Poet of the Month 059: BASMA ABDEL AZIZ

BASMA ABDEL AZIZ 
2016

A BIT OF A LIFE

 

I probably did ––

 

observe one day

 

the fall of the sun
and caught the gold that was scattered
in the palm of the sea
and enclosed my ribs about
the last escaping heat
as I searched for a farewell
sifting through piles of sand

 

And I paced the city 
back and forth
I hung around in the old cafés
sipping at bottles of beer
I met with friends and passers-by
sat with literati and revolutionaries
and among the crowded tables
I spent long hours 

 

I went up and down
streets and discussions
but I remember that once
I bought
from the other end of the street
a mizmar!
And I stood under a balcony
observing wet newspapers
and the heavy clothes
shifting my feet 
in a puddle
making endless circles

 

 

date unspecified

 

 

 

mizmar = single or double reed conical shaped musical instrument

Translated by ALICE GUTHRIE

  

and members of the 

 

Poetry Translation Workshop, Torquay

 

 

 

Born in Cairo in 1976, Basma Abdel Aziz has a BA in medicine and surgery, an MS in neuropsychiatry and a diploma in sociology.  She works for the General Secretariat of Mental Health in Egypt's Ministry of Health and the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and also writes a weekly column for Egypt's daily Al-Shorouk newspaper for which she has earned herself the nickname 'the rebel.'

 

Abdel Aziz gained second place for her short stories in the 2008 Sawiris Cultural Award, and a 2008 award from the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces.  Her sociological examination of police violence in Egypt, Temptation of Absolute Power, won the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award in 2009.

 

Her debut novel Al-Tabuur (The Queue) was published by Dar al-Tanweer in 2013.  Three years later US publisher Melville House published an English translation of the novel by Elisabeth Jaquette.

 

In 2016 Abdel-Aziz was named one of the leading global thinkers by US magazine Foreign Policy.  In 2018 she was named by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in the list of top influencers of Arabic public opinion.

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read a review of the 2016 English translation of The Queue by BASMA ABDEL AZIZ:

 

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-basma-abdel-azizs-the-queue-is-an-evocation-of-the-ties-between-hegemonic-power-and-grassroots-dissent/article30253132/

 

 

 

 

 

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