In this brilliant book, 'Abdulwahid Lu'lu'a translates and introduces eighty poems from one of the pioneers of modern Arabic poetry, Buland Al-Haidari. Buland Al-Haidari might fairly be considered the fourth pillar holding up the dome of modern Arabic poetry. Alongside his famous contemporaries Nazik al-Mala'ika, Badre Shakir Al-Sayyab, and 'Abdulwahhab Al-Bayyati, Al-Haidari likewise made significant contributions to the development of twentieth-century Arabic poetry, including the departure from the traditional use of two-hemistich verses in favor of what has been called the Arabic "free verse" form. A few of Al-Haidari's poems have been translated into English separately, but no book-length translation of his poetry has been published until now. In Buland Al-Haidari and Modern Iraqi Poetry, 'Abdulwahid Lu'lu'a translates eighty of Al-Haidari's most important poems, giving English-speaking readers access to this rich corpus. Lu'lu'a's perceptive introduction acquaints readers with the contours of Al-Haidari's life and situates his work in the context of modern Arabic poetry. The translated pieces not only illustrate the depth of Al-Haidari's poetic imagination but also showcase the development of his style, from the youthful romanticism of his first collection Clay Throb (1946) to the detached pessimism of his Songs of the Dead City (1951). Selections are also included from his later collections Steps in Exile (1965), The Journey of Yellow Letters (1968), and Songs of the Tired Guard (1977). These poems paint a vivid picture of the literary and poetic atmosphere in Baghdad and Iraq from the mid-1940s to the close of the twentieth century.
Buland Al-?aidari (1926-1996) was a widely published Iraqi poet and literary critic. 'Abdulwa?id Lu'lu'a is professor emeritus of English literature at Philadelphia University in Amman, Jordan, and the author and translator of seventy-one books, including Listen to the Mourners: The Essential Poems of Nazik Al-Mala'ika (University of Notre Dame Press, 2021).
From Clay Throb (1947) 1. Semiramis 2. Autumn Echo 3. Whimper 4. Dreaming Silence 5. Boredom 6. Clay Throb 7. Shades 8. Closed Lips From Songs of the Dead City (1951) 9. Barrenness 10. Depths 11. Postman 12. Image 13. Three Signs 14. The Hypocritical Wound 15. At Night 16. Here You Are 17. Roads 18. Old Age 19. Dream 20. An Old Love 21. Slavery 22. O My Friend 23. Deceit 24. Lost Step 25. Loss 26. Where To From Steps in Exile (1965) 27. Secret 28. Old Image 29. Judahs' Repentance 30. You Came with the Dawn 31. Bitter Land 32. I Want To 33. Tomorrow Here 34. And Tomorrow I Return 35. He Said Something to Us 36. Return to Hiroshima 37. In a Few Hours 38. A Talk for Next Saturday 39. The Eighth Journey 40. At Forty 41. To My Town 42. Steps in Exile From The Journey of Yellow Letters (1968) 43. To a Negro from Alabama 44. Disappointment of the Man of the Past 45. Desolation 46. Genesis 47. Dreaming of Return 48. Two Faces 49. Message of the Small Man 50. The Paling Salt 51. Age of Rubber Stamps 52. I Wish If 53. Short Laugh 54. The Waiting Sails 55. Suffocation 56. Call of a Nation 57. Dream of the Snow 58. At the Crossroads 59. A Child of the First War 60. Night, Cold and Wardens 61. Journey of the Yellow Letters From Songs of the Tired Guard 62. Sleeping Pills 63. Indicted, Though Innocent 64. A Call for Stupor 65. A Dream in Four Scenes 66. Expulsion 67. The Killed Witness 68. Apology 69. Between Two Points 70. Dialogue in the Bend 71. Confessions from 1961 72. Hey... You are Indicted 73. Dialogue in Three Dimensions 74. Procession of the Seven Sins 75. Call of the Seven Sins 76. Stolen Frontiers 77. Sindbad's Eighth Journey 78. On the Verge of the Fallen World 79. Two Voices Late at Night 80. I'll Stay Here
"Long overdue, this highly competent translation fills a major gap in our understanding of Arab literary history. No Middle East studies collection will be complete without it." -Hussein N. Kadhim, author of The Poetics of Anti-Colonialism in the Arabic Qa?idah
