Full Description
No poet of the twentieth century has captured the experience of Arabic-speaking people in the modern world better than Tayseer al-Sboul. One of Jordan's most celebrated writers, educated in that country, as well as in Lebanon and Syria, he faced the dilemmas and contradictions of the Arab world during the Cold War years. Caught between tradition and modernity, he dreamed of a great Arab nation. With unflinching courage and brutal honesty, he revealed his life in poems: his family, his connection with his homeland, his rejection of tradition, his flirtation with leftist ideology, his love affairs, his politics, his experience of war and defeat, his inner struggle, his quest for truth. Through al-Sboul's poems, we understand the struggle of one Arab man to make sense of a world gone mad. Caught between the restrictions of traditional life, the cruelty of war, and the political oppression of the modern Middle East, he was determined to find his own peace, though it proved impossible. After the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict, he lost all hope and took his own life. Featuring facing-page Arabic-English translations, this volume brings al-Sboul's poetry into English for the first time.
Contents
Contents Prologue by Otaba Al-Sboul Translating Tayseer by Anthony A. Lee Introduction by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari Winter Desert Sorrows (1) The Question Winter Will Not End Ghosts of Men Moments of Wood Pantheism The Return of the Shaykh Glitter of Temptation April and the Wisdom of the Wall The Dream Desert Sorrows (2) Hello The Broken Necklace Desire of Dust The Mariner Sparrow of My Heart Secrets Three Songs for Absences Unbearable Words If... Fighting in the Desert The Absent Eagle Dust From a Sojourner A Piece of My Innocent Heart I Abandon My Homeland Andalusian Song A Gypsy My Return to Tired Comrades The Abandoned The Impossible My Chaos and Defeat Terror Elegy of the First Caravan What No One Told Us about Scheherazade Leave Taking The Old Man's Eulogy Without a Title (1) Desert Sorrows (3) Without a Title (2) The Final Shore The Journey
