The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology

by Nathalie Handal

Arab women poets work within one of the oldest literary traditions in the world, yet they are virtually unknown in the West. Uniting Arab women poets from the all over the Arab World anti abroad, Nathalie Handal has put together an outstanding collection that introduces poets who write in Arabic, French, English, and Swedish, among them some of the twentieth century's most accomplished poets and today's most exciting new voices.Translated by distinguished translators and poets from around the world, The Poetry of Arab Women showcases the work of 82 poets, among them: Etel Adnan, Andre Chedid, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Fadwa Tuqan.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Middle East, Anthologies, Nonfiction, Literature, World Literature

378 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Nathalie Handal was raised in Latin America, France and the Arab world. Described as “a Renaissance figure,” Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Kumunyakaa writes, “This cosmopolitan voice belongs to the human family, and it luxuriates in crossing necessary borders.” Her most recent books include the critically acclaimed Poet in Andalucía, which Alice Walker lauds as “poems of depth and weight and the sorrowing song of longing and resolve,” and Love and Strange Horses, winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award, which The New York Times says is “a book that trembles with belonging (and longing).” Handal is the editor of the groundbreaking classic The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award, and co-editor of the W.W. Norton landmark anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond, both Academy of American Poets bestsellers. Her most recent plays have been produced at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bush Theatre and Westminster Abbey, London. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Vanity Fair, Guernica Magazine, The Guardian, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Ploughshares. Handal is a Lannan Foundation Fellow, winner of the 2011 Alejo Zuloaga Order in Literature, and Honored Finalist for the Gift of Freedom Award, among other honors. She is a professor at Columbia University and part of the Low-Residency MFA Faculty at Sierra Nevada College.

She writes the literary travel column The City and the Writer for Words without Borders.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I write the disappointments of distances

—Wafaa Lamrani
*
Jerusalem, fold me like a handkerchief
into your bosom. I am
one word in a lover's letter,

a chip of blue tile in your sky.
Even those who have never seen you
walk your streets at night.


—Lisa Suhair Majaj
*
Words flow through my fingers like stars,
pattern the sea. Vowels swim like fish.
Each dawn I cast my net,
reel in silver coils,

rinse brine from my name.

—Lisa Suhair Majaj

*
It is memories that hide you in a small bottle
until thirst fills your being
and you fall in pain drop after drop

— Houda al-Namani
*
When my soul is overrun
by the yearnings for my self,
do I find it reflected in other's eyes?
Maybe...
[...]
When we deny it
when I erase you from my being
and when you erase me.
Does myself still remain myself?

— Thurayya al-Urayyid

[Zaha Gheryania-shtewi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology that includes poets of a rare demographic, Arab women. It seems like our narrative is constantly written for us, edited and handed over, all bound and glossy...we're expected to smile and swallow it without any sugar to help it go down easy. I'm glad that Handal was able to put together this collection, it might be especially helpful for those who might not understand the brown female experience. For writers like me who fit the description, I was surprised at how similar my own work was to these women..not in skill (I have a long way to go) but in the way we spin our tales, our observations.

The only criticism I have, and I'm not sure if it could have been helped, but I wish there were more writings from countries that don't have the most celebrated literary scenes. I loved the Syrian & Iraqi poets but where were the Sudani, Libyan, or Saudi poets? I understand that this requires a bit more research and labor but I believe it would have been worth it, maybe in time. Nonetheless, a beautiful read.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

where territory is pure memory, rarefied
air, where a line is thinner than the horizon.
i encounter the demands of definitions,
the pressure of realities which i thought
weren’t my own anymore.

—etel adnan

*

i seal off the gleam of mirrors and
complete the face of my substitute.

—‘aisha arnaout

*

listen to my voice when i’m silent
see my silhouette when i move away
follow me to the place i succeed or fail to reach
[ . . . ] follow me to i don’t know where
just follow me! [ . . . ]
follow me and look deep in yourself,
i’ll disappear from here,
i’ll appear as a shooting star there.

—nada el-hage

*

he confiscates the states of narcissus.

the patrolman prepares
shackles
for the window
a lock
for the wind
and for the rest of eternity “invents”
an accusation.

—fatima mahmoud

*

words flow through my fingers like stars,
pattern the sea. vowels swim like fish.
each dawn i cast my net, reel in silver coils,

rinse the brine from my name.

—lisa suhair majaj

*

my rival in winter
damascus
and in summer
the sea.

i dreamt yesterday
that i kicked the sea
and pulled damascus by her hair
from the map.

i was walking
on the straight and narrow
when you obstructed my way...
i lost my balance
but i did
not fall.

—maram masri

*

even now i have not discovered all the stars
fanning out in the soul and body
like eloquent shining symbols.

pulled between a world that created me
and a vaporous world i wish to create,
i begin again.

the moment will come
in which i discover language,
dialect of waves.

—laila al-sa’ih

*

the sea is coming. open up the way
for the procession of the sea.
may glory be to the god of the sea.
there is no god but
that which is coming.
coming with changes: illuminations
coming in the absent present
in the present absence
in a sweeping sea of circles.

—mona saudi

[Sincerae Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good collection of poetry by Arab women writers from across North Africa, the Middle East, and the diaspora. The poetry spans most of the 20th century. To get an idea of the origins and influences of modern Arab women poetry I recommend that both the preface and especially the introduction are read.

[Malak Alrashed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty insightful. It introduced me to so many Arabic female poets whom I didn't know at all. I noticed, though, that the voices of these women sound pretty similar to one another. I think it tells us a lot of how our poetry is restricted and still not completely free.

