New Books Network Najati Sidqi, "Memoirs of a Palestinian Communist: The Secret Life of Najati Sidqi" (U Texas Press, 2025)
Jan 30, 2026
Margaret Litvin, professor of Arabic literature and co-translator of Najati Sidqi’s memoir, discusses the book, its collaborative translation, and related research. She traces Sidqi’s hidden life as a Palestinian communist across Moscow, Paris, Spain, and North Africa. The conversation covers translational choices, archival mysteries, classroom origins of the project, and why the translation matters today.
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A Multifaceted Palestinian Intellectual
- Najati Sidqi embodied multiple public identities: communist, translator, anti-fascist, and cultural popularizer.
- Margaret Litvin emphasizes his range from Pushkin translator to anti-Nazi polemicist, showing his intellectual breadth.
The Smuggled Escape Into Lebanon
- Litvin recounts Sidqi and his wife's 1933 smuggling out of Palestine with Lotka veiled as a cousin.
- The scene reads humorous in the memoir but leaves readers guessing about their private feelings.
Preserve Flow, Put Context In Appendices
- Litvin avoided cluttering the translation with footnotes and instead placed context in a bibliographic essay.
- She recommends preserving the original reading experience while providing external scholarly apparatus for context.
