Nazik al-Mala'ika's Revolt Against the Sun | Emily Drumsta

Ottoman History Podcast

E493 | Nazik al-Mala'ika (1923-2007) is one of the foremost figures in twentieth-century Arabic poetry. Born in Baghdad, she wrote about varied topics, ranging from the 1947 cholera epidemic in Egypt to the rise of communism in Iraq to a nighttime train ride. She pioneered what became known as "free verse," a form at once innovative but also based upon older metrical structures. Emily Drumsta has recently translated a collection of al-Mala'ika's poetry into English under the title of Revolt against the Sun, with Saqi Books. In this episode, we discuss how al-Mala'ika's Arab nationalist politics informed her metrical innovation, and how she played with gendered expectations in her poetry. We also talk about some of the challenges of preserving rhythm and sound in translation. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/02/drumsta.html Emily Drumsta Emily Drumsta is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University, specializing in modern Arabic and Francophone literatures. Her current book project, Ways of Seeking, explores the history of detection and investigation in twentieth-century Arabic fiction. Her translation, Revolt Against the Sun: The Selected Poetry of Nazik al-Mala'ikah (Saqi Books in 2020), was the recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation prize in 2018. She is a co-founder of Tahrir Documents, an online archive of newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, and other ephemera collected in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the 2011 uprisings in Egypt. Sam Dolbee is a lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard University. His research is on the environmental history of the late Ottoman Empire told through the frame of locusts in the Jazira region. CREDITS Episode No. 493 Release Date: 8 February 2021 Recording Location: Providence, RI and Somerville, MA Audio editing by Sam Dolbee and Chris Gratien Music: Blue Dot Sessions, "Um Pepino"; Chad Crouch, "Pacing"; Zé Trigueiros, "Big Road of Burravoe" Bibliography and images courtesy of Emily Drumsta at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/02/drumsta.html