Angry Voices: An Anthology of the Off-beat New Egyptian PoetsA new movement is emerging in Egyptian literature--urban in its energies; cosmopolitan in its national, Arabic, and western influences; and independent and rowdy in its voice. For centuries, Arabic literature mandated traditional, unchanging, highly structured language and forms. In the 1960s and 1970s, writers rebelled to write in a variety of vernaculars. Now, young Egyptian poets are inventing new ways of writing. Rejecting both traditional Arabic formalism and the vernacular rebellion--and, contradictorily, drawing equally on these traditions and others--they radically combine and recombine influences and bring new experiences into their poetry. They embrace experimentation. Rejected at first by the literary establishment, these poets founded their own magazines, one of which appropriated a derisive term that had been used to dismiss them: Locusts. Now one of Egypt's most honored translators and writers has joined with one of those Locusts to gather a selection of this postmodern writing in one place for the first time. With its edginess and play of styles, this collection showcases a dynamic, emergent scene. |
Contents
Nightmares Fit to Arouse Misgivings | 59 |
Neutrality | 61 |
Too Many Times | 62 |
A Portrait | 63 |
A Dance with Nothing On with Nobody Around | 64 |
Thermometer of Happiness | 67 |
No Need to Discourage Dreams | 69 |
A Personal Portrait | 71 |
Untitled | 23 |
This Is How the Magician Produces a Dove out of the Hat | 26 |
There Is Music Going Down the Stairs | 28 |
We Must Be Assured That a Fine Poet Will Be Born Even after Fifteen Years | 30 |
A Morning Window | 31 |
A Relic | 32 |
Streets of Black and White | 35 |
In Front of the House | 39 |
The Mermaid | 40 |
A Village Near a Church | 41 |
Archeology | 43 |
Declining Sun | 46 |
Dust Storm | 49 |
I Considered Myself | 51 |
A Child Hunting Tales | 54 |
Nearly Three Million Years Ago | 58 |
A Good Man Talking to Himself | 72 |
The Sadder Man | 76 |
Charlie Chaplin | 79 |
The Singer | 80 |
For Heiner Muller | 82 |
Don Quixote and the Flour Mills | 86 |
Half a Lemon Half a Cigarette and Half a Desire to Have It Off | 89 |
The Devils Symbol | 90 |
I Have Five Fingers on Each Hand | 92 |
The Harem | 94 |
Troy | 96 |
Marionette | 99 |
On the Declaration of Joy | 102 |
Small Bodies That Cannot Be Heeded | 103 |
I Can Talk to Them | 105 |
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Ahmed Ahmed Shawqi Al-Kitaba al-Okhra Al-Qahirah Cairo Aliyah ancient Arabic Arab world Arab World Institute Arabic poetry beauty birds body Born café cars Charlie Chaplin chest cigarette classical Arabic collection color culture dance dead desert door dreams Egypt Egyptian Arabic eyes face father feeling fingers friends Garad Books Garad Locusts girl glass graduated hair hand happiness head heart Heiner Muller idiom kind language laughed literary living logic look lyre player magazines Mahmoud Modern Standard Arabic modernists modes of thought Mohamed Enani morning mother night Pablo Neruda Perhaps play poems poetic prose poetry Quran ransom reader real homeland rhythm round scene Shawqi shoes Shoubra sleep smile square T. S. Eliot Taf'ilah Taha things tradition translated turn variety of Arabic vernacular verse walk wall window woke woman women words young Youssef Youssri لا
Popular passages
Page xv - In the vernacular, the poem may stand a better chance of getting read, or heard. Poems in MSA are better received, especially if belonging to the kind I have described elsewhere as the "New Poetry," but the future of this "kind" is dim, and the poets are not encouraged by any promises of glory—much less of fame and fortune.
Page xxvii - Arabic tradition — at least to rhythm, if not to rhyme as well — they hold the promise of a real revival of poetry in Egypt and the Arab world.