Al-Karma Publishing House issued a new Arabic translation of a novel entitled “Siddhartha” by German writer Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1946, which is one of the most beautiful novels of German literature, and translated it into Arabic by translator Samir Grace.
When the novel “Siddhartha” was published, American writer Henry Miller said about it: “Siddhartha is one of the simplest and most profound books I have read in my life.”
Hesse’s famous and influential novel is perhaps the most important parable of our turbulent age, in which Hermann Hesse fused Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy. Written with deep sympathy for humanity, this simple yet grotesque tale has touched the lives of millions since its publication in 1922.
The events of the novel “Siddhartha” revolve around the story of a young man searching for the absolute truth and meeting Buddha, and his quest takes him from a life of dissolution to asceticism, and from lust, wealth and fame to wisdom and abandonment.
Siddhartha, a novel by German Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse
Samir Jries studied German literature and literature in Cairo and Mainz, Germany, and translated from German about forty contemporary literary works, including: “The Pianist” by Alfred Yelling (Nobel 2004), “Friendship” by Thomas Bernhard, “The Capital” by Robert Menassa, and Don Juan by Peter Handke (Nobel 2019). He wrote a book on the German writer Günter Grass (Nobel 1999) entitled “Günther Grass and Confronting a Past That Doesn’t Go”.
The novel “The Promise” by Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt was published by Al Karma Publishing House, the long story “An Objective Report on the Happiness of a Morphine Addict” by Hans Fallada, the novella “A Dream” by Arthur Schnitzler, and the novel “The Epic of Annette” by Anah Weber.
Grace received the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Award for Translation, category of individual efforts, in 2022, the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding in 2018, the Goethe Institute Award for Literary Translation, category of experienced translators in 2014, and the first prize in translating the story from the Supreme Council of Culture In Egypt in 1996.
