The Long Timeline in Aesthetic Relations: On Working with Abdilatif Abdalla’s Sauti Ya Dhiki (“Voice of Agony”)

Abstract

While explorations of aesthetic experience often center on a moment of encounter, aesthetic experience not infrequently unfolds over time, sometimes over extended periods. This discussion begins by identifying translation as a form of aesthetic relating and then reflects on the experience of aesthetic relating over time through examination of the author’s experience working with the Swahili poetry collection Sauti ya Dhiki (in English, Voice of Agony) by the Kenyan author Abdilatif Abdalla, a book that was translated by Ken Walibora Waliaula in an edition edited by the author. The discussion posits that aesthetic relating over an extended timeline, and in collaboration with others, generates distinctive forms of knowledge.