Nizar Qabbani

Song and Poetry Dialogue

• Lyrical Poetry Dialogue

• Lyrical Poetry Dialogue

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A cassette recording that includes a dialogue between verses in Nizar Qabbani's voice and passages sung by Umm Kalthoum. Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) was a contemporary Syrian poet and diplomat from an ancient Damascene Arab family. His grandfather, Abu Khalil al-Qabbani, is considered one of the pioneers of Arab theatre. He published his first book in 1944 under the title Samara Qalat Li and went on to write and publish 35 books in half a century, most notably Tufoleh Nahed and Al Rasm Bl Kalimat. He established a publishing house in Beirut called Manshurat Nizar Qabbani, and Damascus and Beirut had a special place in his poems, most notably Al Qasidah Al Demashqieh and Ya Sit Al Duniah Ya Beirut. The 1967 war, which the Arabs called the ‘Naksa’, marked a decisive crossroads in his poetic and literary experience, as it took him out of his traditional style as a ‘poet of love and women’ to enter politics. His poem Hawamesh 'Ala Daftar Al Nakse sparked a storm in the Arab world that reached the point of banning his poems in the media. On a personal level, Qabbani experienced many tragedies in his life, including the death of his wife Belkis during a suicide bombing that targeted the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, where she was working, and the death of his son Tawfiq, whom he lamented in his poem Al Amir Al Khurafi Tawfiq Qabbani. He lived the last years of his life in London, where he leaned more towards political poetry. One of his most famous poems is Mata Yu'lnun Wafat Al Arabs?