Iman Mersal on Saniya Salih
This is a translation of Iman Mersal’s article on Saniya Salih, published by Al Akhbar in August 2015 and available here. . . One of us comes out from the other . I did not find Saniya Saleh in Cairo....
View ArticleThe Brimming Sea
A translation of the opening poem of Ibn Arabi’s Diwan, which has already appeared on Youssef Rakha’s site, here, with a link there to the Arabic. j j The Brimming Sea h Then the secret was there in my...
View Articleif You please
A very small extract from Nael Eltoukhy’s latest novel-in-process-of-being-published-but-not-published, الخروج من البلاعة (Out of the Gutter). . . At the Sayyida Mosque, Hind suggested they go in. She...
View ArticleA poem by Yasser Abdellatif
An unpublished poem by Yasser Abdellatif entitled زيارة أخرى إلى برج السراب n n Another trip to the tower Mirage n She lives on the twelfth floor where there lives too her wise fleet fingers her grey...
View ArticleA short poem
A short poem by Youssef Rakha. The Arabic should be here. . . Oratory . this then was what we had: for fear of eloquence we fell often over words and our punishment night and day was to be addressed by...
View ArticleI wish I knew
The first poem, ليت شعري هل دروا, from Ibn Arabi’s ترجمان الأشواق . . I wish I knew they knew what heart they held. That my heart knew what pass they tread. You wonder Are they safe? Or perished? . The...
View ArticleThe Translator’s Soliloquy
A translation of a poem by Ahmed Shafie, حديث المترجم لنفسه . . Nothing asked of you this instant but this sentence. The next instant the next sentence. . You pull a farflung carpet on whose farthest...
View ArticleShipping traffic
Translation of a new poem by Youssef Rakha, which is in Arabic (text and sound file) here. . . The grey ships come from the north, The snow-white ships come from the pole, The ships of the south are...
View ArticleAl Hallaj
An excerpt from the opening of Act One, Scene two, of Salah Abdel Sabour’s verse play مأساة الحلاج, [The Tragedy of Al Hallaj]. The house of Hallaj. Hallaj and his friend Shibli are talking. Both are...
View ArticleSociety
A poem by Mohab Nasr, which can be found here, on the Sultan’s Seal. Other new poems by Mohab Nasr are here. . . Society. Brother, I don’t know what to make of this word, though I cross the distance...
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