"Mansour took much of her inspiration from ancient religions and traditions, including ancient Egypt, where death is not considered to be the end of life, but rather is a transition to another reality."
Mehmet Hakkı Suçin on Translating Mahmoud Darwish into Turkish
"For instance, the Palestinian society is more familiar with references to Christianity than the Turkish society. ... So while translating Darwish's works, I brought the references to verses from the Bible or the Torah to the attention of Turkish readers."
Friday Finds: 8 by Abdul Zahra Zaki, 5 by Riyad al-Salih al-Hussein
Life is beautiful / says the sparrow / and drops dead beside the hunter’s shoe
Summer of Lock-in Lit: Poems from ‘Sparrows Are Not a Breed of Wind’
"Winter yields a Spring / Spring’s dreams are ruined by / Summer. / Summer, without farewell / cedes authority / to Autumn"
Another Road for Syrian Poetry
"The divide among poets has added a diaspora to the spatial diaspora, which scattered Syrians around the world."
Lock-in Summer of Lit: Ghareeb Iskander’s ‘A Letter to Adil’
"What can I do?/ Except stay deadly silent/ In this desert/ which dwells in a dark room."
Lock-in Literature: 4 Poems by Jan Dost
"I am the star up there that lurks shy and restless in the sky,/ silently chewing on his pale light."
Etel Adnan’s ‘Time’ Wins Best Translated Book Award
"What’s not to savor in Etal Adnan’s philosophical and precise, yet intensely moving Time, thoughtfully and beautifully translated by Sarah Riggs?"
‘Their Beauty is Absolute’
"’Tis God’s good vines / our world entwines / o’erlapping sunned & / ashen lines / [yet all be wines.]"
Lock-in Literature: ‘A Primitive Prayer for Uruk’
"Give her back her earrings, God / Return to her clay oven the fire / And the rain to her farms / And take away death which harvests her children."
Etel Adnan and Sarah Riggs Win Griffin Poetry Prize for ‘Time’
"What is astonishing here is how she manages to give weariness its own relentless energy."
Arabic Translation Challenge #2: ‘Do Not Scold Me!’
"Cure me rather with the cause of my ill…"
