Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Hadi Abdullah, "Critical Conditions: My Diary of the Syrian Revolution" (Doppelhouse Press, 2025)
Host: Ibrahim Fauzi
Guest: Alessandro Colombo (translator of the memoir)
Date: September 17, 2025

Overview: Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, host Ibrahim Fauzi interviews translator Alessandro Colombo about Critical Conditions: My Diary of the Syrian Revolution, a memoir by Syrian activist and journalist Hadi Abdullah, newly available in English. The conversation explores the translation process, the memoir’s unique blend of reportage and personal testimony, and how the book humanizes the Syrian revolutionary experience beyond politics, focusing instead on themes of friendship, loss, and resilience. The discussion also addresses challenges in translating culturally rich terms, the influence of shifting historical contexts (notably the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024), and the ethical and literary responsibilities that come with translating such testimony.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Framing the Memoir with Gramsci’s Lens

• [02:35] Colombo explains why he began his translator’s introduction with Gramsci’s line, “the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”
  • Colombo: “The new world that struggles to be born is the desire for something new, something people wouldn’t even dare to think, let alone talk about, before 2011…The old world is the regime whose days were numbered and that decided to fight tooth and nail for its survival. This conflict has produced the monstrosities that we’re still witnessing today.”

2. Encountering Hadi Abdullah’s Work

• [05:26] Colombo describes first hearing about Hadi in 2013 through Italian journalist Daniele Raineri’s tweet: “As long as Hadi Abdullah is still reporting… the revolution is still alive.”
  • Colombo shares the emotional impact of Hadi's social media videos, the dangers he faced (including surviving an assassination attempt in Aleppo, 2017), and the central role of friendship and loss in both memoir and real life.

3. Translating and Publishing the Memoir

• [08:25-13:52]
  • Colombo explains his personal and practical motivations for translating the memoir, finding a publisher through connections with Asma Al Ghul (Doppelhouse Press), and his wish to foreground the book’s focus on lived experience, friendship, loyalty, and human emotion:
  • Colombo: “It is not about Syria’s national memory, it’s not about being Syrian… it is about concepts and feelings that a much broader audience can relate to: friendship, loyalty, bravery.”
  • He explicitly rejects Western readers’ expectations for “juicy” political analysis, stressing the broader human lessons of the memoir.

4. Translating with an Arabic Literary Background

• [14:20] Colombo credits his literary studies (esp. translating Zakaria Tamir) with helping him appreciate language nuances and the non-journalistic, evocative aspects of Abdullah’s writing:
  • “He’s a reporter, ok, he’s not a writer. But certain choices were really amazing… There are so few hard facts…more like soft factors: how people make sense of loss, violence, displacement through storytelling.”

5. What Sets Hadi’s Memoir Apart

• [19:54]
  • Contrasts with accounts by intellectuals (Yassin al-Khattab, Samer Yazbek) or oral histories (Wendy Perlman), noting Hadi’s immediacy, lack of retrospection, and focus on friendship, grief, and survival.
  • Colombo: “It’s written in the thick of it — a chronicle of survival, of loss and solidarity as it happened.”
  • Discusses the urgency to record testimony as resistance to erasure (e.g., Hama 1982).

6. Translation Choices and Cultural Resonances

• [25:03] Colombo describes how the fall of the Assad regime (December 8, 2024) led to an expanded English edition, with ~150 new pages based on fresh WhatsApp memos from Hadi.

  • Details the difference between translating text and transcribing oral voice notes (e.g., spoken colloquial Arabic versus literary written Arabic).

• [28:41–32:28]

  • Explains the challenge of preserving the memoir’s hybrid tone (reportage, diary, poetry).
  • Reads a key fire-metaphor passage (about the spark of Daraa and collective awakening):
    • Colombo (reading Hadi): “All it would take was a little flare for a bigger blaze to spread. The events that took place in Daraa kindled the revolution’s fire and carried its flame from the furthest southern tip of the country, stirring people’s moral virtues, galvanizing their spirits and filling them with resolve.”

• [32:28–36:46]

  • Discusses difficulties translating slogans (“With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, Bashar”) that protesters subverted to honor the martyrs instead.
  • Sought to provide context in the introduction rather than use disruptive footnotes.

7. Translating Loaded Terms (e.g., ‘Martyr’ / ‘Shaheed’, ‘Ayn’ / ‘Eyes’)

• [37:23–43:31]
  • Explores cultural challenges in translating words like shaheed, which in Syrian/Palestinian context means not only religious martyr but anyone who dies “for dignity, justice, or freedom.”
  • Balance between too much explanation and letting English readers encounter these terms on their own.
  • Use of “my eyes” (Arabic: ‘ayn) as a term of endearment that signals grief and love.

