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Bahrain / All works

Poetry · A way to begin

البشارة

Not translated into English

Qassim Haddad · 1970

Synopsis

The author's first collection, dedicated to children, to whom he announces the dawn that is coming. His ardent and openly political verse expresses, according to the poet himself, the spirit of the literary, intellectual, political and social moment, and the national aspiration of his country. The title, which means the good news, comes from a custom of the country: a coloured woman's dress was hoisted over the house to announce a recovery, a return from a journey or a danger averted.

Context

The collection immediately established its author as a new voice in Arabic poetry. Haddad subsequently practised free verse, the prose poem and visual poetry, and has published more than forty books. Fifty years after its publication, the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities issued a new edition reproducing the author's manuscript, published for World Poetry Day.

Who it is for

Poems in Arabic, with no French translation; other works by the author have been translated.

Prizes and reception

The collection established its author at once, and its reissue as a facsimile of the manuscript marked its fiftieth anniversary.

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