Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (Arabic: عبد الوهاب البياتي) (December 19, 1926 – August 3, 1999) was an Iraqi Arab poet.

Biography Al-Bayati was born in Baghdad. Al-Bayati was an Iraqi Turkmen poet. One of his friends, Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi, said urban centers of "hotels and institutions, cafés and airports" were actually his temporary residences. He attended Baghdad University, and became a teacher after graduating from Dar al-Mu'allimin (the Teacher's College) in 1950, the same year that he released his first collection of poems, Mala'ika wa Shayatin (Angels and Devils).

In 1996, he published a poem "The Dragon".

Sufism Al-Bayati was influenced by the Middle Eastern Sufi figures. One example is a poem by al-Bayati entitled "A’isha's Mad Lover" in his book, Love Poems on the Seven Gates of the World (1971): "In this context Al-Bayati's poetry becomes Sufi in default, since he assumes the position as a modernist whose aspirations for an earthy paradise have not materialized."

Works

Original volumes

Mala'ika wa shayatin (Angels and Devils), 1950 Abariq muhashshama, 1954 Risala ila Hazim Hikmet wa quas'aid ukhra, 1956 Al-Majd li al-atfal wa al-zaytun, 1956 Ash'ar fi al-manfa, 1957 Ishrun qasida min Berlin, 1959 Kalimat la tamut, 1960 Muhakama fi Nisabur, 1963 Al-Nar wa al-kalimat, 1964 Sifr al-faqr wa al-thawra, 1965 Alladhi ya'ti wa laya'ti, 1966 Al Mawt fi al Hayat, 1968 Tajribati al-shi'riyya, 1968 'Ulyun al-kilab al-mayyita, 1969 Buka'iyya ila shams haziran wa al-murtaziqa, 1969 Al Kitaba al Teen, 1970 Yawmiyyat siyasi muhtarif, 1970 Qasaid hubb 'ala bawwabat al-'alam al-sab, 1971 Sira dhatiyya li sariq al-nar, 1974 Kitab al-bahr, 1974 Qamar Shiraz, 1976 Mamlakat al-sunbula, 1979 Sawt al-sanawat al-daw'iyya, 1979 Bustan 'A'isha, 1989 Al-Bahr Ba'id, Asma'uh Yatanahhud (The Sea is Distant, I Hear It Sighing), 1998

Translated volumes

Lilies and Death, 1972 (trans. Mohammed B. Alwan) The Singer and the Moon, 1976 (trans. Abdullah al-Udhari) Eye of the Sun, 1978 Love Under Rain (Al-hubb tahta al-matar), 1985 (transl. Desmond Stewart and George Masri) Love, Death, and Exile, 1990 (trans. Bassam K. Frangieh)

Anthologies with only works by Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati

Poet of Iraq: Abdul Wahab al-Bayati. An introductory essay with translations by Desmond Stewart, 1976 Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, 1979 (a short introduction and four poems, trans. Desmond Stewart and George Masri)

Anthologies with works by Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati and other poets

Abdullah al-Udhari, ed. and trans. Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1986. An Apology for a Short Speech The Arab Refugee The Fugitive Hamlet Profile of the Lover of the Great Bear To Ernest Hemingway Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ed. Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987 The Birth of Aisha and Her Death Eligy for Aisha The Impossible Luzumiyya Simawe, Saadi ed. Iraqi Poetry Today, London: King's College, London, 2003 The Dragon An Elegy to Aisha I am Born and I Burn in My Love Love Under The Rain The Nightmare Nine Ruba'iyat Shiraz Moon Three Ruba'iyat To Naguib Mahfouz [Amman, 15 April 1997] To TS Eliot Transformations of Aisha: Aisha's Birth and Death in the Magical Rituals Inscribed in Cuneiform on the Nineveh Tablets Two Poems for my son, Ali Who Owns the Homeland? Writing on Aisha's Tomb