8. Hadi’s Role: Nurse, Activist, Journalist, Witness

• [43:52]
  • Hadi’s multi-faceted life enriches the memoir, illustrating the revolution as shaped by ordinary people (not just generals or politicians).

9. Genre: Testimony, Journalism, or Literature?

• [45:51]
  • The memoir resists categorization: it is personal testimony, journalism, literature, manifesto.
  • “It’s all of those things—journalism, testimony, literature—and it’s none of them.”
  • Little in the way of future-looking political speculation or analysis.

10. Grassroots Media and the Historical Record

• [47:48]
  • Colombo underlines what traditional journalism misses:
  • “He humanizes it in a way that traditional journalism cannot do… The friendships formed under siege … dilemmas, even moral dilemmas in moments of crisis, the constant negotiations between survival and activism…”

11. Collaborative Process and Oral Testimony

• [51:31–57:31]
  • The third part of the memoir is based on Hadi’s spoken voice notes, which shaped a more matter-of-fact, colloquial, and immediate English register.
  • Collaborative work with editors required negotiation on how much background/context to provide for Western readers.

12. Personal Takeaways and Reflections

• [57:47]
  • For Colombo, translating the book was “the thing I’m the proudest of in my life,” both as a personal and professional accomplishment, motivated by deep respect and solidarity for Syria.
  • Reaffirms the book’s universality: “It’s not a book about Syria. It’s a book about concepts and values that anyone can relate to, regardless of culture or upbringing.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the memoir’s central theme:
  “If you’re expecting a book about the Syrian revolution, you’ll be disappointed… it is not about being Syrian. It’s about concepts and feelings that I hope a much broader audience can relate to: friendship, loyalty, bravery.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [10:55]

• On choosing Gramsci’s line:
  “The new world struggling to be born is that desire for something new, something people wouldn’t even dare to think about before 2011…The conflict has produced the monstrosities we’re still witnessing.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [03:30]

• On political expectations vs human experience:
  “I personally find the political things a bit tedious… this book humanizes the Syrian experience, and this is why I love it.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [13:13]

• On immediacy and testimony:
  “It’s not retrospective… not shaped by years of distance or exile. It’s written in the thick of it — a chronicle of survival, of loss, and solidarity, as it happened.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [23:20]

• On the challenges of translation:
  “The biggest challenge is finding a language that the English reader can relate to while preserving the spirit of the original text.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [28:54]

• On the meaning of 'martyr':
  “In Syria and Palestine… martyrdom isn’t an abstract concept. It’s personal—tied to friends, neighbors, activists… a way of preserving their memory and connecting their deaths to the broader fight for freedom.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [41:38]

• On genre and classification:
  “It’s journalism, it’s testimony, it’s literature — and it’s none of that. It’s all of these things. Yes.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [47:21]

• On the translator’s personal gain:
  “It’s probably the thing I’m proudest of in my life… showing a different side of things… it’s not just a book about Syria, it’s about concepts and values anyone can relate to.”
  — Alessandro Colombo [60:50]

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Question | |---------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:35 | Why start with Gramsci’s framing line? | | 05:04 | Colombo’s first encounter with Hadi’s work & what drew him to translate it | | 13:52 | How background in Arabic literature affected translation approach | | 19:54 | What distinguishes Hadi’s memoir from other Syrian accounts? | | 25:03 | Impact of the fall of the Assad regime on translation and expanded content | | 28:41 | Challenges in translating hybrid tones (reportage, diary, poetry); example passage | | 32:51 | Translating revolutionary slogans and chants | | 37:23 | Challenges translating deeply symbolic/cultural terms (e.g., 'shaheed,' 'ayn') | | 43:52 | Hadi’s multiple roles: nurse, activist, journalist, witness | | 45:26 | Does the memoir belong to a specific genre? | | 47:48 | What does grassroots testimony contribute to the historical record? | | 51:31 | Collaborative translation: WhatsApp voice notes and working with editors | | 57:47 | Colombo's personal takeaway as translator and supporter of the Syrian revolution |

Conclusion

This episode offers a layered, highly reflective look at how Critical Conditions embodies the lived intensity of Syria’s revolution. Through Colombo’s insights, listeners gain a deeper appreciation of how literary translation can carry not just words, but the emotional and ethical core of a singular testimony across borders. Far from being a “political book,” it emerges as an archive of emotion, friendship, loss, and the irreducible human impulse to resist erasure—making it, as both guest and host insist, truly universal.