Death of Federico Arbós, professor, translator and poetic voice

Casa Árabe deeply regrets the death of Federico Arbós Ayuso (1946-2024), which occurred on October 13 after a life dedicated to teaching, research and translation.

A tenured professor of Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s School of Philology until his retirement in 2013, he had previously held various positions of responsibility in Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Director of the Hispanic Cultural Center of Alexandria (1969-1971), Director of the Middle East Section of the MAE (Spanish Foreign Ministry) from 1987 to 1988, Director of the Cervantes Institute of Cairo (1993-1997), of the Cervantes Institute of Casablanca (2000-2003) and of the Cervantes Institute of Rabat (2007-2012). 
 
Having authored countless articles on Arabic literature and a scholar in particular of the work of Al-Bayati, Mahmud Darwish, Mohammed Bennis and Adonis, he published Myth and Symbol in the Poetry of Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (1996), Reviews and Remembrances (2019) and The Talisman of the Hand and the Word: Three contemporary Arab poets (2024). As a translator, he focused on the work of Al-Bayati (Moon of Shiraz. The Kingdom of the Spike, 1999), Mohammed Bennis (Wine, 2015; Book of Love, 2017) and Adonis (Book of Flight and Moves through the Climates of Day and Night, 1993; Book I, 2005; This is My Name, 2006; Tree of the East, 2010; Book II, 2018. In 2012, he was awarded the National Translation Prize for his version of Epitaph for New York. Marrakesh/Fez, by Adonis.
 
He was a simple, kind man, willing to work together on anything related with promotion of the Arabic language and Arab literature, as revealed by his participation in the Congresses of Contemporary Arab Poetry in Basra and Baghdad from 1972 through 1986; the Spanish-Arabic Poetic Encounter of Sanaa, Yemen in 1990, and the organization of recitals of contemporary Arab poetry at the University Center of Toledo (1972-1973), the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1987), the Circle of Fine Arts (1991) and the Universidad Complutense (1992). His students are left with the indelible image of a professor who never hesitated to recite poetry in Arabic and Spanish with the voice of a smoker who seemed to have been educated at the finest dramatic arts school.
 
At Casa Árabe, he took part in the presentation of some of the books which he had translated into Spanish. I especially remember the presentation of the first two volumes of The Book, by Adonis and, in 2015, Wine, by Mohammed Bennís, alongside its author, Clara Janés and Antonio Gamoneda. In 2019, he took part along with Clara Janés in the homage to Adonis given at Casa Árabe, and in 2022 in the awarding to the great Syrian poet of the Círculo de Bellas Artes Gold Medal.
 
At the time of his death, he had begun the translation of Book III, by Adonis. His wife Ana told us that he had asked his doctor to live at least until he was eighty years old so that he could complete his translation.
 
Fernando García Burillo 
Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo