{"title":"Stephen Watts","description":"Stephen Watts is a poet, translator and editor whose published works include poetry collections \u003cem\u003eGramsci \u0026amp; Caruso\u003c\/em\u003e (Bellew Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-857251-490-4) and \u003cem\u003eThe Blue Bag\u003c\/em\u003e (Aark Arts, ISBN: 978-1-899179-92-5). Current work includes co-translations of Ziba Karbassi, Meta Kusar and Adnan al-Sayegh as well as an online bibliography of 20th century poetry in English translation. Awarded a two-year Arts Council grant in 2007 for writing \u0026amp; research.","products":[{"product_id":"banipal-magazine-issue-33","title":"Banipal Magazine - Issue 33","description":"Banipal 33\u003cbr\u003eAutumn\/Winter 2008 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Let us go, you and I, on two paths: You, to a second life, promised to you by language in a reader who might survive the fall of a comet on earth. I, to a rendezvous I postponed more than once, with a death I promised a glass of red wine in a poem.”\u003c\/i\u003e — Mahmoud Darwish \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe issue opens with a major 70-page feature on the life and legacy of \u003cb\u003eMahmoud Darwish\u003c\/b\u003e. It includes articles, tributes, poems and many photographs of the great Palestinian and world poet, who passed away on Saturday 9 August following complications after major heart surgery in Houston, Texas, at the age of 67. “Darwish left behind,” writes Sinan Antoon, “an entire continent of poems whispering and singing inside Arabic and calling on us to reacquaint ourselves with its topography.” There are poems from Mahmoud Darwish’s last collection, translated by Catherine Cobham, to be published by Saqi Books next year as \u003ci\u003eIf I Were a Stone\u003c\/i\u003e, and a long poem, written earlier this year \u003ci\u003eAt the Station of a Train which Fell Off the Map\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Sinan Antoon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFellow poets, and writers from around the world contribute their feelings on his passing, including Saadi Yousef, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Denys Johnson Davies, Wole Soyinka, Mark Strand, Abdo Wazen, Kadhim Jihad Hassan, Alberto Manguel, Amjad Nasser, Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Messih, Giuseppe Goffredo, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Judith Kazantzis, Thomas Høegh, Peter Clark, Clara Janès, Gaber Asfour, Bernard Noël, Mohammed Bennis, Naomi Shihab Nye, Stephen Watts, Qassim Haddad, Saif al-Rahbi, Issa J Boullata, Taha Adnan, and Mahmoud Shukair. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe feature includes rare photographs of Mahmoud Darwish taken in the last months of his life as he worked with Arts Alliance Productions on their film project \u003ci\u003eIdentity of the Soul\u003c\/i\u003e which screened open-air shows to packed audiences in Palestine in October.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart 3 of our series on \u003cb\u003eContemporary Syrian Literature\u003c\/b\u003e opens with poems by Adonis, selected from \u003ci\u003eMihyar of Damascus: His Songs\u003c\/i\u003e, a new volume in translation from BOA Editions. There is also fiction from Fawwaz Haddad, who is long-listed for the 2008-09 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, from Khalil al-Neimi’s  intriguing novel, \u003ci\u003eIn Praise of Deserting\u003c\/i\u003e, with short stories from Ibrahim Samuel and Gladys Matar, and poems from Hussein Bin Hamza.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBanipal 33\u003c\/i\u003e includes many book reviews to whet readers’ appetites. They include \u003ci\u003eThe Butterfly’s Burden,\u003c\/i\u003e by Mahmoud Darwish, which won the 2008 Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for its translator Fady Joudah, as well as a review of his own award-winning poetry collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Earth in the Attic\u003c\/i\u003e. A sheaf of novels in translation is reviewed, including \u003ci\u003eThe Year of the Revolutionary Bread-Making Machine\u003c\/i\u003e by Hassan Daoud, \u003ci\u003eWild Mulberries\u003c\/i\u003e by Iman Humaydan Younes, \u003ci\u003eNuit de l’étranger\u003c\/i\u003e by Habib Selmi, \u003ci\u003eHakawati\u003c\/i\u003e by Rabih Almeddine, \u003ci\u003eThe Collar and the Bracelet\u003c\/i\u003e by Yahya Taher Abdullah, \u003ci\u003eGold Dust\u003c\/i\u003e by Ibrahim al-Koni, and \u003ci\u003eThe Journals of Sarab Affan\u003c\/i\u003e by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Road