Back in 2017, the Swedish translator Jonathan Morén lamented that the English world had failed to embrace the great Kurdish-Syrian author Salim Barakat. In the Arabic-speaking world, Barakat – born in 1950s Syria before moving to Lebanon, Cyprus and finally Sweden – has long been considered a major author, praised by heavyweights like Adonis and Darwish.
He’d also been translated into many languages, though he still had no book-length translation in English. He even wondered if he was destined never to.
But then Seagull came to the rescue. After publishing one collection of his poetry in 2021, they’ve returned with a sampling of his late work – which Barakat considers his best – translated by Huda J. Fakhreddine. A personal interview between author and translator rounds out the volume.
Yet best of all are the gorgeous, jagged, irreverent miniatures that open the book: “Ghosts / throw their hooks from over a bridge / to catch the cloud fish / reflected in the river.” Cracking stuff.
- Available now from Seagull Books
