Īlāf Badr al-Dīn: ʿIndama hatafū “li-l-abad”. Lughat al-thawra al-sūriyya (When They Chanted "Forever": The Language of the Syrian Revolution), Damascus: Mamdūḥ ʿAdwān 2018.

Abstract

#14–2020 Book Reviewed. Mamduh 'Adwan, 2018 ISBN 9789933540388 A collection of six chapters and a probing introduction by author Eylaf Bader Eddin make up the journey of When They Chanted „Forever“: The Language of The Syrian Revolution. This book marks the first attempt to examine the features of the linguistic discourse used during the Syrian revolution, as referred to by the author, which started in 2011. The main period of the discussed language of the revolution is 2011-2012. It records the manifestations and the turning points in the development of the visual, audio, and linguistic discourse of this revolution. The importance of this work is that it discusses the cultural material produced during the time of the Syrian revolution. It also forms an unprecedented scholarly work that studies the two opposing types of discourse of the pro-Assad regime, during the pre-revolutionary period, and the anti-Assad regime during the first year of the revolution. A similar work entitled Translating Egypt’s Revolution: The Language of Tahrir and edited by Samia Mehrez translates the archive of the Egyptian revolution. The contributors to this edited volume have translated a significant amount of cultural production during the time of the Egyptian revolution such as chants, banners, poems, and interviews, as well as presidential speeches. Their translations are informed by the cultural turn in translation studies and the nuanced role of the translator as negotiator between texts and cultures (Mehrez 15). Mehrez’s book highlights the importance of translation in understanding how events have transformed Egypt during the revolution. Similarly, Bader Eddin’s book, also within the context of the Arab spring, provides an account of the events changing Syria by discussing the discourse of the revolution, particularly, in 2011-2012. Bader Eddin starts his work with a quote from Samuel Beckett‘s Unnamable: No, they have nothing to fear, I am walled around with their vociferations, non will ever hear me say it, I won‘t say it, I can‘t say it, I have no language but theirs, no, perhaps I‘ll say it, even with their language (15). The Unnamable is a monologue told by an unnameable narrator. It is a story to find one’s identity, to define one’s self and to examine the role of language in defining one’s self (Nojoumian 387-388). The pronoun they in this epigraph may be taken to refer to the Syrian revolutionist who, according to the author, have nothing to fear and whose chants are vociferous against tyranny. Bader Eddin appears to determine his sense of belonging when he dedicates his book „to my Syria about which and for which I am writing, hoping to return to it“ (17). By writing this book and REVIEW 176