Tributes paid to renowned Arabic literature translator Denys Johnson-Davies

Writers and translators across the world are paying tribute to Denys Johnson-Davies, known for his major contributions to Arabic literature in translation, after he passed away in Cairo on Monday.

"We are all very sad to hear of his death yesterday," said Nigel Fletcher-Jones, the director of the American University in Cairo Press, which published many of the late translator's works.

"That many of you outside the Middle East have had the chance to read Naguib Mahfouz (and others) at all is due almost entirely to the pioneering efforts made by Denys to translate novels from Arabic. He will be greatly missed."

Marcia Lynx Qualey, who runs Arablit, a leading blog on Arabic literature in translation, said she was "crushed at the loss of Denys Johnson-Davies".

"It will be one of my great regrets that I never fully & rightly expressed my appreciation of all your contributions," she said in a Facebook post addressing Davies.

"I am so sorry to see you leave us, but thank you for your generosity of spirit, the breadth of your enthusiasm, for digging in your heels and helping create a corpus of modern Arabic literature in translation, even when you might've liked to be celebrated for your own writing."

Khaled Mansour, who interviewed Davies in 1991, said he was "mesmerised by his knowledge and humility".

"His works will stay with us forever," he added.

Jordanian poet Amjad Nasser also paid tribute to the late translator, sharing old photos of them together.

"We have lost a great man and a great bridge between cultures," he said.

A life in translation

Davies, who was turning 95 next month, was born in Canada in 1922. He spent his childhood between Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and England.

He settled in Cairo in the 1940s, and in the 1960s, he launch Aswat, an influential Arabic literary magazine.

By 1967, he had put together the first volume of modern short stories from the Arab world.

He is most known for translating the works of Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz into English, as well as Yusuf Idris, Sudanese novelist Tayeb Saleh, and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, among others.

In 2006, Mahfouz said he had "known and admire" Davies since 1945, and that he was the first person to translate his work.

"[Davies] has done more than anybody to translate modern Arabic fiction into English and promote it."

For his own work, Davies wrote over 40 books for children in English, all inspired by the literary classics and stories from the Arab World. He published his collection of short stories in 1999.

In 2006, he published his memoirs, Memories of a Life in Translation: A Life Between the Lines of Arabic Literature, where he focused on his journey in the literary translation.

The memoir touches on many figures of contemporary Arabic literature, with dozens of entertaining anecdotes and observations about twentieth century Arabic literature.

His last work was Homecoming: Sixty Years of Egyptian Short Stories (2012).

In 2007, he received the prestigious prize "Culture Personality of the Year" by Sheikh Zayed Book Awards.