from Damascus\u003c\/i\u003e by Robin Yassin-Kassab, \u003ci\u003eContemporary Iraqi Fiction, An Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e by Shakir Mustafa, and Denys Johnson Davies reviews David Tresilian’s \u003ci\u003eA Brief Introduction to Modern Arabic Literature\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040827164,"sku":"1981014615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_6e26b916-b87c-4fd1-9ac1-f38fdca2278c.jpeg?v=1752237897"},{"product_id":"banipal-38-arab-american-authors","title":"Banipal 38 – Arab American Authors","description":"Banipal 38 presents over 150 pages of works of poetry, fiction and memoir by 29 writers from the USA and Canada of Arab origin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir literature is already a subject for university study and although we were wary about using such a label of “hyphenated” identification, the increasingly significant contribution to American and world literature being made by the growing numbers of Arab American authors meant it was high time to focus on their work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this issue – rich new works that are global in impact and offer fresh, sensitive and astute perspectives on the human condition in today’s difficult world. Literature expresses a country’s soul, but the writings of these Arab American authors express both a past and a future world – not one country. Theirs are voices for the 21st century, putting their stamp on multi-heritage, embracing head-on apparent cultural conundrums, voices both irreverent and responsible, deconstructing and satirising the ironies of prejudice.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBanipal 38 also celebrates the flourishing modernist poetry movement in the United Arab Emirates, with works by four of the most important voices on the UAE poetry scene, \u003cb\u003eAhmed Rashid Thani\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eNujoom Al-Ghanem\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eKhalid Albudoor\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eKhulood Al Mu’alla\u003c\/b\u003e, the latter three of whom held the first UK poetry readings of Emirati modernist poetry at the 2010 Ledbury Poetry Festival and at London’s South Bank Centre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlus two of the most talented young Arab authors today: \u003cb\u003eYoussef Rakha\u003c\/b\u003e from Cairo takes readers on a trip to the Rafah border with Gaza; \u003cb\u003eHassan Abdulrazzak\u003c\/b\u003e, author of the successful play \u003ci\u003eBaghdad Wedding\u003c\/i\u003e, with a hilariously intriguing monologue about the Israeli Wall.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePlus 27 pages of book reviews and a six-page photo-report of the recent RAWI conference.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040837032,"sku":"2206414615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_331188a6-50bb-46f0-8d91-53a93f6539d2.jpeg?v=1752237881"},{"product_id":"banipal-magazine-issue-21","title":"Banipal Magazine - Issue 21","description":"To celebrate publishing 21 issues of \u003cstrong\u003eBanipal\u003c\/strong\u003e, we invited friends, literary translators, authors, professors and journalists to share with readers their thoughts on the achievements of the magazine and its role in developing dialogue and exhange between cultures.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCover artist: Azzawi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEditorial – 21 issues of dialogue and exchange\u003cbr\u003eHoda Barakat – Chapters from Disciples of Passion\u003cbr\u003eFadhil al-Azzawi – Chapters from The Dead City\u003cbr\u003eMohammed Achaari – Eight Poems\u003cbr\u003eEmad Fouad – Two Poems\u003cbr\u003eAkram al-Katreb – A poem My Father\u003cbr\u003eVénus Khoury-Ghata – A poem The Sailors Without a Ship\u003cbr\u003eFaisal Darraj – Mamdouh Adwan and the freedom of the prolific creator\u003cbr\u003eSinan Antoon – Five Poems\u003cbr\u003eTarek Eltayeb – A Short Story The Sweetest Tea with the Most Beautiful Woman\u003cbr\u003eAmina Saïd – Five Poems\u003cbr\u003eEskandar Habache – Poem I Suffer from Autumn\u003cbr\u003eShimon Ballas – Excerpts from the novel Outcast\u003cbr\u003eAmmiel Alcalay on A Unique Chronicle of Iraqi History\u003cbr\u003eMahmood Abdel Wahab – Two Short Stories\u003cbr\u003eA Different Kind of Woman and An Exceptional Passer-by\u003cbr\u003eMahdi Issa al-Saqr on Mahmood Abdel Wahab\u003cbr\u003eFaraj Bayraqdar – Eight Poems\u003cbr\u003eMaher Menzalji – A Short Story The Grand