Listen to the Mourners : The Essential Poems of Nazik Al-Mala’ika

This is one of the first book-length English translations of Nazik Al-Mala’ika’s Arabic poetry. One of the most influential Iraqi poets of the twentieth century, Nazik Al-Mala’ika pioneered the modern Arabic verse movement when she broke away from the formalistic classical modes of Arabic poetry that had prevailed for more than fifteen centuries.Along with ?Abdulwahhab Al-Bayyati and Badre Shakir Al-Sayyab, she paved the way for the birth of a new modernist poetic movement in the Arab world. Until now, very little of Al-Mala’ika’s poetry has been translated into English.Listen to the Mourners contains forty of her most significant poems selected from six published volumes, including Life Tragedy and a Song for Man, The Woman in Love with the Night, Sparks and Ashes, The Wave’s Nadir, The Moon Tree, and The Sea Alters Its Colours.These poems show the beginning of her development from the late romantic orientation in Arabic poetry toward a more psychological approach.Her poetic form show