Category Archives: Literature

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #16

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 16th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #16

al-Ma’qil 3/ 29/1962

My Dear Brother Mr. Jabra (Ibrahim Jabra),

Is it possible for any Iraqi to visit the beautiful Baghdad and to intentionally leave it? I will certainly try to arrange for “many visits” there in the summer beginning in June, God willing. However, this letter is devoted to business, to the story of Oxford that is long overdue, and not for chatting. The important thing is that I have a lot of new poetry that I will recite to you when we meet.

The following are my responses to the questions of Professor Hurani. I write it in Arabic so you may translate it according to how you see fit. You have the absolute right in responding as you wish:

1- Yes. I wish to study at any university other than Oxford, on the condition that I obtain an acceptance through the mediation of professor Hurani.
2- I was supposed to begin last academic year, but I postponed it until next year (next October), and I believe that it is difficult to postpone it a second time.
3- I prefer to write a thesis in the field of Arabic Studies or in Comparative Literature between Arabic and English Literature. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #16 →

An American in Baghdad

Gender and Sexuality, Humor and Satire, Literature

Editor’s Note: The Baghdad I am referring to is that of the Arabian Nights fantasy and the American is the extraordinary man of letters, Edgar Allen Poe. Among his humorous short stories is a tale called “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherezade,” archived online at http://www.online-literature.com/poe/45/. Here is a taste of the tale, but I suggest you read the whole story online.


Truth is stranger than fiction. Old saying.

HAVING had occasion, lately, in the course of some Oriental investigations, to consult the Tellmenow Isitsoornot, a work which (like the Zohar of Simeon Jochaides) is scarcely known at all, even in Europe; and which has never been quoted, to my knowledge, by any American — if we except, perhaps, the author of the “Curiosities of American Literature”; — having had occasion, I say, to turn over some pages of the first — mentioned very remarkable work, I was not a little astonished to discover that the literary world has hitherto been strangely in error respecting the fate of the vizier’s daughter, Scheherazade, as that fate is depicted in the “Arabian Nights”; and that the denouement there given, if not altogether inaccurate, as far as it goes, is at least to blame in not having gone very much farther.

For full information on this interesting topic, I must refer the inquisitive reader to the “Isitsoornot” itself, but in the meantime, I shall be pardoned for giving a summary of what I there discovered. Continue reading An American in Baghdad →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #15

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 15th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #15

Basra 3/16/1962

My Dear Brother Yusuf (al-Khal),

I miss you very much, but we will meet soon, God willing. I received a telegram from Simon Jarji in which he asks me if I can be in Beirut between the 10th and the 17th of April. He also says that the International Organization for the freedom of Culture will bear the expense of my travel and lodging. I will be in Beirut between these dates, with God’s help.

I now have “21” new poems, and I will strive to find a buyer for these poems in Beirut. I am in extreme poverty and will come to Beirut carrying only a few Dinars in my pocket. Perhaps you will be able to arrange something for me while I am in Beirut. As for waiting for a month, this is extremely difficult. I will write the “The Iraq Message” for you while I am in Beirut. All the literary news is in Baghdad…I will visit Baghdad on my way and will gather from there all the news that fits to be included in the “Message.” Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #15 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #14

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 14th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #14

Basra 12/18/1961

My Dear Brother, Abdel Karim (al-Na’im),

I see you blaming me for the disruption of correspondence between us. However, I was the last one to send you a letter right before my departure for Italy………….. [paragraph omitted]…..

The Arabic Literature Conference in Rome was extremely successful. We have succeeded in making the West understand that the Arab writer today stands among the first rate writers of the world. Some voices were raised in an attempt to undermine the value of Islam and the Arabic literary heritage. However, we silenced these voices. Moreover, all the Orientalists, who have been more zealous about our cause than the protégés of Arabic literature, have supported Arabism and Arabic literature. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #14 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #13

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the 13th in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #13

Basra 7/13/1961

My Dear Brother Abdel Karim (al-Na’im),

I send you an Arab greeting.

It was good of you to write to me again especially after I lost, along with a number of papers and poems, your previous letter in which you mentioned your new address.

Regarding the campaign of “al-Adaab” against me, let me explain. About two years ago, Suheil Idris requested my approval to let Dar al-Adaab publish my poetry collection. I promised they could, and he was waiting for me to send him the drafts. However, I had no drafts except the poems that had been previously published in the journals “al-Adaab” and “Shi’r,” etc. Then the “Shi’r” journal volunteered to search for my poems and collect them. In the meantime, my collection, “Hymn of the Rain,” was published. All of this together with my decision to cease publishing in al-Adaab and limit my publishing only to “Shi’r” angered Suheil Idris. Furthermore, it is clear that Mr. (Elie Hawi) wanted – in his criticism – to prove that his brother, Khalil Hawi, was a better poet than I. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #13 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #12

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the twelfth in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #12

Baghdad 3/12/1960

My Dear Beloved, Adunis,

Your letter arrived a long time ago. I would have responded to it before now had it not been for the mid-year examinations and the numerous corrections of notebooks that accompany it. I work now as a lecturer and not as an employee in the secondary schools due to the dire need for English teachers. I am one of them.

It is kind of you to remember your brother who loves you immensely and who respects you greatly both as a person and a poet.

I am still of the same opinion concerning my trip to Lebanon. It will take place during the summer, God willing. Would I succeed in finding a job sufficient to sustain me, my wife and my child? I do not know. However, I am prepared to teach even if that is my least desirable wish. Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab: #12 →

The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab:#11

Iraq, Literature, Poetry


The Iraqi Poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

[Note: This is the eleventh in a series of translations of selected letters of the noted Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. For more information on the poet, click here.]

Letter #11

My Dear Adunis, (1)

First of all, I hope you will forgive me for writing to you on this kind of paper. It is all I have in the house right now since I have just returned from night school. Perhaps you will now understand the reason why I have been tardy in responding to your letter. Working day and night does not give me any time to write.

I received the final version of your poem. I notice that you have paid attention to what I wanted to alert you to concerning the earlier version of the poem: namely, the excess use of rhymed paragraphs among those that are written in prose. Your poem that was published in the latest issue of “Shi’r” was more successful in this regard. Haven’t you seen how the versifiers have exploited free verse? Continue reading The Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab:#11 →

Cannons of the Past

Ethics, Literature, Syria


Woman and a Fish, Asma al Fayoumi, Syria 1993

by Najeeb Nusair. Translated by Christa Salamandra and Suhail Shadoud
from Artenews, October, 2007

However much we moan and groan, however much we lament, reminisce, mull over, write, dig up, represent, glorify, venerate—even if we use the entire vocabulary of literature and science to conjure it up, the past will not return. Even if we cry, kick the ground with our feet like temperamental children, beg people, societies and nations, even if we consult scholars, historians, doctors, and feminists… the past will not return.

Instinctively we remember, as we practice our everyday cultural life, lavishly praising the past, and seeking to retrieve it in any possible way. But the past is within us; it has not and will not leave us. Asking for it to return is asking for what has fallen away, is gone, because it no longer works and has expired. The past is a gigantic mass, some of which is relatively good, and remains within us, and much of which time has consumed and flung aside, like lines in an arcane, long forgotten book. Continue reading Cannons of the Past →