Plan\u003cbr\u003eJalil al-Qaisi – A Short Story Zulaikha\u003cbr\u003eFadhil al-Azzawi on Jalil al-Qaisi\u003cbr\u003eHaifa Bitar – From the novel A Woman of this Modern Age\u003cbr\u003eAshur Twebi – Six Poems\u003cbr\u003eQassim Haddad – Five Poems\u003cbr\u003eGamal el-Ghitani – A Short Story The Crop\u003cbr\u003eSamuel Shimon – The Assyrian Bear, a chapter from a novel\u003cbr\u003eMohammad al-Abbas – Women Novelists in Saudi Arabia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBOOK REVIEWS\u003cbr\u003eStephen Watts She Says by Vénus Khoury-Ghata\u003cbr\u003eMaudie Bitar A Woman of this Modern Age by Haifa Bitar\u003cbr\u003eGuy Bennett A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor, poems by Maram al-Massri\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStephen Watts Poems of Mourid Barghouti A Small Sun\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMona Zaki Novel of Youssef al-Mohaimeed Traps of Scent\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLITERARY INFLUENCES\u003cbr\u003eAbbas Beydhoun The Stranger, The Outsider and the Foreigner","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040838620,"sku":"1425814615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_35befc62-72bb-4f40-be65-afa5e690ccf4.jpeg?v=1752237879"},{"product_id":"banipal-41-celebrating-adonis","title":"Banipal 41 - Celebrating Adonis","description":"\u003cb\u003eCelebrating Adonis, the first Arab writer to win Germany's prestigious Goethe prize.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBanipal 41 – Celebrating Adonis\u003c\/i\u003e is out now. Order your copy now. And, all new subscriptions, for one or two years, will receive a free recent back issue. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Celebrating ADONIS\u003cbr\u003e- Arabic writers in Sweden\u003cbr\u003e- Guest Literature: SLOVENIA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• \u003ci\u003eBanipal 41 – Celebrating Adonis\u003c\/i\u003e opens with poems by Libyan poet Ashur Etwebi and continues with fiction from four talented novelists, Rabee Jaber and Alexandra Chreiteh, both from Lebanon, Ali Bader from Iraq and Amir Tag Elsir from Sudan, all reflecting current trends in the Arabic novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• The issue's first feature, Arabic Writers in Sweden, presents works of authors who emigrated or escaped from, or had to flee Syria and Iraq and eventually settled in Sweden over the last two decades – from Syria Salim Barakat, Faraj Bayrakdar, Manhal Alsarraj, Mohammad Afif al-Hussaini and Sabri Youssef, and from Iraq Jalil Haydar, Nassif al-Nasseri and Farouq Salloum. We also include the young Swedish-Tunisian writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri who writes in Swedish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• To mark the eightieth birthday last year of the great internationally renowned Syrian poet Adonis, is the feature Celebrating Adonis with testimonies by some of the world’s most eminent literary figures, including V.S. Naipaul, Joachim Sartorius, Roger Allen and Yang Lian, the authors and critics Abdo Wazen, Hassouna Mosbahi and Hassan Najmi, plus an essay on his works in English translation by poet Stephen Watts, and an excerpt from Adonis’s latest poem 'A Concerto for Jerusalem', translated by Libyan American poet Khaled Mattawa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Developing intercultural dialogue is Banipal’s mission and \u003ci\u003eBanipal 41\u003c\/i\u003e starts a new regular Guest Literature feature. The first guest is contemporary Slovenian literature – Mojca Pišek and Gabriela Babnik introduce a selection of powerful contemporary voices that give a taste of the rich literature being written in Slovenia today – poets Primož Cucnik, Veronika Dintinjana, Katja Perat, Uroš Zupan and Jure Jacob, and fiction writers Gabriela Babni, Polona Glavan, Feri Lainscek, Vesna Lemaic, Dušan Šarotar and Jani Virk. ","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040841128,"sku":"2265014615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_a2c93ceb-1e5b-49ef-8574-2c6a1c0b3282.jpeg?v=1752237877"},{"product_id":"modern-poetry-in-translation-series-3-no2-diaspora","title":"Modern Poetry in Translation (Series 3 No.2) Diaspora","description":"Cover by Lucy Wilkinson.  