Customer Reviews

The Poetry of Arab Women

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The editor of this book, Nathalie Handal, deserves commendation for her work. If you hold the common view of Arab women as submissive and repressed beings, this book might be the thing for you. Even though repression and sexual discrimination may be harsher in Arab societies than in our Western world, that seems to be only one side of reality. What this anthology shows us is strong-willed, sensitive and opinionated women, who are also highly skilled in that most demanding of crafts - poetry. Inevitably, some of the poems are better than others. But the first alone justify buying the book, for they are VERY good. The translations are also (as far as one can ascertain through taste and personal intuition) good, with the possible exception of Munia Samara's poems, where the translator several times seems to refer to a city as both "it" and "she", occassionally in the same line: "It has not surrendered her keys to one prophet", "it opens its windows / and throws a bone / to the barking Napoleon around her walls".
Notwithstanding these minor flaws, the book is enjoyable and worthwhile as a field guide for discovering the fascination of the Arab world and its remarkable women poets.

I purchased this wonderful volume as a result of the war - I wanted to get inside the creative mind of Arab women. And I have found that poetry is the way to do it. Nathalie Handel has given us a real gift - a book filled with beautiful, strong poetry.

These are a just a few examples to whet your appetite from a substantial body of breathtaking poetry:

Zakiyya Malallah from Qatar:

"She picks me
and reconstitutes my colours."

"You treasure me on your lips,
I burst like a swing
and dangle like fragrance."


or Habiba Muhammadi from Algeria:

"No one can stand
In the face of the sun
It alone knows
Th way to the sunset."

"The hearts raided by loneliness
lead the conquests of the word."

Arab women have been writing poetry since the dawn of time. Reading modern poerty by Arab women however is a delight. This book encompasses poems that reveal the struggle of being an Arab in the U.S, the struggle of migration, war, occupation, and the struggle of cultural identity.
I highly recommend this book to those who love poetry and those who wish to understand what it means to be an Arabic women living in the United States.

Under the able editorship of Nathalie Handal, The Poetry Of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology stands as a monument to the manifold literary of Arab women as poets and wordsmiths evoking images and rhythms of language born of their experience, art, and imagination. Of special note is the lengthy introduction, followed by representative selections from more than 80 Arab. women of diverse backgrounds and life experiences. The Blind Goddess: And the blind goddess, when we touched her/like a twinkling of the eye./On the dry shore her hurried gait.../And in her face when sun and moon quarreled,/and in her step when the sea pecked a drop of life/the water receded--having become pregnant--for a time./How can the letter be Seeing, Omnipotent./a peer to the bleated, jealous god./And in the blind goddess when she dimmed/and the earth came to be/and it was the insolence of the ages. (Fadhila Chabbi).

The newest anthology of modern Arab women's poetry, this anthology not only presents powerful and moving works of poetry but also breaks dangerous streotypes about Arab women.

Also check Nathalie Handal's 'The Neverfield Poem'

This is a wonderful book! Every high school student should read it. The poems Nathalie Handal collected inspire people to write their own poetry, which is probably the best tribute a poet can receive. Of course, the political aspects of the book are equally important because it gives a human face to an often faceless/nameless/endless conflict, and shows that Arab culture is more than the news items we are fed on a daily basis.

Whenever we've had theme-based poetry readings based on Arabic poetry on the New Hampshire Seacoast, I can always predict that someone will bring in Rumi and/or Hafiz and that all the other poets people read will be men. So, a couple years ago when I hosted such a reading, I required everyone who signed up for the open mike to pull a poem from a hat and read that one as well. They were all poems by Arabic women that I'd selected from a great anthology featuring poets from all 17 Arabic-speaking countries done in the late-50's. Once the dozen or so readers realized what I'd done, it turned into a wonderful evening of discussions about relative strengths and readers' prejudices. You won't be surprised, then, when i say I am extremely grateful for this contemporary anthology by Nathalie Hanadal. Both the experimental poems and the more traditional ones are especially rewarding. Atalla's "Diaspora" is a stunning and unexpected riff on the simple concept of inheriting her mother's hairpins. Moosey's "When Fat Women Fear Famine" take a taboo subject and spins it down to "They know the pain of the gnawing heart, / the ache of the hollow bone." Jame's "About a Man" has tremendous backbone about it and Nye's "Yellow Glove" is, well, extraordinarily strong even for Naomi Shihab Nye, whom I worship and adore. I need to put a star next to Safie's "Danger, Men in Trees," too, before I tell you that Arnaout's "Spinal Cord" alone is worth the price of the book. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be able to add this book to my library. It will get tattered soon enough.

I was unpleasantly surprised after reading the introduction. Not only was it boring and full of unnecessary details, but it abounds in statements like "Palestinian disaster of 1948", the "massacres of the innocent", "Zionist agriculture with its efficient sprinklers and "mortgaged trees"" (?????!!!!!!!) etc, that are clearly offensive to Israel.Nobody disputes that the history of the Palestinians is full of tragedy and it is bound to influence the poetic mind, but non-substantiated, overtly political statements have no place in a literary anthology. The author clearly lacks professional ethics, letting her bias affect her work. Plus, the poetry was for the most part mediocre, and some Arabic women poets from the Middle East who have friendly ties to Israel are omitted. I admire Arab culture and have Arab ancestry, but this is not the way I wanted to get into the mind of Arabic women. This anthology told me nothing.