Mu'in Tawfiq Bseiso (1926 – January 23, 1984) ( ar, معين بسيسو) was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

who lived in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, where he first entered the world of poetry. He finished his primary and secondary education in Gaza in 1948. He started publishing his work in the

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

-based magazine ''Al-Hurriya'' ( ar, الحرية) (translated: Liberty), where he published his first poems in 1946. Two years later, in 1948, he enrolled in the American University in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

and subsequently graduated in 1952. His dissertation was titled "The Spoken or Head Word in Lower Eastern Broadcast Media", discussing the borders between

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and TV on one hand and the printed newspaper media on the other. He became involved with democratic and national work early on in his life, and later dedicated himself to poetry and teaching. On January 27, 1952, he published his first work titled ''Al-Ma'raka'' ( ar, المعركة) (translated: The Battle). He published several other volumes of poetry: ''Palestine in the Heart,'' (1964), ''Trees Die Standing'' (1966). He was imprisoned in Egyptian jails in Gaza twice: 1955 to 1957 and 1959 to 1963. In one of them he met his future wife, Sahbaa al-Barbari, one of the first women communists in Gaza. He lived in exile after the Israeli conquest of the Gaza Strip in the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

. He died due to heart failure in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1984. His family was denied permission by Israel to have his remains buried in Gaza.

Significant achievements

His works have been translated into

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, French,

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, Uzbek,

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, and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. Mu'in Bseiso was awarded the Afro-Asian

Lotus Prize for Literature The Lotus Prize for Literature (also known as Lotus International Reward for Literature or The Lotus Prize for African and Asian Literature) is a literary award presented annually to African and Asian authors by the Afro-Asian Writers' Associat ...

and was the vice Editor in Chief of the Lotus magazine issued by the Afro-Asian Writers' Association. Additionally, he was the recipient of the Palestinian Dir' Al-Thawra ( ar, درع الثورة) (translated: Revolution Shield).

References

* 1926 births 1984 deaths Palestinian male poets People from Gaza City 20th-century Palestinian poets 20th-century male writers {{Palestine-poet-stub