The first poetry reading event in the Comparative Approaches to the Literatures of Africa, the Middle East, and the Global South (CALAMEGS) Spring 2019 series.
Syrian poet Nouri Al-Jarrah, who has lived in exile for nearly 40 years, discusses his latest collection, his first in English translation, “A Boat to Lesbos”, and other poems with Hala Halim. Plus readings in English and the original Arabic. “A Boat to Lesbos” is a powerful epic poem, written while thousands of Syrian refugees were enduring frightening journeys across the Mediterranean Sea before arriving on the small island, while the other poems were written while the poet was visiting Lesbos island himself. Set out like a Greek tragedy, the poem bears passionate and dramatic witness to the horrors and ravages suffered by Syrian families forced to flee their destroyed country, seen through the eye of history, the poetry of Sappho and the travels of Odysseus.
