Two Poems by Haitham K. Al-Zubbaidi
A Helmet of Brass By Haitham K. Al-Zubbaidi Translated by Ali Layth Azeez Nothing in me betrays the clouds’ expectations except that I am so deep in aridity. Nothing in […]
Poetry
![Left to right) Khālidah Sa‘īd, Nāzik al-Malā’ikah, Fadwa Ṭūqān, and Salma Jayyusi.[1] [1] Image from Shi‘r 4, no. 1 (1960). Credit Princeton University Libraries.](https://arablit.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Left-to-right-Khalidah-Sa‘id-Nazik-al-Malaikah-Fadwa-Ṭuqan-and-Salma-Jayyusi.1-1-Image-from-Shi‘r-4-no.-1-1960.-Credit-Princeton-University-Libraries.jpg "Left to right) Khālidah Sa‘īd, Nāzik al-Malā’ikah, Fadwa Ṭūqān, and Salma Jayyusi.[1] [1] Image from Shi‘r 4, no. 1 (1960). Credit Princeton University Libraries.")
Fadwa Tuqan: ‘The Last Flower atop Memory’s Stone’
“The poem itself exemplifies a spirit—uncommon neither for the time nor for the magazine’s cohort—that struggled to break free from past delusions and memories, despite their seductive pull.”
New Poetry after Darwish: ‘In Praise of What Is No Longer Ours’
The great twentieth-century poet Mahmoud Darwish was born on this day in 1941. Today, author-translator Alaa Alqaisi shares a letter to Darwish and a poem, after Darwish’s “In Praise of the High Shadow.”
Nasser Rabah’s ‘I Was Sand’
“I Was Sand” is set to appear in Nasser Rabah’s Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, which is forthcoming from City Lights next month.
Ibrahim Nasrallah’s ‘Do You Hear Me? What Now?’
This poem, by the acclaimed Palestinian poet Ibrahim Nasrallah, was originally published in al-Quds. It asks, relentlessly, refusing to cede the present: “What now?”
From Mohamed N.M. Ali’s ‘The Call of Stillness’
These two poems, from Mohamed N.M. Ali latest collection, “نداء السكون” (The Call of Stillness), search for a self and selfhood “in the evening of oblivion.”
‘Dialogue’: A Poem by Mostafa Ibrahim
A dialogue between the present and the absent, the living and the dead. In this poem, “The world’s always / a step ahead. I caught / myself laughing two days / ago, while you, my friend, / haven’t made it / one year under / the dirt.”
New Poetry in Translation: Anas al-Ghouri’s ‘Dream-Drenched Theft’
Here, Syrian poet Anas al-Ghouri reflects back on “wish-filled pockets” and the shoes that would reclaim childhood from want.
New Poetry by Ramzi Salem: ‘A Body of Nakedness’
In this new work, by Palestinian poet Ramzi Salem, when “our habits shatter before our eyes,” there is a new vision of belonging: “these candles will become a homeland, / painting our silhouettes on the tent’s walls, / multiplying us in warmth and number.”