In Conversation with Kay Heikkinen – ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY

This month, a second of Huzama Habayeb’s novels was published in English translation, this time by MacLehose Press. Before the Queen Falls Asleep was translated by Kay Heikkinen and centers on the life story of a girl named Jihad—so named because her parents wanted a boy. The novel shades in a portrait of Palestinian life in exile, and it’s told with humor and intimacy, as the family must travel from Kuwait to Jordan and later to Dubai. 

This is the second of Huzama’s novels you’ve translated. The first was the Naguib Mahfouz Medal-winning Velvet, which was published by Hoopoe in 2019. What drew you back to her work?

Kay Heikkinen: To be completely frank, it came to me at a perfect time, and having the opportunity to translate it at all was a major draw for me. Also, I knew I could count on the novel to be a good one, and that the language would be interesting to work on. Finally, I also knew that Huzama herself would take a real interest in the translation and that I could turn to her for help if I needed to. 

How does Before the Queen Falls Asleep differ from Velvet? Did your experience with Velvet change the way you worked on BTQFA?

KH:  In terms of the content, Velvet is more intense and the ending is more devastating. It does have scenes of warmth in it (such as the young girl Lujain, who is bashfully hoping for a wedding dress for her doll), and some with comic elements (such as Hawa’s triumph over the bedbugs). But the overall tone is darker. In Before the Queen Falls Asleep, I think we have more actual comedy (as with scenes concerning where money is hidden, or the boys who fall out of the fruit trees, at the house in Jordan). Also, here the focus is a bit more diffuse at first, falling not only on the main character (Jihad) but also taking in her whole family. The endings are quite different, too.

I also think the language in Velvet is more intense. Before the Queen Falls Asleep has a lighter tone, and as I remember, the passages with distinctly poetic language are fewer and shorter. The fact that I had worked on Velvet gave me confidence for this translation—that, and knowing that I could ask Huzama about what puzzled me.

In what way does Before The Queen Falls Asleep situate itself in Huzama’s literary universe? And what makes a “Huzama Habeyeb novel”?

KH: Of course one through-line is her Palestinian consciousness and identity, whether her character is situated in Kuwait or in Jordan. Huzama doesn’t speak much at all about politics, and I believe that one of her books has been praised as being a very political novel without having an explicit word about politics in it. But we clearly know that none of these events would happen without the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine. Another distinctive trait is that this author portrays the entire world within which her main character is inscribed, so we end up having a fairly full sense of many characters. She also conveys a very vivid sense of the things surrounding the characters (as, for example, the textures of the fabric in Velvet). I also like her wry sense of humor, though it’s perhaps a bit more evident in Before the Queen Falls Asleep.

Do you have a favorite scene in Before The Queen Falls Asleep? A character with whom you particularly identify?

KH: I feel as if one—well, I—can’t help identifying with Jihad. Of course, it’s in her role as a mother that I found myself empathizing most deeply; the mother-daughter relationship can be very fraught, and this is an interesting portrait of one example of that. (I did find myself sympathizing with the daughter, at times, too.) On the other hand, Jihad has bravery and resourcefulness beyond my own; it was satisfying to help those traits come alive in English, as well as Jihad’s generosity, love of children, and sense of responsibility. I also felt sharply Jihad’s sadness as she realizes her father’s failures. 

How do you see Huzama Habayeb in the larger landscape of Palestinian literature writ large?

KH: This is hard for me to answer, as I am no one’s expert on Palestinian literature! Still, it’s clear that her work is aligned with feminist Palestinian writing. Also, she’s not writing from within; rather, she’s telling stories of the diaspora—what happens to poor people who worked the land, once they have been dispossessed—and of a second generation in the diaspora, at that. In that sense, the work might speak to the refugee plight more generally.

Do you have any book events planned for Before The Queen Falls Asleep?

KH: No. The book is not being published in the US, and so there isn’t much awareness of it here. I understand, however, that Huzama will be speaking to the ShelterBox book club, online, in April.

Why “The Queen Falls Asleep”? What does the title evoke?

KH: The title reflects the frame story, in which Jihad is telling her daughter—who is about to go abroad for college—about her own past life. Of course, this story refers to the frame story in A Thousand and One Nights. I’m not sure if English-language readers will make that connection, but I don’t think it’s a problem if they don’t.

Will you translate more of her work and what are you working on next?

KH: I would be very happy to translate more by Huzama! But I don’t know what else she might have. Most recently, I have done a new translation of the whole of Radwa Ashour’s Granada trilogy (all three parts, published together), which AUC Press is planning to bring out in the fall, in time for the tenth anniversary of her passing. (Of course that work concerns sixteenth-century Spain, but there is also a Palestinian connection: Ashour spoke of using that situation to study what happens to a people who are conquered, and there are clear similarities to her later The Woman from Tantoura.) Currently I’m working on a novel by the Kuwaiti author Taleb Alrefai, so I feel as if I’m learning a little more about Kuwait.

Tugrul Mende is a regular contributor to ArabLit.

Editor’s note: Although there is of yet no North American publisher for When the Queen Falls Asleep, readers in the Americas and elsewhere can find an ebook through MacLehose.