An Excerpt from Fadi Azzam’s ‘Huddud’s House’
“He fell silent; it was the silence of a man staring at the phantom of nothingness; a silence that spoke the full truth.”
Ghada Alatrash
New Short Fiction from Syria: Ibrahim Samu’il’s ‘The Stench of Heavy Footsteps’
She felt her chest growing tighter and exhaled. “Are you going to lecture me? Just tell me, how and where will I see him?”
New Short Fiction from Syria: Ibrahim Samu’il’s ‘The Bathroom’
“Cautiously, we came up with a plan. We studied it from all possible angles. We considered all the odds and maneuvered a way around each one. We kept in mind the lessons learned from previous prisoners, the schedules of the guards and the timing of their shifts, as well as the distance between the prison cells and the nearest public street, taking particular note of where pedestrians were permitted to roam.”
From the ‘Mirrors’ Issue: Hilal Badr’s ‘Ash-sha’b Yurid Isqat an-Nizam’
A shout awakens me; someone is yelling, “Ash-sha’b yurid isqat an-nizam [The People want to bring down the regime].” Does anyone believe this? I don’t.
Launching the MIRRORS Issue: Recovering Their Medieval Magic
In the pieces included here, men seem more likely to link mirrors to a past, while for women they are part of an encircling present.
New in Translation: Three Poems by Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein
“I want to put a sea / in my prison cell / I want to steal all prison cells / and throw them in the sea”
New Poetry in Translation: Fadi Azzam’s ‘If You Are Syrian These Days …’
“I am from Syria, my brothers and sisters; but don’t you dare pity her, / for in her dwells enough life to reconstruct the entire world and enough graves to accommodate all of you.”
Poetry in Translation: Fadi Azzam’s ‘This Is Damascus, You Sons of Bitches’
“She has enough patience to wait for a climax with the force an earthquake, and enough shoes and slippers hanging in al-Hamidiyah market to whack fifty deserving dictators.”
1 2