Khaz’al al-Majidi’s Poetic Works

Description

Khaz’al al-Majidi is one of the Iraqi poets of the 1970s who played a significant role in disrupting the prevailing poetic traditions in the Iraqi literary scene and paved the way for what resembled the “outbreak” of the prose poem in Iraq after it had been almost forbidden. The generation to which Khaz’al al-Majidi belongs sought new horizons for poetic writing and liberation from the dominance of established Iraqi poetic achievement. For them, the prose poem represented a window through which they glimpsed new poetic realms and atmospheres. Among his contemporaries, Khaz’al stands out for his writing, which engages with and reflects upon the ancient Eastern civilization, striving to recreate its essence and spirit. Here, the poetic text is not merely an outpouring of emotion emanating from the individual self, but rather a spiritual and intellectual correspondence with the greater, universal self to which belong those secret creators who forged myth at the dawn of history, making the universe speak, communicate, and unite within a single, enduring hymn. Al-Majidi wrote poetry, plays, critical essays, and mythological works, but he remained faithful to the poem, which continued to drive him to seek the poetic not only within the self, but also in the world of which the self is an extension; not only in lyrical song, but also in the quiet contemplation of which song is a reflection. This volume contains the poet’s prose poems, compiled in six collections: 1-Eastern Atlas, 2-Antifasia, 3-Image Poems, 4-Anahit, 5-Listen, Gray… Listen, Music of Gold, 6-Gypsy Manuscripts.