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Abu Al-Khaseeb Abu Al-Khaseeb (sometimes spelled Abu Al-Khasib) is a town in Abu Al-Khaseeb District, Basra Governorate, southern Iraq. Its name means "The rich area - agricultural", referring to the fertile Shatt Al-Arab river. It is an agricultural town, well ...

, Iraq , death_date = , death_place = London, England , resting_place = , occupation = , language =

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

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Badr Shakir al-Sayyab Badr Shakir al Sayyab ( ar, بدر شاكر السياب) (December 24, 1926 in Jaykur, near Basra – December 24, 1964 in Kuwait) was a leading Iraqi poet, well known throughout the Arab world and one of the most influential Arab poets of all ti ...

Shathel Taqa Shathel Taqa, (in Arabic:شاذل طاقة 28 April 1929 – 20 October 1974), an Iraqi poet, diplomat and politician. He is one of the pioneer founders of the School of Modern Arabic Poetry, which emerged in Iraq in the late 1940s and early 19 ...

, Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati , notableworks = , spouse = , partner = , children = , relatives = , awards = Al Owais Prize , signature = , signature_alt = , years_active = , module = , website = , portaldisp = Saadi Youssef ( ar, سعدي يوسف) (1934 – 13 June 2021) was an Iraqi author, poet, journalist, publisher, and political activist. He published thirty volumes of poetry in addition to seven books of prose.

Life

Saadi Youssef studied Arabic literature in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. He was influenced by the

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

and Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati and was also involved in politics from an early age. At that time, his work was heavily influenced by his

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and

pan-Arab Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

sympathies but has since also taken a more introspective, lyrical turn. He has also translated many well-known writers into Arabic, including

Oktay Rifat Oktay is a Turkish masculine given name. It is also used as a surname. Notable people with the name are as follows: First name *Oktay Afandiyev (1926–2013), Azerbaijani historian * Oktay Delibalta (born 1985), Turkish football player *Oktay Dere ...

Melih Cevdet Anday Melih Cevdet Anday (13 March 1915 – 28 November 2002) was a Turkish writer whose poetry stands outside the traditional literary movements. He also wrote in many other genres which, over six and a half decades, included eleven collections of p ...

, Garcia Lorca,

Yiannis Ritsos Yiannis Ritsos ( el, Γιάννης Ρίτσος; 1 May 1909 – 11 November 1990) was a Greek poet and communist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II. While he disliked being regarded as a political poet, he has be ...

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

and

Constantine Cavafy Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gre ...

. Following his exile from Iraq, Youssef has lived in many countries, including Algeria, Lebanon, France, Greece, Cyprus, and resided in London until his death. In 2004, the Al Owais Prize for poetry was given to Youssef. In 2007, Youssef participated in the

PEN World Voices The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is an annual week-long literary festival held in New York City and Los Angeles. The festival was founded by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts and was launched in 2005. The fes ...

festival where he was interviewed by the

Wild River Review ''Wild River Review'' is an online magazine that seeks to raise awareness and compassion as well as inspire engagement through the power of stories. In a climate of repeated media flashes and quick newsbyte stories, Wild River Review curates, edits ...

. In 2014, Youssef's poems were forbidden from being included in the Kurdish school curriculum by the

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ( ku, حکوومەتی هەرێمی کوردستان, ''Hikûmetî Herêmî Kurdistan'') is the official executive body of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the m ...

over a certain poem in which he referred to Kurdistan as "Qardistan," which loosely translates to "Monkey-istan."

English bibliography

Published volumes *''Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selected Poems,'' translated by

Khaled Mattawa Khaled Mattawa (born 1964) is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the Univers ...

( Graywolf, 2002). . *''Nostalgia, My Enemy'', translated by

Sinan Antoon Sinan Antoon ( ar, سنان أنطون), is an Iraqi poet, novelist, scholar, and literary translator. He has been described as "one of the most acclaimed authors of the Arab world." He is an associate professor at the Gallatin School of Individ ...

and Peter Money (Graywolf, 2012). . In anthology *''Literature from the "Axis of Evil''": ''Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations,'' edited by

Words without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

(

The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André Schiffrin Reza Aslan Reza Aslan ( fa, رضا اصلان, ; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology of religion, writer, and television host. A convert to evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam b ...

(

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada * Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

, 2010). . *''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology'', edited by Melissa Tuckey (University of Georgia Press, 2018). .

References

External links

Listen to Saadi Youssef reading his poetry
- a

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

recording, 4 March 2009. *
Two poems

review of ''Without an Alphabet'' at ''

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

''
Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef on 'bullet censorship'
at ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...

'' 1934 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Iraqi writers 20th-century Iraqi poets People from Basra British people of Iraqi descent 21st-century Iraqi poets 21st-century Iraqi writers British Arabic-language poets {{Iraq-poet-stub

Life

English bibliography

Further reading

See also

References

External links