United Arab Emirates / All works
Poetry · A way to begin
ديوان سلطان العويس
Not translated into English
Sultan al-Owais · 1978
Synopsis
The collected poems of a Gulf merchant, written in classical Arabic according to the ancient metres. Love and women hold first place in them, along with the sea and the native land; then come beauty and nature, national feeling and wisdom, with reminiscences of the Quran. Politics is little present. The pieces were gathered by others than the author, in several stages, and each edition has added to them.
Context
His first published poem, “The Rose”, appeared in 1970. The poet Hamad ibn Khalifa Bou Shihab compiled a first edition of his verse in 1978; the poet Hassan al-Buhairi produced a second, then Dar al-Awda, in Beirut, published the diwan in 1992 and the poetic works in two volumes in 1999. The foundation produced an edition of more than four hundred pages, distributed free of charge to libraries, and devoted a symposium to his poetry in 2001.
Who it is for
Amorous and lyrical poetry of classical form, to be read in Arabic; no translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Academics from several Arab countries studied its metrics and rhetoric at a conference held a year after his death.
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