On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani (Poetry Series)
This volume presents a generous selection of the work of an important poet in Arabic to the English-speaking world… Qabbani's poems of exile and elegy ("Um Al-Mu'taz," "A Lesson in Drawing") are especially deeply felt, and he is a poet of subtle intelligence. For most poetry or world literature collections. Graham Christian, Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, Mass.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Library JournalQabbani, reputed to be the most popular poet in the Arab world, is certainly one of the greatest love poets of all time, as he follows the noble path of Kahlil Gibran. Although wonderfully prolific and internationally renowned, Damascus-born Qabbani has been all but unavailable in English translations in the U.S. This beautiful collection rectifies that situation. The volume's introduction asserts that Qabbani is a heroic champion of women's rights who, by equating beauty and eroticism with liberty and justice, and celebrating women in all their strength and glory, challenges in his poetry his culture's cruel repression of women. In his classically passionate poems, poems as bright as flowers and as caressing as a pool of water, Qabbani declares that to be female is to be holy. This is a sweet message for any woman, but especially for Arabian women, who are viewed as the property of their male relatives. Whether he's writing of love or war, Qabbani achieves a mythic dimension. Donna Seaman --Booklist