Cordial Greetings,

I have received with thanks a copy of your book “Songs of Life” which you have kindly presented to me. I congratulate you on this translation of G. G. Gench's poetry from English into Arabic.

Thank you for the scholarly and intellectual efforts you have devoted to the translation. I wish you progress and continued success.

Al-Sadiq Shaban

Minister of

Higher Education and Scientific Research and Technology , Tunisia

Dear Mr Al-Hamdi,

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book “Songs of Life” which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Best Wishes,

Yours sincerely

Councillor Richard Leese

Head of the Council,

Manchester City Council

Mr Professor Ahmed Al-Hamdi

Arabic Language Translator

Sincerest greetings and best wishes,

Thank you very much for sending me your book “Songs of Life,'' comprising seventy English poems by the poet G.G. Gench which you have translated into Arabic.

I have read the book and it is clear to me that it is of great literary merit. For this reason, I have passed it on to the Institute's library so that it can benefit from it.

With my best wishes for your success, please accept my utmost respect and appreciation.

Dr Nasser Al-Ansari

Director General of

INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE, Paris, France.

Dear Brother Ahmed Al-Hamdi, esq.

Many thanks for your book ‘song of life' which I had received with great pleasure and read with wonderful joys. I really enjoyed reading it and really showed your extraordinary ability in translating in Interpretation. All poems are written and translated fluently reflecting your ability.

I am sure this book will be very useful reference for many learners for Arabic and English.

I really and sincerely offering you my congratulations and wishing you all the best. Well done and continue this successful mission. SALAM to YOU.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Hussain Ahmed

Course Team Leader

Halton College , Widnes , United Kingdom

Date: 23/07/1424AH

His Excellency Professor/ Ahmed Al-Hamdi

May peace be upon you and the Mercy of God and His Blessings.

I have received a copy of your book “Songs of Life” and have perused it with great interest. Translating poetry is a skill for which mastery of the two languages is insufficient; it requires a fine artistic and poetic sense on the part of the translator. Thank you for this excellent present. May God grant you success and bless you.

Please accept my greeting and salutation.

Dr Abdullah H. Homeidan

Professor of Applied Linguistics

Dean of College Languages and Translation

King Saud University ,

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dear Brother Dr Ahmed Al-Hamdi, esq.

Fragrant brotherly greetings,

With gratitude and appreciation, I have received the poems “Songs of Life”. What sweet poems they are, written in a clear and fluent style. But the true originality is your splendid translation into Arabic.

I hope this book reaches the hands of learners of both Arabic and English, especially those who work in the field of translation.

I offer you my warm congratulations and wish you continued success. May a thousand blessings always be with you and may peace be upon you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Yousuf Haddad

Interpreter and Arabic Teacher

Dear Ahmed,

Tamae sent your book of translations to me at Berkeley , California (where I am until the New Year), and I have started to read them with much enjoyment.

It is a nice looking book, and it is very helpful to have the English facing the Arabic.

I wish you every success with your publications!

Charles

Professor Charles Burnett

Warburg Institute

University of London

Dear Brother Ahmed

For the past two weeks, your book was my companion during my nights. Each night when it is calm, I would spend some time with the "Songs of Life", and during these two weeks I got to know your book very well , I didn't want to give you a feed back before I had finished it .

So may I thank you for making my nights "shorter", allowing me to have some dreams while I was still awake, and giving me some new ideas, new horizons to explore in the silence of the night .

I know that translating such kind of poems isn't easy, but during my reading I realised that you managed to maintain the astonishing simplicity that the poems were written with in the original language, this kind of poetry that has its own "build in" music presents the danger of loosing this unique tune while it is been translated; nevertheless, I was enjoying each poem in Arabic as much as in English, I admit, nothing was lost during the translation.

Again dear friend, thank you for introducing me to these beautiful poems, and thank you for taking time to create this book, which has a very elegant production, by the way.

Regards
Hicham

Dr Hicham Mansour, Pediatrician and Poet, Lebanon

PS: I took the liberty of telling my groups' members about your book, I hope it is OK.
Here is the link to the mail I sent them:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fairouz/message/915

Dear Ahmed

Thank you so much for sending me a copy of Songs of Life, which I am greatly enjoying. I have been out of Prague for six weeks and just got it now, so this is the reason I am slow to write back to you.

I admire a number of the poems in the collection and, since I don't read Arabic, this is entirely to the credit of the translator. The poetry is so easy-flowing that it seems to have been written originally in English, not another language.[Note: the original text is the English text. This is unintentional misunderstanding]

I wish you the greatest success with such an interesting book.

Best regards,
Charles Charles Recknagel
Chief News Editor
Radio Free Europe, Prague

Dear Ahmed,

I was very pleased to receive your book of poems - many thanks for sending it. I have put one of your flyers on my notice-board. Congratulations on the book; it is really very attractive.

With best wishes Jean

Dr Jean Boase-Beier, Convenor,
MA in Literary Translation Department of Translation and Linguistics Studies
University of East Anglia

Dear Ahmed,

Thank you so much for the book - it arrived yesterday. The poetry is absolutely charming. I am sure it would be interesting to read the two versions in parallel, but of course I cannot do that. It was very kind of you to send me a copy. I wish you every success with it!

With best wishes,

Cate Avery , MA , MITI

German and French - English Translator

Dearest Ahmed,

Thank you very much for the lovely book of poetry. I read them all in one go. They are beautiful. It must have been very interesting translating them.

Emmanuela Copper, MITI

Italian Translator and Interpreter

Dearest Poet Gench,

Yes, I did receive the book last week. It is wonderful to see the poems published.

I showed it to my friends.

Thank you very much for your splendid present.

Daniela

I too am enjoying reading your poetry every night before I sleep.

Elena

Hello GG my friend,

I just received your book and spent the last hour or so reading each line and enjoying every thought expressed in those pages. It is a lovely volume of work. One to treasure and be proud of. Some of the poems, like the joy of the journey were so sad; I felt the pain and understood the passing of time and the loss you expressed.

The poem "Not yet" left me wondering who you had written it for. It was very pointed and thought provoking. "Parasite" made my blood runs cold. In two lines you expressed it perfectly. I am sad to say I have known a few people like this.

Now please answer this if you can, who is the Soulmate you write to and about so often?

I enjoyed the book completely. Thank you so very much

Your friend

Lauren

Dear Brother Ahmed

Yesterday I signed about 20 books. It was a new experience for me. I did not realise readers love to have a signed book. I enjoyed signing books.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Kind regards!

Guvench

Dear Ahmed

Congratulations on your translation into Arabic of the work of G.G. Gench. I regard it as a most impressive effort.

The poetry is a delightful and charming work and I very much enjoyed reading it. The translation is certainly a fine scholarly and intellectual achievement.

I wish you every success in your future work.

Dr J. Gol Mohammadi

Independent Scholar of Islamic Art