Magazine of Modern
Arab Literature
Publisher / Editor MARGARET OBANK
Assistant Editor SAMUEL SHIMON
Consultant Editors ERDMUTE HELLER HISHAM SHARABI
PETER CLARK MOHAMMAD ALI FARHAT
SAIF AL-RAHBI SARGON BOULUS KHALED MATTAWA
Copy Editor DEBORAH HORTON
Covers KACIMI
Drawings YOUSIF NASER
Address BANIPAL PO Box 22300 LONDON W13 8ZQ Tel: +44 181 568 9747 Fax: +44 181 568 8509 e-mail:banipal@compuserve.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 5, Summer 1999
2 EDITORIAL 3 OUNSI EL HAGE: The Messenger with hair long to the springs
(part 1) with appreciation by A K el-Janabi 9 BADR SHAKIR AL-SAYYAB: poems with appreciation by Fadhel Sultani 11 NIZAR QABBANI: poem with review by Stephen Watts of Arabian Love Poems 15 SARGON BOULUS: poem 16 INTERVIEW WITH GHAZI ALGOSAIBI 20 feature on MOROCCAN LITERATURE
21 MohAMMed Bennis: poems with appreciation by Subhi Hadidi 25 MohAMMed ZefZAf: short story 29 MAhMoud ABdeL GhAni: poem 30 WAssAt MuBArAk: poems 31 AhMed BouZfour: two short stories 34 driss MALiAni: poem 35 idriss eL-khouri: short story and comment 38 hAssAn nAjMi: poems 40 iZZ AL-din AL-tAZi: short story 42 ABd eddin hAMrouch: poem 43 ABdeLkAriM AL-tABBAL: poems 44 WAfA’A LAMrAni: poems 46 MonA ZAki reviews Driss Chraïbi’s Muhammad 48 ABduLMAjid Ben jALLoun: excerpt from In my Childhood 49 jALAL hAkMAoui: poem 50 ABduLiLAh sALhi: poems 51 AhMed BArAkAt: poems 52 jAMes kirkuP introduces Mostafa Nissabouri 53 MostAfA nissABouri: poems 56 kAciMi 57 intervieW With MohAMed choukri 61 SALAH STETIé: short story 63 ELIAS KHOURY: excerpt from Bab al-shams 71 ABDULLAH TAEZI: short story 74 WACINI LARADj: excerpt from sayedat al-Maqam 77 ISSA j BOULLATA: short story 79 FATIMA MAHMOUD: poems 81 jALIL HAIDAR: poems 82 MOHjA KAHF: poems 83 HAZIM SAGHIEH: comment 84 REVIEWS
84 Samir el-Youssef: Men in the sun 85 Peter Clark: return to childhood 86 Lorraine Pounds: unreal city 88 Margaret Obank: dear Mr kawabata 90 Hartmut Fähndrich: outremer 91 Margaret Obank: Grandfather’s tale &
the house on Arnus square
93 EVENTS
93 Mémoires de la Méditerranée Writers’ Forum 94 Poetry Conference, Fez, Morocco 95 Palestine Day at Oxford
Make sure you don’t miss an issue of BANIPAL by taking out a subscription. There’s a discount for a two-year subscription – see advertisement on page 95
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