Song for Bassam Saba
This poem originally appeared in our 2021 SONG issue of ArabLit Quarterly.
Poetry
The Red Suns, Purple Moons, and Gun-Carrying Mice of Syrian Poet Da’ad Haddad
“In her poetry world, the sun is red. The moon is purple. Snow is ubiquitous. Winter is eternal.”
Poems of Whiskey and Regret by Rasha Omran
These poems, translated by Phoebe Carter, are from Rasha Omran’s sixth collection, “A Secret Wife of Absence.”
New Poetry in Translation: Sayed Abolela’s ‘Cinema’
This poem is from a forthcoming collection, مصمم معارك, to be published by the General Egyptian Book Organization.
In Memory: ‘Oh Stones Cloaked in Grief’
In memory of the July 2025 massacres in Sweida, Syria.
A Football Chant for Egypt
In celebration of the World Cup, a football chant from Egypt.
Three Poems from Gaza
“I pace this room alone, / fingertips brushing the wall, / memorizing each mark, each echo.”
Three New Poems by Maysara Salah El-Din
“Once, I became / A cloud / To gain / Flight experience / And twice / I became / A brick / To gain / Experience in falling.”
Five Poems by May Ziadeh
“sometimes my soul is wild, / an egret flying far / beyond the ocean’s edge, // and sometimes I curl up, / tender as an anemone when touched, / as salty and as damp.”