Recommended for anyone who is interested in the history of Arabic Female Poetry. It has a good introduction of how it all started followed by lots of poems.

[Thikra · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm so impressed! arab women are so talented and i'm glad to know new arab poets to read more about there poetry

[ouijacine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stuff loving this module so much

[Raghad Al-Rifai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like this book, but as an Arab woman who wears the hijab, I find it rather uncomfortable to read in the introduction about how movements against veiling are supporting feminism, and no, the veil is not culture, it’s part of religion, as opposed to what is mentioned in the book. I think feminism would be more about the supporting of the freedom of a woman to choose her clothing without being pressured. That would’ve been better. Moreover, I found a lot of translated poems a little hard to understand. So many poems were absolutely ethereal however. My absolute favorites are “Of Woman Torn” by Suheir Hamad (page 114) and “Somnambulist” by Adele Ne Jame (page 240).

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally I think I expected more from this anthology. While its breadth of writers is huge, and definitely interesting, the quality and variety of poetry varies a lot. That said, there are some amazing writers int his collection, and given how understudied women poets are, particularly Arab women poets, this anthology breaks new ground in providing a lens into current writers for the English reading crowd.

[Josephina Kilzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as I wished it was written in its original language, Arabic, I enjoyed reading this book quite a lot. The collection of poetry is beautifully added, and the effort of translation is remarkable. Give it a read, Western world!

[lkh0ja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely anthology full of poets I'd never encountered before. I really enjoyed reading it and seeing how rich Arab poetry is.

[Caroline Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This anthology was prepared to eradicate invisibility: to provide an introduction to Arab women poets, to make visible the works of a great number of Arab women poets who are virtually unknown to the West, to make visible many Arab-American women poets who are marginalized within the American literary and ethnic scenes, and to demonstrate the wide diversity of Arab women's poetry, which extends to other languages besides Arabic and English (as in the case of Arab women poets writing in French and Swedish).”

The first 69 pages introduce the histories many Arab women share and introduce the dozens of countries included in this work.

Translated literature is important as a tool for learning empathy towards people who are different than the reader. It introduces different perspectives and experiences, that can help to understand others better. Many Arabic women have had to survive war, famine, destitution, marginalization, immigration, racism, sexism, all while balancing motherhood, sisterhood, friendships and daily life. These stories are underrepresented and important to read for these reasons alone. We need to humanize and validate the pain certain people are feeling.

However, most importantly and more specifically, translated poetry connects us to our uniquely human, yet vastly universal, experiences of joy, love, pain, family, and faith. At the heart of soul of who we are, we’re all made up of the same magic, and deserve the same opportunities at life. We are not as different as we seem.

This work will stay forever within me.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Nathalie Handal has done as an editor is revolutionary for the future of Arab identity. Handal has given Arab women as well as Arab women of the diaspora a safe place where they can all converse. In this contemporary anthology, nearly one hundred Arab women share the same space in the same language, existing geographically next to each other without barriers.

Language, while crucial to the construction of this anthology, is also a very common theme within these narratives. Whether that is a language barrier, having a language but being discouraged from speaking, or losing a language to another. Language, to these women, is power.

Another common element weaved throughout these poems is food. Food, for some, is the only part of their culture that some had access to. Foods such as zaatar, grape leaves, hommos, almonds, figs, etc. continually find their way within each poem, proving that the culture is one.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started reading to have an overview but actually loved most of the texts. So beautiful (and, sadly, very often tragic).

"Some would say your exile is not so bad
and that you are living well in freedom,
but all I see inside your eyes is sad
stories of a king without his kingdom."

Laila Halaby

Love the linebreak after sad :)

"A Palestinian woman has her heart that bleeds rose petals
in a bloodstream of tainted water
and sweats the colors black, green, white and red
through a granite skin that stretches
but never breaks"

Thurayya al-Urayyid

[Nadhira Samsudeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from a dear friend - really enjoyed reading the poetry of women, sometimes who were writing even before the advent of Islam about their desires, hopes, dreams, failures, heartbreaks. It provided a renewed understanding that our emotions and experiences are not unique and that women went through these challenges before and made it through! An uplifting read, just wish there was slightly more explanation about the poems themselves

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful collection that introduced me to a world of new artists. My main complaint is that the introduction was so long that by the time I reached the poems, I felt I lost a lot of the context and information from the introduction. I wish the information in the introduction had been broken up more through the collection, rather than given all at once in the beginning.

[Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several gems, but most importantly a deep cultural insight into Arab and diaspora women, their identities, their concerns, and their passions.

This volume is 20 years old, incidentally. I wonder what an updated anthology would be like.

[Judy :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

the most prominent pattern is this is how horribly treated all these poets are , whether by political events , or by general issues . I hope arab women will receive the peace they deserve in this lifetime

[Lorelei Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous. Had to stop turning down page corners or I would never have gotten it to close.

[Heather Forensky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not used to reading Arab poetry, but it was a decent interest to start.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Browsed through, reading occasional poems. Particularly liked Habiba Muhammadi.

[Sarah Yasin]

I don't think this is an anthology of the best and brightest pieces to choose from - some are lyrically dull and others are too politically charged. I guess that's what was en vogue to western ears at the time of publication.

[Zohra Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best anthologies of Arab women poets.

[Doann Houghton-Alico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific! Moving, poignant, revealing.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous anthology, I earmarked so many poems in here.

[Mills College Library]

892.71608 P7457 2001

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars