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Translating Al-Khansa: ‘Between the Scylla of Shrillness and Melodrama, and...
By M Lynx Qualey JUNE 10, 2022 — Those who attended a translation symposium hosted by the International Network for the Study of Lyric on Thursday evening had the great pleasure of listening to...
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#WiTMonth Cover Reveal: Iman Mersal’s ‘The Threshold’
By ArabLit Staff Iman Mersal’s The Threshold, translated by Robyn Creswell, finally has a release date and a cover from FSG Books. This long-awaited collection brings together poems from Mersal’s four...
View ArticleNew Poetry: Three Poems by Rana al-Tonsi
These poems appear in Egyptian Rana al-Tonsi’s forthcoming collection “الناقص” (“Incomplete”). Translated by Sara Elkamel Final Barrenness Sometimes The sky doesn’t draw its drapes As the first long,...
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Three Translations of Asmaa Azaizeh’s ‘Dragonflies’
These three translations of Asmaa Azaizeh’s “Dragonflies” appeared in the first issue of ArabLit Quarterly, which came out in the fall of 2018. We re-run it here in celebration of Women in Translation...
View ArticleNew Poetry: Four by Aya Nabih, tr. Sara Elkamel
For Women in Translation Month (#WiTMonth), four poems, newly translated by poet-translator Sara Elkamel, by poet-translator Aya Nabih. The poems appear in Nabih’s poetry collection Exercises to...
View ArticleA Poem from ALQ: Fowziyah Abu Khalid’s ‘Wedding’
“Wedding” is one of four wedding poems by Saudi poet Fowziyah Abu Khalid, tr. Moneera Al-Ghadeer, included in the Fall 2022 issue of ArabLit Quarterly. Read more about the issue from guest editor...
View ArticleNew Poetry in Translation: ‘Love’ by Ahmed Yamani
This poem is from Yamani’s most recent collection, Farewell in a Tiny Triangle, published by Dar Almutawassit. Love By Ahmed Yamani Translated by Omar Ibrahim Love was a single blow from neither an...
View Article‘Arresting a Poem’ and Two More by Mona Kareem, tr. Sara Elkamel
Above a Floor of Lament * As he tried to finish painting her eyes The painting drowned in tears * All the carpets of kings are red And so are their costumes * He screams into his glass: Why do...
View ArticleNew Poetry from Ghassan Al-Jibai: ‘You Call It a Grave, I Call It a Flowerpot’
By Ghassan Al-Jibai Translated by Ghada Alatrash I am as you’ve always known me Arms crossed over my chest Like a stone bridge Lying on my eternal back Putting my feet up Dirt fills my mouth and eyes...
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Three Poems by Riyad Al-Saleh Al-Hussein
OCTOBER 22, 2022 — Syrian poet Riyad al-Saleh al-Hussein died on this day in 1981, at the age of 28. As Ibtihal Mahmood wrote back in 2018, his poetry remains “bold, invincible, and ‘simple like...
View ArticleNew Poetry: ‘Mind the Gap,’ a Syrian on the London Underground
By Fadi Azzam Translated by Ghada Alatrash * On the underground I sit and contemplate the ceiling. London passes over me. * The roots of trees have not yet reached my train car. The graveyards are...
View ArticleNozhet El Nofous: Selected Lyrics by Nancy Mounir
At the end of 2022, NPR named Nancy Mounir’s Nozhet El Nofous one of the “11 best experimental albums of 2022.” Reviewer Lars Gotrich writes that the album “is a conversation with the past. The...
View ArticlePoetry Revisited: Fadi Azzam’s ‘If You Are Syrian These Days …’
By Fadi Azzam Translated by Ghada Alatrash –If you are Syrian these days, you stand shielded and exposed, you are the awakening and the delusion, and the dream and the nightmare, all in one...
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New in Translation: Four Poems by Mohammad Abdelbari
Introduction by Huda Fakhreddine To read Mohammad Albdelbari is to listen to the voice as well as the silence. In his poems, sound guides, punctuates, and makes meaning, but his silences are haunted...
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For IWD: 16 Works by Women Poets Writing in Arabic
ArabLit Staff Two years ago, in response to a panel event about women’s writing in Arabic, we wrote that, “One of the greatest gaps in the translation of Arabic literature into English is the...
View ArticleMuhammad al-Maghut’s ‘Stars and Rain’
This is the first in a series of co-translations, by Nina Youkhanna and Elliott Colla, of work by the towering Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut. By Muhammad al-Maghut Translated by Nina Youkhanna and...
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The Red Suns, Purple Moons, and Gun-Carrying Mice of Syrian Poet Da’ad Haddad
By Ibtihal Rida Mahmood “Now, I could repeat the same sentence over and over for an hour, and, in the end, I still won’t be able to convey the true meaning behind it,” says a melancholic, slightly...
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Muhammad al-Maghut’s ‘Song for Bab Touma’
This is the second in a series of co-translations, by Nina Youkhanna and Elliott Colla, of work by the towering Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut. Read the first poem, ‘Stars and Rain,’ here. By Muhammad...
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‘Ode to a Burning Homeland’: Two Poems for Sudan
By Eiman Abbas El-Nour Wikimedia My niece’s wedding was supposed to take place today. My daughter’s final exams were scheduled for tomorrow morning; she and her cousin were preparing their...
View ArticleMuhammad al-Maghut’s ‘Bleak Ink Sky’
This is the third and last in a series of co-translations, by Nina Youkhanna and Elliott Colla, of work by the towering Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut. Read the first poem, ‘Stars and Rain,’ here, and...
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