The East meets (or narrates) the West.
Badr Shakir Al-Sayab selects and translates a collection of poems by world-renowned international poets such as T.S. Elliot, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Arturo M. Giovannitti.
If there were Arabic-speaking aliens who love multi-national poetry, then this would be the perfect book to send to outer space. However, it still is not something I'd enjoy.
Modern poetry is too abstract for my liking. Sometimes, I enjoy the work of Iraqi free prose poets like Badr Shakir Al-Sayab, Mudhafar Al-Nawab, Ahmed Matar, Nazik Al-Malaika, and others, because I can relate to the imagery they use, especially when it's inspired by Iraq.
However, such a connection was naturally lacking in this book. And I had a hard time following up.
So this is not a literary review; it's simply a reflection of my thoughts while reading the book.