Buland Al-Ḥaidari and Modern Iraqi Poetry

<p><b>In this brilliant book ʻAbdulwāḥid Lu'lu'a translates and introduces eighty poems from one of the pioneers of modern Arabic poetry Buland Al-Ḥaidari.</b></p><p>Buland Al-Ḥaidari might fairly be considered the fourth pillar holding up the dome of modern Arabic poetry. Alongside his famous contemporaries Nāzik al-Malā'ika Badre Shākir Al-Sayyāb and 'Abdulwahhāb Al-Bayyāti Al-Ḥaidari likewise made significant contributions to the development of twentieth-century Arabic poetry including the departure from the traditional use of two-hemistich verses in favor of what has been called the Arabic free verse form.</p><p>A few of Al-Ḥaidari's poems have been translated into English separately but no book-length translation of his poetry has been published until now. In <i>Buland Al-Ḥaidari and Modern Iraqi Poetry</i> ʻAbdulwāḥid Lu'lu'a translates eighty of Al-Ḥaidari's most important poems giving English-speaking readers access to this rich corpus. Lu'lu'a's perceptive introduction acquaints readers with the contours of Al-Ḥaidari's life and situates his work in the context of modern Arabic poetry. The translated pieces not only illustrate the depth of Al-Ḥaidari's poetic imagination but also showcase the development of his style from the youthful romanticism of his first collection <i>Clay Throb</i> (1946) to the detached pessimism of his <i>Songs of the Dead City</i> (1951). Selections are also included from his later collections <i>Steps in Exile</i> (1965) <i>The Journey of Yellow Letters</i> (1968) and <i>Songs of the Tired Guard</i> (1977). These poems paint a vivid picture of the literary and poetic atmosphere in Baghdad and Iraq from the mid-1940s to the close of the twentieth century.</p>