ArabLit Editor Nadia Ghanem surveys the twentieth- and twenty-first century Moroccan literature available in English at ArabLit Quarterly, including The Blueness of the Evening: Selected Poems of Hassan Najmi, translated by Mbarek Sryfi and Eric Sellin.
The full list is available at ArabLit Quarterly.
The Blueness of the Evening is a selection of Hassan Najmi’s poems. It provides an excellent introduction to the work of one of Morocco’s foremost poets and to a school of modern verse emerging in the Arab World. Scenes of late night cityscapes, lonely interiors, awe-inspiring desert wastes, and seaside vistas are found within the exquisitely subtle lyric moods and nuances of Najmi’s ars poetica, providing insight into the geographical, political, and linguistic ferment that have made Morocco an exciting hub of creative activity in the twenty-first century.
“Prolific Moroccan poet and translator Hassan Najmi’s collection The Blueness of the Evening represents a valuable window into the emerging world of Arabic free verse, a form only recently gaining prevalence. Packaging together sweeping vistas and ordinary moments, Najmi’s poetry shows an inherent understanding of the truth that ‘No one hears half voices.’”
—World Literature Today