Magazine of Modern Arab Literature
Publisher / Editor MARGARET OBANK
Assistant Editor SAMUEL SHIMON
Contributing Editors FADHIL AL-AZZAWI
A. K. EL JANABI KHALED MATTAWA AMJAD NASSER
PETER CLARK SA’ADI YOUSSEF
Consulting Editors ETEL ADNAN ROGER ALLEN MOHAMMED BENNIS SARGON BOULUS MOHAMMAD ALI FARHAT
GAMAL AL-GHITANI MARILYN HACKER ERDMUTE HELLER KHALED AL-KARAKI NAGUIB MAHFOUZ HERBERT MASON
SAIF AL-RAHBI HILMY SALEM HISHAM SHARABI YASIR SULEIMAN
Copy Editor DEBORAH HORTON
Front Cover PATRICIA MILLNS
Landscape photographs SALEH AL-AZZAZ
Address BANIPAL PO Box 22300 LONDON W13 8ZQ Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 e-mail:banipal@compuserve.com website: www.banipal.com
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ISSN: 1461-5363
Banipal takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the arts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the first systematically organised library in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Photographs not accredited have been donated by friends, photographers unknown © All material: Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
No 10/11, Spring/Summer 2001
2 Editorial 3 Feature on Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine with translations by Marilyn Hacker, Hédi Abdel-Jaouad, James Kirkup, Martin Wilmot Bennett and Nadia Benabid; tributes and discussion from Jean-Paul Michel, Jean Orizet, Abdellatif Abboubi, Pierre Joris, Samuel Shimon 25 Abdallah Laroui: Excerpt from the novel Papers with profile by Kamel Abdellatif 32 INTERVIEW with Abbas Beydhoun Writing the language of absence conducted by Camilo Gomez-Rivas 39 Etel Adnan: Further on . . . 46 Halim Barakat: Excerpt from the novel The Crane 50 Bassam Frangieh and Roger Allen: Afterword to The Crane 52 Khaled Mattawa: Poems 58 Mohammed al-Ghozzi: Poems 60 Hassan Ben Othman: Excerpt from the novel Promosport 70 Rachida el-Charni: Short stories 76 Hassouna Mosbahi: Excerpt from the novel Tarshish Hallucation 82 INTERVIEW with Tayeb Salih conducted by Mohammed Shaheen with excerpt from Season of Migration to the North 86 Habib Tengour: Poems 91 Taleb al-Refai: Short stories 96 Salima Saleh: Short stories 99 Nora Amin: Excerpt from the novel The Empty Pink Shirt 103 Iman Mersal: Poems 106 Abdel-Monem Ramadan: Poems 108 Lukman Derky: Poem 110 Ghalya al-Said: Poems 111 Buthayna al-Nasiri: A short story 113 Salah el-Moncef: Excerpt from a novel in progress 114 Suad al-Kawari: Poems 117 Seema Atalla: Poems 120 Ahmed El-Shahawy: Poems 122 Nacera Mohammedi: Poems 124 Adonis’ Collage Exhibition: Alain Jouffroy writes on the collages 126 Adonis: Poem translated by Marilyn Hacker with Vénus Khoury-Ghata
129 BOOK REVIEWS
129 Margaret Obank: Under the Naked Sky – Short Stories from the Arab World translated by Denys Johnson-Davies 130 Ignacio Cembrero: talking to Cannibales author Mahi Binebine 130 Samir el-Youssef: I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti 134 James Kirkup: Chants de la Folie de l’Etre poems by Kadhim Jihad 136 Mona Zaki: The Cairo House by Samia Serageldin 138 Books in Brief 141 EVENTS
141
London: Dialogue through Poetry 142 Paris: Franco-Arab Poetry Festival 143 Kuwait: Arab Cultural Capital 2001 144 CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS Loose insert SUBSCRIPTION FORM
BANIPAL is published three times a year – Spring, Summer and Autumn. Translators are acknowledged at the end of each piece. The source language of the work is noted only when it is not Arabic.
FREE ISSUES Nos 1 + 2 with every new subscription. SEE insert banipal Spring/Summer 2001 1
