Love and Resistance is a book of translated poems by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani. The book’s introduction chronicles Mr. Qabbani’s life and explains the background, the social climate, and the circumstances from which each stage of his poetry emerged.
The translated poems are selected for their breadth of representation, their influence in the Arab world, and their poetic prowess. The book’s first section includes eleven love poems; the second has nine political poems. The translated poems are supplemented with footnotes to explain words or names in their historical and cultural context.
Yes, this is a book about fear and fascination with the female body, an age-old theme, but presented as resistance in Qabbani’s original and Bitar’s exquisitely translated, startlingly frank and fresh voices of heartbreaking poetry, it unmasks the inevitable coexistence of hope and despair; of mourning and celebration; of human freedom and the limits of human choice. Both Qabbani and Bitar are equally gifted, equally tender, equally expressive poets. BRAVO!
Azra Raza, M.D., Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine and director of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center at Columbia University, author of The First Cell
Nizar Qabbani remains one of our most enduring and important poets, and our world remains more attuned to love, to freedom, more vivid, closer to the touch, because of his work and his words. These poems mean so much to me, have taught me and continue to teach me.
Safia Elhillo, winner of the Sillman First Book Prize, author of The January Children
This is a powerful book. Historically and culturally contextualized for the reader to fully appreciate, it is hard-hitting, humane, emotional-and relevant. If you are an independent thinker and a lover of language, this newly translated Qabbani collection of poems is a must-read.
Saul Kassin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Williams College, author of Duped: Why Innocent People Confess-and Why We Believe Their Confessions
Rana Bitar
is a Syrian-American physician, poet, and writer. She holds a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Her memoir, The Long Tale of Tears and Smiles, was published by Global Collective Publishers in August 2021.