I returned earlier this evening from a KITAB sofa session with the Algerian-Italian author Amara Lakhous and his one-time Italian translator, Francesco Leggio. Lakhous’ career illustrates basically the full rainbow of translation possibilities. Born in Algiers, he studied philosophy before moving to Rome in the mid-1990s to get his Ph.D. in anthropology. He’s been based in Italy ever since. Leggio translated Lakhous’ first Arabic novel, al-baqq wa-l-qursan (The Bedbug and the Pirates), into Italian in 1999.  By the time his second novel, kayf tarda min al-dhaiba duna an taddak (How to Be Suckled by the Wolf without Getting Bit) came out, Lakhous had been living in Italy for over a decade and thus decided to rewrite the book in Italian, changing parts of it for the Italian version.  That puts him in the unusual position of being his own translator.  At one point during tonight’s discussion, Lakhous somewhat ironically referred to the Italian expression traduttore, traditore (“Translator, traitor”), in reference to himself.  Since the discussion was entirely in Arabic, the Italian pun needed some explaining to the audience–which neatly illustrated his point.  Justifying his rewrites, he pointed out that many metaphors and cultural references in the original Arabic text simply didn’t work in Italian, and had to be written out or revised altogether.Until recently, Lakhous had a further involvement in translation, as a consultant to the independent Italian publisher Edizioni E/O.  In 2007, E/O opened an Arabic language imprint, based in Italy, called Sharq/Gharb (Arabic for “East/West,” a translation of the E/O in the parent publisher’s name.)  E/O also published an English version of How to Be Suckled by the Wolf (translated from the Italian novel, not the Arabic one!) and gave it the very different title of Clash of Civilizations in an Elevator over Piazza Victoria.)  For someone like myself who occasionally translates fiction, the complicated history of the second novel seems confusing, but also culturally nimble: it’s a rare occurrence to have an author who is familiar enough with the target language not only to translate his own book, but to rewrite whole sections of it with a different readership in mind. — Chip Rossetti