Story of (that) time
Story of that time; like tyrants who gargle in the depth ; in the (wood’s quiet) we were, night was in us; maybe we were stars, maybe we carried our clothes to where the river enters....
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Naseer Hassan
Naseer HASSAN (poet, translator; Iraq) is an Iraqi poet and translator of poetry and philosophy. He was born in Baghdad in 1962 and graduated with a degree in architecture from Baghdad University. He also was a member of the Iraqi Chess Team. He is a member of the Iraqi Writers Union and the Iraqi Journalists Guild and has published four poetry collections in Arabic: [The Circle of Sundial] (1998), [Suggested Signs] (2007), [Being Here] (2008), and [Dayplaces] (2010). Hassan's collected poems appeared in 2010 from the Arabic Publishing House in Beirut. He has translated into Arabic three books of poetry and one of philosophy: [Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems and Critical Readings] (the first book on Emily Dickinson in Arabic); [Luis Borges: 60 Selected Poems]; [Days of the Shore: Selections from the New American Poetry 1980-2010]; and [Asian Philosophies by John Koller]. In addition, he has several poetic and philosophical translations forthcoming, including [Kierkegaard: A Brief Introduction], [Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (Book 1)], and [House of the Star: Poems from Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes].
Hassan rarely left Iraq during the wars and tragedies that Iraq endured. He lived through all the major wars before 2003 and after, lost many close friends and relatives, and was more than once in imminent danger himself. Despite this, he doesn't express this life experience in a direct way, but rather in a contemplative tone, trying to merge the local with the universal, the sensual with the philosophical, and the temporal with the eternal, inventing meanwhile new poetic forms. He is a winner of the 2008 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award for working in a highly dangerous situation as a member of the Baghdad Bureau of Radio Free Iraq, where some of his colleagues were kidnapped or assassinated.
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The fever called "living"! – Edgar Allan Poe An ancient lightning… a small courtyard… a green spot in a child's memory… summers, hot summers… a ghetto that knows rain and mud… and looks forward to mysterious... media_text
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Pollution The prostitute, at the front of the street The prostitute, at the front of the street, approaches media_text
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On January 28, I went to my grandfather’s house in Baghdad, where I was registered to vote, to participate in the national election. I had to arrive early because a three-day curfew had been imposed. It was... media_text
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Eternity Surgical ward And here we are media_text
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At last, a real Iraqi election, the event we have waited decades to see, is coming true. And now, as we prepare to vote, we remember all those who sacrificed their lives, their families and their youth, so that such... media_text
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To those days--bombing monuments… 1 media_text
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Theft When he woke up from his dream When he returned from his sadness Transitory Experience... media_text
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Between the predisposition to the Absolute, and the red walls of the labyrinth, the paths that lead to the meaning vary. And, whether the letter is a sword, a candlestick, or a wall-- the truth is farther... media_text
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