Al-Bayati: ‘When I Met al-Sayyab in 1947’
“His illusions, his distant dreams, and his winged fantasies seemed to flutter quietly with emotion and land on his poems, leaving their enchanting colorful feathers on them.”
Iraq
‘Born on the Wrong Side of the Border’
“Why was I sitting here, wearing this uniform, with these people whose language I hardly understood?”
‘When Darkness Falls’: On the Shortened, Brilliant Life of Iraqi Author Hayat Sharara
“The word eib rings in my head, it is eib to love, to sing, to get sick, to divorce, to show your emotions…and.…and. I felt these social chains were burdening me with fear, despair, and confusion, and I almost abandoned work on the book, but when I looked at the materials that I had collected, I knew that if I didn’t publish it now, it would never be published.”
From Abdullah al-Sakhi’s ‘Pathways of Loss’
“That day, Ali Salman went to watch the first public execution in al-Thawra City.”
On Iraqi Poetry
For the next few months, ArabLit will be running a series of interviews and essays on Iraqi poetry: with poets, critics, translators, and others. August 1: Basim al-Ansar: ‘Poetry Is […]