When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945-1987 2nd ed

Bob Lincoln is Director of Acquisitions at the University of Manitoba
Libraries.

Originally published in 1988, this book remains, as described by Amin
Malak in Canadian Literature, “a solid scholarly work of
translation.” A 79-page introduction, with bibliographical notes,
introduces readers to the Classical tradition in Arabic poetry written
before 1945. In the actual anthology, each poet’s work is prefaced
with a short biographical and textual brief. The translations are
described by Malak as being “quite sensitively rendered” while
preserving each poet’s unique voice and style. The anthology ends with
a reference list of names and places and a wide-ranging bibliography of
works in Arabic and English.

Asfour’s intention in this anthology is to give the English reader a
panoramic view of the conflict between the poet and the
environment—which gives rise to the poetry—by describing the
poet’s situation in contemporary Arabic society. Themes in this
collection are not only specific to each poet, but to the political,
religious, and cultural realities of the Arabic world today.

Asfour divides the poems into two broad groups: poetry written in the
style of the Tammuzi group, which favored free verse and was influenced
by modern European and American sensibilities of meter and rhyme; and
poetry of the Palestinian resistance struggle, which is more
cosmopolitan. Asfour’s introduction describes how the entrenched rules
of harmony and metrics were revised and enhanced by the more relaxed
approach of modern Arabaic poets. His discussion of accent and metre is
detailed without being pedantic, and he is quick to bring the reader
back to the immediate focus of many poems, a cknowledging that style is
only part of the story. The poets here have moved from a fixation on
form to an examination of history and events.

In choosing to end the anthology with poets of the Palestinian
resistance, Asfour has added a particularly poignant twist to When the
Words Burn. Many of the poets have moved beyond traditional poetic
forms, but the passion and hope they express is timeless.