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Selections
Adel Khozam
Three Poems
Three Poems
DESTINY
Far away
at the edge of the earth
a man stands
and leans over to stare into his abyss
Then comes the ox of memories
and butts him into the emptiness
THE HEROISM OF A THREAD
My enemy will pass after I do
Please help him
Provide his camp with dogs and fresh dates
Open the gate of wind for his soldiers
I don’t mind
I have passed through the narrow opening
I laugh
because the one behind me is . . . an elephant
CINEMA
In the cinema there is a lot of killing
The screen is full of imaginary blood
The murderer throws his gloves into the onlooker’s faceand fear is provoked by sound effects
from a drum in a symphony of pistols
Killing
has become as necessary in the cinema
as in life
These and more poems are featured in Banipal 30.
All translated by Issa J Boullata from the author’s collection, Al-Su‘al Alladhi Yatba‘ al-Dahik [The Cough That Follows Laughter], published by Al-Intishar al-‘Arabi, Beirut, 2006.
The Cinderellas of Muscat by Huda Hamed (Banipal Books, 2025)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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