Red Pomegranates: Love, Beauty and Deceit: Arabic Poetry About, For, and by Women

by Mishael M. Caspi, John T. Green, Mohammad Jiyad

This four-part book focuses on the voice of women in principally the Arab and Islamic world, a world which because of demographics has become almost universal. By employing the symbol of the red pomegranates the authors symbolize a woman's nurturing, life-sustaining, and loving powers while simultaneously extolling her grand physicality and sexual appeal. In addition, this is a book about love, both physical and spiritual, and how its presence serves to regulate human life, while its absence exacerbates human problems. In either case, the language of discourse is the medium of poetry, discourse in the vernacular being totally inadequate to achieve the goal of explaining and expressing love's role and goal in human existence. The role of love and the female poets, ancient and modern, who have written about it are herein praised, enshrined, extolled and accorded their proper place in the history of poetic communication.

Genres: Poetry

327 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2013

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamda Khamis, Bahrain

In memory of my close friend Saadallah Wannous

I Am Not There

When you wake up
And start your stroll in the morning quietness
I am the noise of
The sparrows’ wings
As they suddenly take off
But gently flew into tranquility.
I am in the slenderness of the far stars
As they gleam
Into the sky depth
I am in the shiver of creation
The surprise of love
I am not resting under ground
I am a thousand winds
When they blow in the longing seasons
I am the glitter of precious stones
On a snow coat
I am the light
That brings the grain spikes into ripeness
I am in the gentleness of the heavy rain
As it falls
In Autumn evening

I am in the branches
In the grass
In the extended silence
In brilliancy
I am in the dew
In the nightingales’ singing
And in the fresh air

[Ezekiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have been solid 4 stars if in the middle it didn't decide that what is needed is to translate one full fledged prose book about how awful women are. I can see the importance of mentioning it, not so much of translating it completely.