave viewers a superficial update on the current state of revolts and negotiations before quickly moving on to the next story. The media could not show the experiences of individuals who finally had enough of oppression and deprivation. Though the cameras did zoom onto individual faces and microphones did capture the shouting and tumult, journalists could not reveal the people’s subjective experience of intense despair and frustration. Perhaps even the most meticulous historical writing cannot always capture the experience and meaning of a mortar round that turns bedrooms into glass shards and rubble. “Showing” and not “telling” is easier for the novelist: in the literary imagination, one can more easily enter a life, a mind, a space, and a specific moment and show what one finds there. Writers like Ben Jelloun use the full range of their literary and imaginative powers to represent the human condition that can evade chronological or historical narratives. In By Fire, he critically reveals the consequences of tyranny and repression through the eyes and emotions of one street vendor in the vast Arab world. The Spark, on the other hand, reports and objectively analyzes this moment in history and focuses on various historical figures, including Mohamed Bouazizi. The Spark also represents an irreverent and fearless snapshot of dictatorship and the politics of the Arab Spring as it stood in 2011.

This book contains my translations of By Fire and sections related to the Tunisian conflict from The Spark. These selections are vital for a serious reading of the novella and will enrich the experiences of first-time and veteran readers of Ben Jelloun. The Spark also provides a rich background against which to read By Fire. Also included is my translation of a brief reflection on the new Tunisian Constitution by Ben Jelloun. My task in this introduction is to offer some comments that may open the story for readers and help them enter it with confidence.