Share
Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems (in English)
Salim Barakat
(Author)
·
Seagull Books
· Paperback
Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems (in English) - Barakat, Salim ; Fakhreddine, Huda J. ; Iwen, Jayson
$ 14.89
$ 18.61
You save: $ 3.72
Choose the list to add your product or create one New List
✓ Product added successfully to the Wishlist.
Go to My WishlistsIt will be shipped from our warehouse between
Monday, June 17 and
Wednesday, June 19.
You will receive it anywhere in United States between 1 and 3 business days after shipment.
Synopsis "Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems (in English)"
Introduces renowned Kurdish-Syrian writer Salim Barkat to an English audience for the first time, with translated selections from his most acclaimed works of poetry. Although Salim Barakat is one of the most renowned and respected contemporary writers in Arabic letters, he remains virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. This first collection of his poetry in English, representing every stage of his career, remedies that startling omission. Come, Take a Gentle Stab features selections from his most acclaimed works of poetry, including excerpts from his book-length poems, rendered into an English that captures the exultation of language for which he is famous. A Kurdish-Syrian man, Barakat chose to write in Arabic, the language of cultural and political hegemony that has marginalized his people. Like Paul Celan, he mastered the language of the oppressor to such an extent that the course of the language itself has been compelled to bend to his will. Barakat pushes Arabic to a point just beyond its linguistic limits, stretching those limits. He resists coherence, but never destroys it, pulling back before the final blow. What results is a figurative abstraction of struggle, as alive as the struggle itself. And always beneath the surface of this roiling water one can glimpse the deep currents of ancient Kurdish culture.
