Download Without An Alphabet, Without A Face: Selected Poems Published By Saadi Youssef Released As Text

that what you wished To be aloneturning your eyes waiting for the mailas if the pages of the letters were wavesthat would carryyour tired heart away I name you and your absence I pronounce you in thelanguidness of slippery moments But what youve come to now is not what you wereNothing is left for meNothing left for me except a shade Lets stay with this strange eveningand lets say youre its only lightWhich of us reached for closenessWhich of us is deliberating with desireWhich of us holds in his palmsanything but dead embersEven the solitude of remembrance failed us Haunting Beauty from a Master PoetLike a modern troubadour the celebrated Irai poet Saadi Youssef has lived in wandering exile from his homeland for than thirty years This selection of his lyrical lucid and accessible poems translated into vivid English by Khalded Mattawa brims with love sorrow and beauty Saadi Youssef's collection of poetry tells the story of his exile from Ira Rich yet pointed and precise This Ira will reach the ends of the graveyardIt will bury its sons in open countrygeneration after generationand it will forgive its despotIt will not be the Ira that once held the namefrom A VisionLiving his life in exilea series of forced departures from numerous countriesIrai poet Saadi Youssef also writes outside the long standing forms of traditional Arabic poetry In the words of Salma Khadra a critic of Arabic poetry Youssef's poetry abounds with the sights smells colors and movement

of life around him depicting scenes of great familiarity and intimacy This is a great achievement in the face of the rage and fury and technical complexities of much of the other poetry written by his contemporaries Beautifully translated by Khaled Mattawa Graywolf is proud to present Without an Alphabet Without a Face to the United States A very fine Irai poet from a land of poets Saadi Youssef was born inin Ira and is considered one of the most important contemporary poets in the Arab world Following his experience as a political prisoner in Ira he has spent most of his life in exile working as a journalist throughout North Africa and the Middle East He now lives in London where he is also a leading translator of English literature into ArabicSaadi Yousef stu.