Introduces renowned Kurdish-Syrian writer Salim Barkat to an English
audience for the first time, with translated selections from his most
acclaimed works of poetry.
Although Salim Barakat is one of the most renowned and respected
contemporary writers in Arabic letters, he remains virtually unknown in
the English-speaking world. This first collection of his poetry in
English, representing every stage of his career, remedies that startling
omission. Come, Take a Gentle Stab features selections from his most
acclaimed works of poetry, including excerpts from his book-length
poems, rendered into an English that captures the exultation of language
for which he is famous.
A Kurdish-Syrian man, Barakat chose to write in Arabic, the language of
cultural and political hegemony that has marginalized his people. Like
Paul Celan, he mastered the language of the oppressor to such an extent
that the course of the language itself has been compelled to bend to his
will. Barakat pushes Arabic to a point just beyond its linguistic
limits, stretching those limits. He resists coherence, but never
destroys it, pulling back before the final blow. What results is a
figurative abstraction of struggle, as alive as the struggle itself. And
always beneath the surface of this roiling water one can glimpse the
deep currents of ancient Kurdish culture.
