On the wooden cart, atop a mat spread over bundles of straw, lay a child asleep—a child whose chances of survival were slim. That sick, innocent child was my father, Qurban Ali.
Suddenly, a ragged, God intoxicated wanderer stood right in the middle of the road in front of the bullock cart and said, “Take him home. Nothing
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid’s A Backyard Garden is a profoundly human, polyphonic novel set in contemporary Egypt. It weaves together the lives of individuals in the village of Kafr El-Sarai, focusing particularly on the enigmatic figure of Sayyid Kamal—a hero of the Egyptian independence movement who retreats from public life to live
Whispers of a Butterfly
In morning light, on petals fair,
A butterfly floats through the air.
With wings of silk and colors bright,
She dances in the golden light.
She flits from bloom to blooming rose,
A painter where the wild wind blows.
No map, no plan, no single sound,
Just graceful swirls above the
In the restless moments of waiting in Cairo, I wandered between the ebbing of words and the depth of ideas, torn between the ache of loss and the demands of study and the future ahead.
I spoke to myself once, then again, then again—until I found solace in patience and summoned my unyielding resolve.
I remained in the company of my
Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the Republic of South Sudan hosted the fourth edition of the Arab Poetry Forum under the theme "Excellence and creativity, leadership and advancement".
Organised by the Department of Cultural Affairs at the
