Lighthouse for the Drowning

Presented bilingually, this first US publication of Jawdat Fakhreddine—one of the major Lebanese names in modern Arabic poetry—establishes a revolutionary dialogue between international, modernist values and the Arabic tradition. Fakhreddine’s unique voice is a breakthrough for the poetic language of his generation—an approach that presents poetry as a beacon, a lighthouse that both opposes and penetrates all forms of darkness.

Stars:

Stars of ours
that did not shine in the shroud of night,
but we took joy in them
when the night was a gloom all around us.

To our children, we write:
We are not your lighthouse.
Do not follow the path we light,
but be your own secrets.

Jawdat Fakhreddine was born in 1953 in a small village in southern Lebanon. A professor of Arabic literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, he is one of the major Lebanese names in Modern Arabic Poetry, and is considered one of the second generation poets of the modernist movement in the Arab world. He earned an MA in Physics and taught at the high school level for more than 10 years. During this time he published a number of poetry collections and was encouraged by Adonis to work on a PhD in Arabic literature. Fakhreddine intermittently publishes articles and new poems in al-Hayat newspaper, which is an Arab newspaper published in London and distributed worldwide, and in as-Safir, one of the two major Lebanese Newspapers. He writes a weekly article in al-Khaleej newspaper, a widely distributed gulf daily newspaper. He currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

Jawdat Fakhreddine was born in 1953 in a small village in southern Lebanon. A professor of Arabic literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, he is one of the major Lebanese names in Modern Arabic Poetry, and is considered one of the second generation poets of the modernist movement in the Arab world. He earned an MA in Physics and taught at the high school level for more than 10 years. During this time he published a number of poetry collections and was encouraged by Adonis to work on a PhD in Arabic literature. Fakhreddine intermittently publishes articles and new poems in al-Hayat newspaper, which is an Arab newspaper published in London and distributed worldwide, and in as-Safir, one of the two major Lebanese Newspapers. He writes a weekly article in al-Khaleej newspaper, a widely distributed gulf daily newspaper. He currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

Huda Fakhreddine is Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on modernist movements and trends in Arabic poetry and their relationship to the Arabic literary tradition. She is the author of Metapoesis in the Arabic Tradition (Brill, 2015), a study of the modernist poetry of the twentieth century Free Verse movement and the Abbasid muh?dath movement, as periods of literary crisis and metapoetic reflection. She holds an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Jayson Iwen is a poet and cross-genre writer, the author of Six Trips in Two Directions (2006), which won the Emergency Press International Book Award; A Momentary Jokebook (2008), which won the Cleveland State University Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Award; and the anti-novel Gnarly Wounds (2013). Recently published poems of his can be found in The &Now Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Eureka Literary Magazine. He currently lives in Duluth, Minnesota, and is Associate Professor of Writing at The University of Wisconsin–Superior. He met both Huda and Jawdat Fakhreddine when he lived in Lebanon, where, amongst other things, he was Assistant Professor of English Literature at The American University of Beirut and organizer of the first post-war, open mic reading series in Lebanon.