Elmaabdi

Elarbi El Maabdi (Arabic:المعبدي العربي ) b. 15 09 1949 is a self-taught writer and translator, born and raised in rural Fes (Arabic: فاس ) region, Morocco.

Early years

After some years of Koranic school he got access to regular bilingual Arabic / French school. He completed high school at the Lycée Karia Mohamed in the Fes region. Later he made a three-year vocational education at the Tangiers Hotel Management. This school provided English and German in addition to Arabic and French in the studying program. In 1970, Elarbi and twelve colleagues were sent to Scotland to learn the English language and training in hotel management. After a while he set course for Paris, where he lived for a year and worked in the advertising and restaurant business. In 1972 he traveled with three other friends to Norway and started to work on Hovden High Mountain Hotel, where he ended up as headwaiter at Doctor Holms in Geilo. He served here for five years. In 1987 he moved from the mountains and settled in Hunndalen at Gjøvik, where he still holds office.

Literary work

Elarbi has always been interested in Arabic literature, Western languages and philosophy. He began to write and translate from Norwegian to Arabic, English and French in 1994. He has written and translated a number of novels and poetry collections from Arabic to Norwegian: Poetry Collection ”Tidsaldre og drøm” (Time Ages and Dreams) of the exiled poet and Iraqi Mustafa M. Gharib, published by Cappelen Publishing - Oslo in 2003. Poetry Collection "Over Atlas kollen" (Over Atlas hill) by the Moroccan poet Abdussalam Zitouni in 2004, an autobiographical novel by renowned Syrian author Hanna Mina called “Bilder fra en barndom” (Pictures of a childhood), published by Solum Publisher - Oslo in 2005. He later translated the novel "The Last Star" in 2006, also by writer and poet Mustafa M Gharib. The novel is about the current refugees from the Middle East to Western Europe. He translated the poetry collection " Blodbadet” (Blood bath) of the Palestinian exile poet and diplomat Dr. Shawqi al-Omari. Al-Omari wrote the poem in connection with the bloody Israeli attack on Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Tunisia 1 October 1985, where 73 people were killed. The poet was witness to the bombardment, but miraculously he was left unharmed. Elarbi also wrote about his childhood in Morocco in the annually book for Gjøvik No. 21, 2005, and wrote the book "Arabisk litteratur- og kulturhistorie” (Arabic literature and culture history) which consists of 766p. The author has spent 6 years in this project, and this work should be released during the year 2012.