Editorial by David and Helen Constantine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContents\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ca\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarmen Bugan, an essay and two poems\u003cbr\u003eYannis Ritsos, \u003ci\u003efifteen Tristichs\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by David Harsent. \u003cbr\u003eDavid Harsent, three poems from Legion . \u003cbr\u003eGoran Simic, an essay and four prose poems. \u003cbr\u003eForough Farrokhzad, four poems, translated by Gholam Reza Sami Gorgan Roodi. Marzanna Bogumila Kielar, six poems, translated by Elzbieta Wjcik-Leese.  \u003cbr\u003eLyubomir Nikolov, six poems, introduced by Clive Wilmer, translated by Miroslav Nikolov.                                                                               \u003cbr\u003eAdel Guemar, four poems, introduced and translated by Tom Cheesman and John Goodby, with a note on Hafan Books \u003cbr\u003eSandor Mrai, \u003ci\u003eFuneral Oration\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by George Gmri and Clive Wilmer                                                                                \u003cbr\u003eVersions of Ovid's Tristia,  by Paul Batchelor. \u003cbr\u003eOlivia McCannon, three poems. \u003cbr\u003eYvonne Green, three poems. \u003cbr\u003eZiba Karbassi, three poems, translated by Stephen Watts\u003cbr\u003eVolker Braun, nine poems, translated by David Constantine. \u003cbr\u003eWulf Kirsten, ten poems, translated by Stefan Tobler. \u003cbr\u003eKnut Odegaard, \u003ci\u003eTaking out the Hives\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Kenneth Steven. \u003cbr\u003eEugenio Montale, three uncollected poems, translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReviews:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBernard Adams on George Szirtes's \u003ci\u003eAgnes Nemes Nagy\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003ePaschalis Nicolaou of David Connolly's \u003ci\u003eYannis Kondos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill Stone of Antony Hasler's \u003ci\u003eGeorg Heym\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJosephine Balmer: \u003ci\u003eFurther Books Received\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExtract from the Editorial to \u003ci\u003eDiaspora\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch, though not all, in this issue has to do with what we think of as the hallmark of our age: exile, the search for asylum, the speaking of native languages abroad. But poems by Brecht - leaving Germany for Scandinavia, the Soviet Union and America in 1933 - and by Ovid - leaving Rome for the Black Sea in AD - should site our topic in a long tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe abundance and variety of material we received for Diaspora was astonishing, heartening and alarming in equal measure. What are you to feel when an Iraqi poet sends you his latest volume - in English - from New Zealand? It seemed we put out a receiver and signals came in urgently from round the globe. We took all  we could of the best and most characteristic writing, so assembling a very mixed company, from Sarajevo via Toronto, from Sofia via Baltimore, from Algiers via Swansea. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTom Cheesman contributes a note on Hafan Books. They publish, in Swansea, work by asylum seekers from Somalia, Cameroon, Chile, Sudan.  They might be set alongside the Mother Tongues issue of MPT as testimony of the packed plethora of voices in the British Isles today. We had no wish to exhaust the topic, which is literally inexhaustible, only to establish it as a fact and a constant presence. This magazine will always be listening for and will try to be a staging post for the world's diaspora.  The original application of the word 'diaspora', in the Septuagint, was to the threatened dispersal of the Jewish people: that they should be 'a diaspora in all kingdoms of the earth'. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the New Testament, the dispersal, still grievous, has a hopeful colouring too, in that those going abroad will be the carriers of a new faith. The word itself, in its roots, means 'a sowing abroad'. The two senses - exile and seeding - will be obvious in much of the work collected here.  