Shefar’am, Israel. Lana Bahum-Nasrallah, a Waldorf teacher with an Arabic-Christian background, has translated Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul into Arabic. An account of an 18-year journey.
Shefar’am is a town in the north of Israel. It is spread out between the lower Galilean hills overlooking the Bay of Haifa, Acre, and the Mediterranean Sea. Muslims, Christians, and Druze live together in Shefar’am. This is where the first Arab Waldorf initiative in Israel began: an Arabic-language Waldorf kindergarten founded in 2004. After just three years, a first grade was established in which children from the kindergarten and the surrounding area began to learn.
The founding teacher was Lana Bahum-Nasrallah, an experienced educator with Waldorf training. The school and the kindergarten groups grew steadily, and today, there is also an upper school. From the very beginning, Nasrallah was concerned with the question of how the ideas of Waldorf education could be combined with one of the world’s largest languages and its rich cultural treasures. When translating the Calendar of the Soul, it was important to her to understand Rudolf Steiner’s intentions and to translate them into Arabic in an appropriate way. It turned out to be not so easy to translate his words from German into Arabic with its very different sentence structure. Steiner often chose very special sounds, alliterations, rhythms, and words with multiple meanings for the meditative texts of the Soul Calendar. The translation took many years.
On February 20, the time had finally come: people gathered in a community center in Shefar’am to celebrate the Arabic translation of the Soul Calendar and with it the work of more than 20 years of educational and cultural efforts. Two eurythmists moved on stage to Steiner’s words in Arabic. The mayor spoke words of support and admiration for the anthroposophical work, which he sees as a real enrichment for the town. There was a special atmosphere of joy, gratitude, and a kind of upliftment.
There is no doubt that the translation of this fundamental anthroposophical creation into Arabic is a festive event—especially at this difficult time in a conflict-ridden part of the world.
Contact 28lanasama@gmail.com
Translation Charles Cross
Image Presentation of the Arabic Soul Calendar in Shefar’am. Photo: Stefanie Allon
