The Early Departure

These are selected poems of the eminent modern Iraqi poet Badre ShÄkir Al-SayyÄb (1926–1964) who developed a modern style in writing Arabic poetry, which soon became popular in modern Iraqi and, by extension, Arabic poetry. Though a couple of his poems were translated into English and French, this is the first time that such a collection of his poetry has been translated and published.

The author is an Iraqi citizen. He has a BA Hons in English; Master’s degree from Harvard; PhD in English Literature from Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He taught English and comparative literature at seven Arab universities. He has published 60 books on literary topics, 40 of them are translations, English/Arabic/English.