Translation itself is an act of beneficent diaspora. It seeds the countries of the world with words from elsewhere. Poetry, even in its native country, is a more or less foreign language, a language of elsewhere. Translation sends it down the tradewinds, lands it anywhere and everywhere, as vital contraband. The translation and dispersal of poetry throughout the world sustains an old ideal of internationalism. It makes for a global solidarity against all the ideologies and globalisations that reduce humanity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoetry is an act of truthful speech, and as such, by nature and context, is intrinsically an act of opposition to the ruling packs of lies. It is subversive because essentially intractable and irreducible. Poetry can't be ordered into place. If it tried to obey, it would lose its soul. It would continue an existence like that of the living dead, whose souls go below at the very moment of betrayal, leaving their bodies to shift on earth a while longer. The Republic of Letters is, in Louis MacNeice's phrase,  'incorrigibly plural'. In its plurality it faces and opposes all fundamentalisms. And it is a republic: it concerns itself with the res publica, with what we have in common and need for our common good. Translators extend the writ of the Republic of Humane Letters.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eWhy I do not write in my native language\u003c\/i\u003e by Carmen Bugan\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople ask me so often why I do not write in Romanian that I think about it long and hard. First, I do not want to write in the language in which my family suffered interrogations, prison visits, threats of all kinds. I certainly do not want to remember all the times when we wrote to each other and burned our words: we were surveyed twenty-four hours a day for the last five years that I lived in my country and everything we said was recorded by microphones set up around the house. I hated subtexts, lies, the fear of words. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow I belong to those people who write in a learned language. And I belong to those who strive to define their responsibilities as people who were born in one country and live quite willingly in another. This might seem to many the kind of thing one 'grows out' of. But the reason why one writes in one's native language, from exile, is that the native language has beauty and truth in it. Poets write in their native language to remember the warmth of their home, the customs of their villages and towns, their happy youth. They want to recreate a sense of home, a warm cocoon around the icy experience of exile. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut my exile is my cocoon. I like it here in English more than I like remembering kids calling me 'daughter of criminal'; in my native language: that never sounded safe or good or home. When I stopped looking behind my back to see if anyone was following me to harm me, I stopped looking at writing poetry in my native language. I think the poems themselves make my choice seem less harsh or less impertinent. In my situation it is not that bad to be on the side of forgetting. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Ziba Karbassi \u003ci\u003eDeath by Stoning\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Stephen Watts\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLast night wolves were howling\u003cbr\u003eI heard their voices last night \u003cbr\u003ethey brought me your torn clothes\u003cbr\u003ethe blue shirt your auntie made you\u003cbr\u003eI wish her dear hand had been \u003cbr\u003ebroken \u003cbr\u003eyour blue shirt is red with blood\u003cbr\u003eand I cannot make out its print  \t\u003cbr\u003eor pattern \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethey said their skirts were filled with stones \u003cbr\u003etheir hands were full of stones, their skirts \u003cbr\u003eeverywhere stones were being rained down \u003cbr\u003ethe world was become a world \t\t\t\u003cbr\u003eof stone \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI wish        \u003cbr\u003eI wish                      \u003cbr\u003eI wish \u003cbr\u003eyour mother were dead \t\t\u003cbr\u003eI wish I were \u003cbr\u003eyour sister's skirts                    \u003cbr\u003eare full with blood \u003cbr\u003eyour brother is burning \u003cbr\u003ethe cradle of wood, can't you \t\t\u003cbr\u003esmell the smoke ? \u003cbr\u003elook, I am not \u003cbr\u003escared any more \u003cbr\u003ethe wolf of my fear is hunted \u003cbr\u003eby the tiger \u003cbr\u003eof my venom \u003cbr\u003eand I've become a fire monster \u003cbr\u003eif I open my mouth\u003cbr\u003ethe whole earth will \u003cbr\u003eburst \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Modern Poetry in Translation","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1041136948,"sku":"9780954536725","price":9.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_6d9a8892-4420-45be-9c2d-2bb3d2cb93e3.jpeg?v=1752237510"}],"url":"https:\/\/inpressbooks.co.uk\/collections\/stephen-watts\/hussein-bin-hamza.oembed","provider":"Inpress Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}