Nizar Qabbani: Journal of An Indifferent Woman

The great number of typos, misspellings, and incorrect uses of grammar in the introduction certainly makes the reader doubt the translator's self-proclaimed "perfect command of English" and question the quality of the translation of Qabbani's poetry. Disappointing. According to El-Hage, Qabbani was born in "Damascus, Syrian," and wrote in an "avant-guard" style. Half way through the introduction the line spacing switches from double to single spaced for no reason. Particularly egregious is where the translator implies that his and his mentor's style of poetry is like a main course of a meal and deep and hard to understand, but Qabbani is like chocolate, all sweet and of no value. The actual text of the poetry is written in the same clunky writing style, full of little mistakes. I get that translation is difficult work, and many nuances will be lost, but if you cannot use *both* languages effectively, there's no point. At least get an editor to help if your English is so bad. I eagerly await more competent translations of Qabbani.

I was excited to get any new English translation of Nizar Quabbani's poetry. This book did not disappoint. It is a very powerful and modern commentary on the past and present situation of many women. Quabbani challenges men to look at women as equals and treat them as the jewels they are instead of seeing them as possessions. A nice translation. I hope for more English translations in the future.

The book has a really nice narrative which as reader carries you through the several poetic journey entries. The font is rather larger than what I'm used to - though I imagine it may be beneficial to some.It's quite different to 'On Entering the sea', but all the same in my eyes, a good purchase.

Having read quite a few works of Nizar Qabbani in Arabic, as written originally, It is difficult for me to appreciate the work in English.This specific work; Journal of An Indifferent Woman, was a revolution by Nizar. A whole book a poetry spoken in a woman's voice; talking about her life and society's injustices and her family's double standards in terms of how male siblings are regarded as untouchables no matter what their vices are.In his work Nizar Addresses a women's discovery of the different parts of her body, her sexuality and her move from girlhood to womanhood. This taboo subject which brings so much anxiety to her family, especially to her father, was a smooth way of addressing the issues through poetry.It is so difficult to appreciate the book as much in English as one would in Arabic. This is due to various aspects. Some are cultural and others are attributed to the meaning behind the word, that sometimes is due to the richness of the Arabic language.There is no doubt that the tragic death of his sister had impacted Nizar and made him what he had become, a defender of women's right, as a man and a poet.However Dr. El- Hage does best to compensate for what is usually lost in translation and succeeds in doing so. He knows so well how difficult it is to produce a translation for Mr. Qabbani's work, something that many others shy away from.It takes true guts to undertake such responsibility, especially when it comes to a giant of modern Arabic poetry. Nizar was and still is a philosophy, a rebellion and a true attempt to awaken the Arabic speaking world. For peoples whose average amount of reading is quite low, prominent Arab singers compensate by conveying his school of thought to millions of Arab speakers -listeners everyday. His poetry was sung by famous Arab singers such as; Fairuz, Oum Kulthum, Nagat Al-Saghira, Abdel Halim Hafez, Kadhim Al-Sahir, Majda El Roumi, Fayzeh Ahmad and many others.Thank you Dr. El-Hage for bringing this to the English speaking reader. I look forward to other translations by you.Khaled Burgan

His attitude towards women and love is very striking