Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange
Trans. Malcolm C. Lyons
[Penguin]
Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange is the first English translation of 18 medieval Arabic stories, taken from a ragged and damaged manuscript discovered in Istanbul. In his introduction, Robert Irwin explains that the ‘marvels’ of the title performed crucial work in medieval Arabic literature, signalling God’s creative power and so producing a proper response of pious awe and wonder. And yet these stories are no didactic morality tales. Certainly, the pieces caution against avarice, sloth, pride and – particularly uncomfortably – the folly of trusting women and other races. But these value structures run secondary to the real purpose of these works: to invent, to impress, and to entertain. These are sprawling tales that resist literary conventions of both internal consistency and external sense, all for the sake of a good yarn. They invite us into a world marvellous in its sheer inventive force; a wildly fantastic, proto-surrealist realm of bored royalty, sea-creatures, shape-shifters, booby-trapped treasure, enchanted animals, and a fabulous range of mechanical automata. This parade of curiosities frames stories that deal eloquently with ‘universal’ themes of love, power, betrayal, and greed. Still, in this carnivalesque space of story, there are no real consequences and everything can change in an instant. This collection instructs us to treat both pain and pleasure with curiosity and mirth, reminding the reader that ‘everything will perish’ and affirming the wonders of the temporary. A joy to read.
Words: Gill Moore
