Middle East 4 ChangePoetry: Say, Gaza
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Linda Backiel He is turned, slightly,just a boy, in his own home.Say, Gaza. Someone took a photographin the ruin of what washis life. Black and white. Sharp shadows….
Poetry: Mahmoud Darwish’s tribute to Edward Said
Friday, January 21, 2022
I CANNOT quite say goodbye to Edward Said, because he remains so present among us and alive in the world. He was our conscience and our ambassador to…
Chopin or Paganini, a poem
Sunday, September 5, 2021
By Majid Naficy I ask for ChopinBut Alexa plays PaganiniWith his fast violin. She does not know that I’d likeTo sit by a qanat creekAnd watch tiny fishComing…
Two Poems of Palestine by Rafeef Ziadeh
Monday, May 17, 2021
Her poem ‘We Teach Life, Sir’ – an impassioned attack on media misrepresentation of the Palestinian cause – went viral within days of its release. We teach life,…
Three poems by Osama Esber
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Osama Esber and Lisa Wadeen Osama Esber, born in Jableh, Syria in 1963, is a widely published author of poetry and short stories, as well as a major…
Poems by Mohammad Mokhtari
Saturday, February 13, 2021
Iranian writer, poet and left-wing activist, he was an active member of the Iranian Writers Association. He was murdered during the chain of extrajudicial murders of progressive intellectuals…
Three Poem by Mehrdad Fallah
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Mehrdad Fallah comes from Northern Iran. He was born in 1960 in Fashoo Poshteh – “a small village . . . five fingers away from the Caspian”, as…
Letter from Palestinian Woman Prisoner, Khalida Jarrar
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Khalida Jarrar is a feminist, human rights activist and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She lives in Ramallah, but has been held by Israel in administrative…
The Prison Cell: poem by Mahmoud Darwish
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
It is possible…It is possible at least sometimes…It is possible especially nowTo ride a horseInside a prison cellAnd run away… It is possible for prison wallsTo disappear,For the…
Death by Stoning: Poem by Ziba Karbassi
Sunday, September 13, 2020
translated by Stephen Watts and Ziba Karbassi little morning starare you here withyour star-gaze gone?little wrenare you staying in the busheswhen you go to the skies?little silver coinare…
Poems by Forugh Farrokhzad – II
Sunday, July 26, 2020
I will greet the sun again I will greet the sun again,greet the stream that once flowed in me,the clouds that were my unfurling thoughts,the aching growth of…
The Way To The Orchard: Poem by Sohrab Sepehri
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Keep calling me! Sweet is your voice. It is the green Growing beyond the companionship of sorrow. In the scopes of this silent era I am lonelier than…
Two poems by Rabindranath Tagore
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Waiting The song I came to singremains unsung to this day.I have spent my days in stringingand in unstringing my instrument. The time has not come true,the words…
Poem by Ziba Karbassi منظومه ی ویرانی
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
آن سوتر جوانی با چهره استخوانی و ته ريش با پيرهنی جر خورده بر سه پايه ای كنار حوض شكسته سِنج ميزند سَنج دمای پريده از شيشه لب…
Poems of resistance: Pablo Neruda
Friday, May 1, 2020
“I’m Explaining A Few Things,” “and ever since then fire, gunpowder ever since, and ever since then blood Bandits with airplanes and with Moors, bandits with finger-rings and…
Two poems by Ahmad Shamlu
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Translated from Farsi by Sheida Dayani Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000) The Secret A secret was with me; I told the mountain. A secret was with me; I told the…
A Moon-Lit Night: a poem by Ahmad Shamlu
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Translated by Sheida Dayani On a Moon-Lit Night On a moon-lit night Moon is in my dream It takes me with it Alley to alley, Into the vineyards…
Four poems by Kajal Ahmad, translated from the Kurdish
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Were I a Martyr Trans. Darya Ali andAlana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse I want no flowers, no epoch of union, no dawn of disunion. I want no flowers for I…
Two poems from prison: Nazim Hekmat
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Letters From A Man In Solitary 1 I carved your name on my watchband with my fingernail. Where I am, you know, I don’t have a pearl-handled jackknife…
Narcissus Flower: a poem by Majid Nafisi
Monday, December 2, 2019
My beloved Has a Narcissus flower in mouth,Her souvenir From the prisons of Iran. I know that nightly From behind bars One can see the trace of flowers…
Revolution: a poem by Ziba Karbasi
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
The people’s hand was wounded The people’s foot The people’s back was wounded So their sky would rain stars. When their sky rained stars The people’s body was…
‘I sort of broke English’: Meet the Lebanese poet crossing boundaries
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Nashwa Gowanlock Zeina Hashem Beck sits in her living room in Dubai, wrapping vine leaves, wara’ ‘enab, over a stuffing of minced meat and rice, which she will…
Three poems from Kurdistan
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Zêdan Xelef, translated by David Shook and Bryar Bajalan Non-Broadcast News Today a fire broke out in two tents The families shouted, the children cried and ran bare-assed…
On Iraqi Playwright Yusuf al-Ani
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Celebrated Iraqi playwright and actor Yusuf al-Ani (1927-2016) is at the center of the latest issue of the Journal of Contemporary Iraq and the Arab World, which has…
What has become of my country: Said Soltanpour, poet of revolution
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Said Soltanpour, poet, playwright and director changed the pace of the revolution that toppled the Shah. It was mid October 1977. Already the voices of protest against the…
Kurdish poems in English by Cigerxwin (Sheikmous Hasan)
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Cigerxwin (“The bleeding heart”), is a pseudonym for Sheikmous Hasan. He came from north Kurdistan and was mainly known as a poet. He made a great impact on…
A Shelter (سقف): a song by Iraj Jannati Ataei
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Saghf (Persian: سقف)(Literary: Roof) is one of the most beautiful Iranian songs. It was first performed by Farhad Mehrad in the 1970s. The lyrics are composed by Iraj…
A Lover From Palestine – Poem by Mahmoud Darwish
Friday, July 26, 2019
Your eyes are a thorn in my heart Inflicting pain, yet I cherish that thorn And shield it from the wind. I sheathe it in my flesh, I…
The Learner (der Lernende): Poem by Brecht
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
First I built on sand, then I built on rock. When the rock caved inI no longer built on anything.Then I often built again On sand and rock,…