‘He Tells Tales of Meroë’: Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi Releases Dual-language, Limited-edition Collection

On Thursday, Sept. 24, Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq al-Raddi will launch He Tells Tales of Meroë: Poems for the Petrie Museum:

unnamedThe dual-language collection — introduced by Professor of Egyptian Archaeology Stephen Quirke, poet-translator Sarah Maguire, and the poet himself — was inspired by the Petrie Museum’s collection of material from Meroë in Sudan.

The poems were crafted while Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi was poet-in-residence at the museum, a situation created through a partnership with the Poetry Translation Centre and funding from Arts Council England.

The collection presents eight new poems in Arabic and English which are accompanied by photographs of the objects that inspired the poems. It’s available in a limited edition of 300 numbered copes.

The event:

From 6-8pm Thursday, 24 September at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London, Malet Place, WC1E 6B.

Some of Al-Raddi’s poetry:

A Body

A Monkey at the Window

A Star

Are You the One?

Bar

Breathless

Dream

Ends

Everything

Garden Statues

Horizon

In the Company of Michelangelo

Lamps

Longing

Nothing

Only

Poem

Poem of the Nile

Prayer

Radiance

Record

Siesta

Small Fox

Some of Them Live with You

Someone

Song

Sympathy

Theatre

Throne

Totality

Weaving a World

Writing