Table Of ContentModern Sudanese Poetry
Series editor: Kwame Dawes
Editorial Board Advisory Board
Chris Abani, Northwestern University Laura Sillerman
Gabeba Baderoon, Pennsylvania Glenna Luschei
State University Sulaiman Adebowale
Kwame Dawes, University of Elizabeth Alexander
Nebraska–Lincoln
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, University
of the Witwatersrand
Bernardine Evaristo, Brunel
University London
Aracelis Girmay
John Keene, Rutgers University
Matthew Shenoda, Rhode
Island School of Design
MODERN
SUDANESE
POETRY
AN ANTHOLOGY
Translated and edited by Adil Babikir
Foreword by Matthew Shenoda, supervising editor
University of Nebraska Press / Lincoln
© 2019 by the Board of Regents of
the University of Nebraska
All poems published with permission.
All rights reserved
The African Poetry Book Series has been made
possible through the generosity of philanthropists
Laura and Robert F. X. Sillerman, whose
contributions have facilitated the establishment
and operation of the African Poetry Book Fund.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Babikir, Adil, editor, translator. |
Shenoda, Matthew, writer of foreword.
Title: Modern Sudanese poetry: an anthology /
translated and edited by Adil Babikir; foreword
by Matthew Shenoda, supervising editor.
Other titles: African poetry book series.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 2019. | Series: African poetry book
series | Includes bibliographical references. |
In English; translated from the Arabic.
Identifiers: lccn 2019001566
isbn 9781496215635 (pbk.: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496218216 (epub)
isbn 9781496218223 (mobi)
isbn 9781496218230 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Arabic poetry— Sudan—
Translations into English. | Arabic poetry— 20th
century— Translations into English.
Classification: lcc pj8314.5.e5 m63 2019
| ddc 892.716— dc23 lc record available
at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2019001566
Set in Garamond Premier by E. Cuddy.
Contents
Foreword, by Matthew Shenoda ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Notes on
Modern Sudanese Poetry xiii
Khalil Farah
My Beloved Aazza 1
Muhammad el- Mahdi el- Magzoub
Wedding Parade 2
Idris Jamma’
A Poet 5
In the Spring of Love 6
Mohammed el- Fayturi
Dig No Grave for Me 7
A Roaming Dervish’s Stanza 10
Yaaqut al- Arsh 11
Jayli Abdel Rahman Muhammad Abdul- Hai
Migrating from Sai 13 The Signs Ode 47
Mohyiddin Faris Kamal Elgizouli
The Wharf and the Walkway Encounter 50
Rhythms 15 Whispers 51
The Horse and the Wind 17 A Cell the Size of New Year’s Eve 53
Homeland 19 Monologue 56
Taj el- Sir el- Hassan Aalim Abbas
An Afro- Asian Song 21 The Pre- Eruption Silence 58
El- Nur Osman Abbaker Mahjoub Sharif
The Exile and the Kingdom 24 The Homesick Sparrow 60
Crazy in Love with You 62
Mohammed el- Makki Ibrahim I Say It without Fear 63
A Drib of Your Nectar 26 Buffoon! 65
A Farm on the Hill 30
Two Love Poems and a Carnival 33 Mahgoub Kbalo
Songs for October 35 The Golden Scythe Song 67
Deng Malo: A Biography 69
Mustapha Sanad Pastoral Scriptures 70
The Old Sea 37
The Lost Violins 40 Fidaili Jamma’
The Silent Rose 72
Abdel Raheem Abu Zikra A Sun on the Window 73
Departure at Night 42 Walking a Tightrope 74
The Night Girl 44
Abdulqadir Alkutayabi
Ali Abdel Qayyoum The Shores of Your Eyes 76
Who Triggered the Stone’s I Miss Something 78
Tongue? 46
Mohammed el- Hassan Najlaa Osman Eltom
Salim Himmaid Under Abundant Shades 124
Uncle Abdur Raheem 80 Tuesday’s Dilemma 125
Nura and the Time- An Acacia Bush in Labor 126
Tested Dream 88
Mamoun Eltilib
Hashim Siddig The Fall of Angels 127
The Story of a Revolution 92
The Tale of the Rose and Boi John Awang
the Street 95 Wrapped in Grief 128
Azhari Mohammed Ali Hatim Al Kinani
A Starting Point 97 Skies 129
Al- Saddig al- Raddi Nylawo Ayul
Songs of Solitude 99 On the Bank of River Sobat 133
An Amulet for the Mango Tree 134
Rawda el- Haj
Heart’s Confessions 104 Notes 137
A New Ebb in the High
Tide Season 106 References 141
Rugaia Warrag List of Contributors 143
A Frosted Cry 109
A Tribute to Winter 110
The Spider’s Text: Millennium
Messages to Life 111
Khalid Hassan Othman
All Alone 122
Foreword
Matthew Shenoda
In this seminal collection of modern Sudanese poems, translator Adil Babikir
has introduced English- language readers to a significant gathering of largely
unknown works in English. Translated from Arabic, these poems capture the
often tumultuous and complex histories and cultural intersections in Sudan’s
modern period. Anchored in the mid- to late twentieth century, these poems
give significant insight into the rise of Sudanese nationalism and the period
of independence. Beautifully contextualized in an introduction by Babikir,
this anthology traces the internal cultural negotiations of the Afro- Arab and
Jungle and Desert schools that have defined and shaped modern Sudanese
identity and helped define the emergence of a new poetic school in Sudan.
In poems often steeped in a lyrical ornateness and sensual engagement with
language, we are reminded of the intersections of history, place, and culture
throughout this collection.
Linguistic embellishments paint landscapes both internal and external,
and the poems gathered here make space for an important articulation of
Africa’s expansive story through a country that sits at the border of myriad
multiplicities. So often these poems navigate the complexities of nationhood,
place, and identity, poems like those of Mohyiddin Faris, where he writes:
The peels of words sing out;
the sun confiscates them,
but they confiscate her golden howdah,
and braid her hair into a guillotine,
ix
