Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

Badr Shakir al Sayyab ( _ar. بدر شاكر السياب) (December 24 1926 - 1964) is an Iraqi and Arab poet, born in Jekor, a town south of Basra in Iraq. The eldest child of a date grower and shepherd. [ [http://www.humboldt.edu/~me2/engl240/student_projects/Al-Sayyab/sayyabbio.htm Humbolt] Biography] He graduated from the Higher teachers training college of Baghdad in 1948. [Encyclopaedia of Arabic Literature: K-Z By Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey Contributor Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey Published by Taylor & Francis, 1998 ISBN 0415185726 p 696] Badr Shakir was dismissed from his teaching post for being a member of the Iraqi communist party.

Biography

Badr Shakir al-Sayyab was one of the greatest poets in Arabic literature, whose experiments helped to change the course of modern Arabic poetry. At the end of the 1940s he launched, with Nazik al-Mala'ika, the free verse movement and gave it credibility with the many fine poems he published in the fifties. [Badr Shakir al-Sayyab and the Free Verse Movement, by Issa J. Boullata 1970 Cambridge University Press.] [Modern Arabic Literature By Paul Starkey Published by Edinburgh University Press, 2006 ISBN 0748612904 p 80] These included the famous "Rain Song," which was instrumental in drawing attention to the use of myth in poetry. He revolutionized all the elements of the poem and wrote highly involved political and social poetry, along with many personal poems. The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was greatly impressed and influenced by the poetry of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/11/poetry.israelandthepalestinians Guardian] 11 August 2008 "Mahmoud Darwish" by Peter Clark]

The publication of his third volume, "Song of Rain", in 1960 was one of the most significant events in contemporary Arabic poetry. He started his career as a Marxist, but reverted to mainstream nationalism without ever becoming fanatical. While still in his thirties, he was struck by a degenerative nervous disorder and died in poverty. He produced seven collections of poetry and several translations, which include the poetry of Louis Aragon, Nazim Hikmet, and Edith Sitwell, who, with T. S. Eliot, had a profound influence on him.Divine Inspiration: The Life of Jesus in World Poetry By Robert Atwan, George Dardess, Peggy Rosenthal Published by Oxford University Press US, 1997 ISBN 0195093518 p 177]

Poetry

* "Wilting Flowers" (أزهار ذابلة, 1947)
* "Hurricanes" (أعاصير, 1948)
* "Flowers and myths" (أزهار وأساطير, 1950)
* "Dawn of peace" (فجر السلام, 1951)
* "The Grave Digger" (Long Poem) (حفار القبور, 1952)
* "The Blind Prostitute" (المومس العمياء, 1954)
* "Weapons and Children" (الأسلحة والأطفال, 1955)
* "Rain song" (انشودة المطر, 1960)
* "Drowning Temple" (1962, المعبد الغريق)
* "Alaguenan"^? Home (1963)
* (1964, شناشيل ابنة الجلبي)

uggested reading

#Placing the Poet: Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab and Postcolonial Iraq by Terri DeYoung State University of New York Press (31 May 1998) ISBN 0791437329

footnotes

External links

* [http://www.dhfaf.com/poetry.php?name=Poetry&op=ssd&diwid=45 Badr Shakir al-Sayyab Biography]
* [http://www.dhfaf.com/poetry.php?name=Poetry&op=lsq&diwid=45 Badr Shakir al-Sayyab Poems]
* [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/682/bo6.htm al-ahram] Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab Youssef Rakha outlines the life course of a modern legend.