Saadi Youssef () (1934 – 13 June 2021) was an Iraqi author, poet, journalist, publisher, and political activist. He published thirty volumes of poetry in addition to seven books of prose.

Life

Saadi Youssef studied Arabic literature in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. He was influenced by the

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...

of Shathel Taqa and

Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (Arabic: عبد الوهاب البياتي) (December 19, 1926 – August 3, 1999) was an Iraqi Arab poet. Biography Al-Bayati was born in Baghdad. Al-Bayati was an Iraqi Turkmen poet. One of his friends, Ahmed Abdel-Mo ...

and was also involved in politics from an early age. At that time, his work was heavily influenced by his

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

pan-Arab Pan-Arabism () is a pan-nationalist ideology that espouses the unification of all Arab people in a single nation-state, consisting of all Arab countries of West Asia and North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is ref ...

sympathies but has since also taken a more introspective, lyrical turn. He has also translated many well-known writers into Arabic, including

Oktay Rifat Oktay is a Turkish masculine given name. It is also used as a surname. Notable people with the name are as follows: First name *Oktay Afandiyev (1926–2013), Azerbaijani historian * Oktay Delibalta (born 1985), Turkish football player * Oktay Der ...

Melih Cevdet Anday Melih Cevdet Anday (13 March 1915 – 28 November 2002) was a Turkish people, Turkish writer whose poetry stands outside the traditional literary movements. He also wrote in many other genres which, over six and a half decades, included eleven ...

, Garcia Lorca,

Yiannis Ritsos Yiannis Ritsos ( ; 1 May 1909 – 11 November 1990) was a Greek poet and communist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II. While he disliked being regarded as a political poet, he has been called "the great poet of th ...

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

and

Constantine Cavafy Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( ; 29 April ( OS 17 April), 1863 – 29 April 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria. A ...

. Following his exile from Iraq, Youssef has lived in many countries, including Algeria, Lebanon, France, Greece, Cyprus, and resided in London until his death. In 2004, the Al Owais Prize for poetry was given to Youssef. In 2007, Youssef participated in the

PEN World Voices The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is an annual week-long literary festival held in New York City and Los Angeles. The festival was founded by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts and was launched in 2005. The f ...

festival where he was interviewed by the Wild River Review. In 2014, Youssef's poems were forbidden from being included in the Kurdish school curriculum by the

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official executive body of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the majority party or list who also select the prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdish poli ...

over a certain poem in which he referred to Kurdistan as "Qardistan," which loosely translates to "Monkey-istan." He is buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

English bibliography

Published volumes *''Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selected Poems,'' translated by

Khaled Mattawa Khaled Mattawa (; born 1964) is a Libyan poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the Unive ...

( Graywolf, 2002). . *''Nostalgia, My Enemy'', translated by

Sinan Antoon Sinan Antoon () is an Iraqi poet, novelist, scholar, and literary translator. He has been described as "one of the most acclaimed authors of the Arab world." Alberto Manguel described him as "one of the great fiction writers of our time.” He is ...

and Peter Money (Graywolf, 2012). . In anthology *''Literature from the "Axis of Evil''": ''Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations,'' edited by

Words without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

(

The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinReid, Calvin (December 2, 2013)"New Press Founder André Schiffrin Dead at 78" ''Publishers Weekly''. Accessed August 1, 2014. (Chev ...

, 2006). . *''Tablet and Pen'', edited by

Reza Aslan Reza Aslan (, ; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology, writer, and television host. A convert to Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam but continued to wr ...

( Norton, 2010). . *''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology'', edited by Melissa Tuckey (University of Georgia Press, 2018). .

References

External links

Listen to Saadi Youssef reading his poetry
- a

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

recording, 4 March 2009. *
Two poems

review of ''Without an Alphabet'' at ''

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' (; ), founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second-oldest after '' Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majority owned by the Egyptian governm ...

''
Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef on 'bullet censorship'
at ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since 1968, a ...

'' 1934 births 2021 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 20th-century Iraqi writers 20th-century Iraqi poets People from Basra British people of Iraqi descent 21st-century Iraqi poets 21st-century Iraqi writers British Arabic-language poets {{Iraq-poet-stub

Life

English bibliography

Further reading

See also

References

External links