Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati


Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati was an Iraqi Arab 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. He attended Baghdad University, and became a teacher after graduating from Dar al-Mu'allimin in 1950, the same year that he released his first collection of poems, Mala'ika wa Shayatin.
In 1996, he published a poem "The Dragon". The translation by Farouk Abdel Wahab, Najat Rahman, and Carolina Hotchandani is from the volume Iraqi Poetry Today 2003, edited by Saadi Simawe. "The Dragon" is an example of al-Bayyati's frequent incorporation of mythological figures into his poetry. Critics have interpreted the poem as addressed to Saddam Hussein.

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 : "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."

Works

Original volumes

  • Mala'ika wa shayatin, 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, 1998

Translated volumes

  • Lilies and Death, 1972
  • The Singer and the Moon, 1976
  • Eye of the Sun, 1978
  • Love Under Rain, 1985
  • Love, Death, and Exile, 1990

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

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