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
Poetry
Friday Finds: ‘I Sleep in My Inkwell and Wave to the Distant’
“of footfalls that never return / from the checkpoint / which only sends back bodies;”
Teaching with Arabic Literature in Translation: ‘Djinn Stories: Poetry, Madness, and Memory’
“Djinn, however, are a different kind of supernatural entity. Unlike ghosts, they are not remnants of a past that we presume dead, but live lives parallel to ours.”
Teaching with Arabic Literature in Translation: Seminars in Poetry and the Free Verse Movement
“Other labels we pick apart are ‘Literature of Resistance’ and ‘Poets of the South in Lebanon’ as examples of this labeling process that is motivated by extra-literary imperatives.”
Syrian Poet and Actor Fadwa Souleiman, 45
“For if you have crossed
So have we all”
‘Talking Forever’: A Poem for Dareen Tatour by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Dareen, trapped in her house for using the word “Resist” – she was there
and we were everywhere else. “
Ashraf Fayadh’s Death Sentence Repealed; New Ruling Sentences Poet to 8 Years, 800 Lashes
“The higher court reversed the previous death-sentence ruling and replaced it with eight years, eight hundred lashes, and public repentance. “
In Spanish Translation, Ashraf Fayadh’s ‘Los últimos descendientes de los Refugiados’
“Provocas indigestión al mundo, entre otras cosas.
No obligues a la Tierra a vomitarte,
y permanece cerca de ella, muy cerca.”
In Finnish Translation, Ašraf Fayyad’s ‘Pakolaisten Viimeinen Jälkeläinen’
“Pakolaisuus on sitä, että seisoo jonon hännillä
jos vaikka saisi kotimaankannikan
Jonotus on sitä, mitä isoisäsi teki – syytä koskaan tietämättä!”