” Jaziri wrote poetry with one set of alphabets which at that time were used in four languages: Kurdish, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Sometimes, he used the four languages in one couplet. His poems are still recited and sung by Kurds. That coexistence of languages was quite natural, the alluring music was convincing, although I sometimes understood almost nothing.”
By AJ Naddaff It’s been quite the hiatus since my last piece — but I’m pleased to return with three great interviews featuring important actors in the Arabic to English […]
“But I was able to find out that some early issues of that magazine did receive funding from the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and that was unexpected.”
A spider thread / fastens your heart / to the book of flesh.
Palestinian poet and memoirist Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003) — whose acclaimed autobiography, A Mountainous Journey, was translated to English by Olive E. Kenny and Naomi Shihab Nye — was born on this day in 1917.
“In the early morning hours of June 12, the great Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef died at his home in the village of Harefield, outside London.”
“I think poetry transcends time. A genuinely poetic approach to the study of poetry is one that breaks itself from historicism.”
By Essayed Taha To mark Women in Translation Month, we asked 12 Arab women authors to recommend readings by other Arab women that they have enjoyed and admired. The result […]
“Saadi Youssef, in his introduction to the translation of Song of Myself, criticizes those who described Whitman as a “Sufi” poet, but he uses mystic language in his translation of Whitman’s masterpiece. It’s fascinating how a text was read and transformed into different forms and styles.”
