{"id":67,"date":"2026-08-20T16:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/paul-bowles-papers-supplement\/?page_id=67"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:04:01","slug":"moroccan-storytellers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/moroccan-storytellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories in Translation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Paul Bowles was a prolific literary translator throughout his lifetime. His early translations aligned with his interest in surrealism and included works by Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Ferry, Paul Magritte, Ram\u00f3n Sender, and Jorge Luis Borges. In 1958, Bowles produced the first English-language version of Jean Paul Sartre\u2019s play <em>Huis Clos<\/em> (<em>No Exit). <\/em>Later in life, Bowles translated works by Guatemalan author Rodrigo Rey Rosa and the late-19th century European expatriate author Isabelle Eberhardt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living in Tangier in the 1950s, Bowles became interested in the Moroccan oral story tradition and began recording and translating the stories of several Moroccan storytellers he had encountered in his social circles. These included Larbi Layachi (under the pseudonym Driss ben Hamed Charhadi), Mohamed Choukri, Mohammed Mrabet, and Ahmed Yacoubi. Of these, Bowles translated stories by Mrabet most frequently, and between 1967 and 1986, eleven collections of Mrabet\u2019s stories, translated by Bowles, were published.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bowles\u2019s Moroccan translations have a complex legacy. In their published form, the stories brought the lived experiences of Moroccans to international readers. However, Bowles\u2019s role as a Western translator working from a relative position of power, as well as the complex relationships with the storytellers he recorded, have been the subject of examination and critique. The broader implications of translating and inscribing oral traditions of Morocco, which carry nuance in their original verbal context and native language, have also been the subject of scholarship and debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Larbi Layachi \/ Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (1937\u20131986)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Photograph of Paul Bowles and Larbi Layachi, San Francisco, 1966<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Press clipping for <em>A Life Full of Holes<\/em> by Driss ben Hamed Charhadi, circa 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Photograph of Mohamed Choukri, circa 1980s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mohamed Choukri<\/strong>. <strong><em>Tennessee Williams in Tangier<\/em>, corrected typescript, 1973<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mohamed Choukri. <em>Vivre au Temps des Egarements<\/em>, autograph typescript, 1992<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mohammed Mrabet (born 1936)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ira Cohen photograph of Paul Bowles and Mohamed Mrabet<\/strong>,<strong> undated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mohamed Mrabet. <em>The Lute<\/em>, corrected typescript, circa 1979<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mohamed Mrabet. <em>The Lute<\/em>, galley proof, circa 1979<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Photograph of Paul Bowles and Mohamed Mrabet<\/strong>,<strong> undated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ahmed Yacoubi (1928-1985)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Photograph of Ahmed Yacoubi, Paul Bowles, and unidentified party guest, circa 1960<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Copy of letter from Ahmed Yacoubi to Betty Parsons, 1952<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ahmed Yacoubi. <em>The Night Before Thinking<\/em>, copy of playscript<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Bowles was a prolific literary translator throughout his lifetime. His early translations aligned with his interest in surrealism and included works by Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Ferry, Paul Magritte, Ram\u00f3n Sender, and Jorge Luis Borges. In 1958, Bowles produced the first English-language version of Jean Paul Sartre\u2019s play Huis Clos (No Exit). Later in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-exhibition.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/alive-in-tangier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}