Abdul Rahman Rafi
Abdul Rahman Mohammed Rafi was a Bahraini poet. He was born in the capital of Manama and studied at Cairo University. Working as an observer for cultural affairs at the Information [Affairs Authority|Ministry of Information], he has authored many poetry collections and is known for working in both Modern Standard Arabic and nabati forms. He died in his hometown.
Biography
Rafi was born in 1936 in Manama, where he grew up. He finished his education through secondary school in Bahrain and attended the Cairo University Faculty of Law, but he interrupted his university studies in his junior year to go home and teach. He worked for many years in the Ministry of State for Legal Affairs before joining the Ministry of Information as its Supervisor of Cultural Affairs.He died on March 11, 2015, at the age of 79. Ill since December 2014, he had been transferred to the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital.
Literary career
Rafi is considered one of the most prominent poets of the twentieth century in the Persian Gulf region and was known for the commonalities between his formal and vernacular poetry. His most famous works are his satirical poems on consumption, as well as others like “زمان المصخرهْ”, “وأمي العودة”, and “والبنات”. Quotations of his poems circulated as proverbs in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, making him a popular poet at regional conferences.Publications
His poetry collections include:البحار الأربعة الدوران حول البعيد يسألني؟ ديوان الشعر الشعبي ديوان بحر وعيون أوّلها كلام- ''العرب ما خلوشي''