Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (Arabic: عبد الوهاب البياتي) (December 19, 1926 – August 3, 1999) was an Iraqi Arab poet.

Abdul-Wahab Al-Bayati عبد الوهاب البياتي
Al-Bayati, 1999
Born	December 19, 1926 Baghdad, Iraq
Died	August 3, 1999(1999-08-03) (aged 72) Damascus, Syria
Occupation	Poet

Biography

Al-Bayati was born in Baghdad. Al-Bayati was an Iraqi Turkmen poet. One of his friends, Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi, said urban centers of "hotels and institutions, cafés and airports" were actually his temporary residences.^[1] He attended Baghdad University, and became a teacher after graduating from Dar al-Mu'allimin (the Teacher's College) in 1950, the same year that he released his first collection of poems, Mala'ika wa Shayatin (Angels and Devils).

In 1996, he published a poem "The Dragon".^[2] The translation by Farouk Abdel Wahab, Najat Rahman, and Carolina Hotchandani is from the volume Iraqi Poetry Today (ISBN 0-9533824-6-X) (c) 2003, edited by Saadi Simawe.^{[citation needed]} "The Dragon" is an example of al-Bayyati's frequent incorporation of mythological figures into his poetry.^{[citation needed]} Critics have interpreted the poem as addressed to Saddam Hussein.^[2][3]

Sufism

Al-Bayati was influenced by the Middle Eastern Sufi figures. One example is a poem by al-Bayati entitled "A’isha's Mad Lover" in his book, Love Poems on the Seven Gates of the World (1971): "In this context Al-Bayati's poetry becomes Sufi in default, since he assumes the position as a modernist whose aspirations for an earthy paradise have not materialized."^[4]

Works

Original volumes

• Mala'ika wa shayatin (Angels and Devils), 1950
• Abariq muhashshama, 1954
• Risala ila Hazim Hikmet wa quas'aid ukhra, 1956
• Al-Majd li al-atfal wa al-zaytun, 1956
• Ash'ar fi al-manfa, 1957
• Ishrun qasida min Berlin, 1959
• Kalimat la tamut, 1960
• Muhakama fi Nisabur, 1963
• Al-Nar wa al-kalimat, 1964
• Sifr al-faqr wa al-thawra, 1965
• Alladhi ya'ti wa laya'ti, 1966
• Al Mawt fi al Hayat, 1968
• Tajribati al-shi'riyya, 1968
• 'Ulyun al-kilab al-mayyita, 1969
• Buka'iyya ila shams haziran wa al-murtaziqa, 1969
• Al Kitaba al Teen, 1970
• Yawmiyyat siyasi muhtarif, 1970
• Qasaid hubb 'ala bawwabat al-'alam al-sab, 1971
• Sira dhatiyya li sariq al-nar, 1974
• Kitab al-bahr, 1974
• Qamar Shiraz, 1976
• Mamlakat al-sunbula, 1979
• Sawt al-sanawat al-daw'iyya, 1979
• Bustan 'A'isha, 1989
• Al-Bahr Ba'id, Asma'uh Yatanahhud (The Sea is Distant, I Hear It Sighing), 1998

Translated volumes

• Lilies and Death, 1972 (trans. Mohammed B. Alwan)
• The Singer and the Moon, 1976 (trans. Abdullah al-Udhari)
• Eye of the Sun, 1978
• Love Under Rain (Al-hubb tahta al-matar), 1985 (transl. Desmond Stewart and George Masri)
• Love, Death, and Exile, 1990 (trans. Bassam K. Frangieh)

Anthologies with only works by Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati

• Poet of Iraq: Abdul Wahab al-Bayati. An introductory essay with translations by Desmond Stewart, 1976
• Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, 1979 (a short introduction and four poems, trans. Desmond Stewart and George Masri)

Anthologies with works by Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati and other poets

• Abdullah al-Udhari, ed. and trans. Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1986.
  • An Apology for a Short Speech
  • The Arab Refugee
  • The Fugitive
  • Hamlet
  • Profile of the Lover of the Great Bear
  • To Ernest Hemingway
• Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ed. Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987
  • The Birth of Aisha and Her Death
  • Eligy for Aisha
  • The Impossible
  • Luzumiyya
• Simawe, Saadi ed. Iraqi Poetry Today, ISBN 0-9533824-6-X London: King's College, London, 2003
  • The Dragon
  • An Elegy to Aisha
  • I am Born and I Burn in My Love
  • Love Under The Rain
  • The Nightmare
  • Nine Ruba'iyat
  • Shiraz Moon
  • Three Ruba'iyat
  • To Naguib Mahfouz [Amman, 15 April 1997]
  • To TS Eliot
  • Transformations of Aisha: Aisha's Birth and Death in the Magical Rituals Inscribed in Cuneiform on the Nineveh Tablets
  • Two Poems for my son, Ali
  • Who Owns the Homeland?
• Writing on Aisha's Tomb

Further reading

• Poetry portal

• Azouqa, Aida. "Defamiliarization in the Poetry of ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati and T.S. Eliot: a comparative study." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 167–211.
• Boullata, Issa J. "The Masks of ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayyati." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 107–118.
• Kadhim, Hussein N. "‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Wahhab al-Bayyati’s ‘Odes to Jaffa’." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 86–106.
• Musawi, Muhsin Jasim. "Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati’s Poetics of Exile." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 212–238
• Musawi, Muhsin Jasim. "Engaging Tradition in Modern Arab Poetics." Journal of Arabic literature 33.2 (2002): 172–210.
• Noorani, Yaseen "Visual Modernism in the Poetry of ‘Abd al-al-Wahhab al-Bayati." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.3 (2001): 239–255.
• Rizk, Kahali Shukrallah. The Poetry of ‘Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati: thematic and stylistic study, Dissertation (Ph. D), Indiana University: 1981.
• Salama, Mohammad R. "The Mise-en-Scene of ‘Writintg’ in al-Bayati's Al-Kitabah ‘ala al-tin ‘Writing on the Mud’." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 167–211.
• Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney. "Perhaps a Poet is Born, or Dies: the poetics of ‘Abd al—Wahhab al- Bayyati." Journal of Arabic Literature 32.2 (2001): 88–238.
• Stewart, Desmond, editor and translator. Poet of Iraq, Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, an introductory essay with translations. Gazelle Publication: 1976.