Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi Poems

Awoken by light, I scratch the glass
of dreams, and find myself
...

I only notice
a woman who gets no notice
...

The body of a bird in your mouth
breathing songs.
...

Orchards surround his homes;
there, translucent moonlight falls
...

Suddenly - a small fox, playful,
floods your wounded heart with joy
He searches your face with his singular gaze,
knows you're at one with his vagabond stance
...

1

The kings who have gone
left us the relics of their forgettable names -
like Aleece or Kush
...

7.

In the water
in silence at your side
in a fire that draws us close
...

Let the wind blow from a fisherman's mouth,
from the span of a sail to the shell of a boat,
unlocking the mouth of the river -
...

9.

A lazy noon
stirs me from your memory to this glass of tea
and a wondering embrace
...

1

All these wars
make the world unhomely
make homes rust apart
...

The last night . . .
the first night . . .
. . . between them - clarity
...

The little boy, playing in bed
while his wounded mother cooks,
...

13.

What tempts a barman in the small hours?
Nursing a drink that bores him,
...

Your heart thumps
as if she were already
...

15.

Poetry - may you be a green body.
May you be a language
...

16.

Facing down wind in a dust-storm,
wrapped up in his cloak
...

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi Biography

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is one of the leading African poets writing in Arabic today. He has gained a wide audience in his native Sudan for his imaginative approach to poetry and for the delicacy and emotional frankness of his lyrics. His poetry has always been concerned with the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Sudan and its complex history. Saddiq was born in 1969 and grew up in Omdurman Khartoum where he lived until forced into exile in 2012. From 2006, he was the cultural editor of Al-Sudani newspaper until he was sacked from his position for political reasons (along with 22 other colleagues) in July 2012 during the uprising against the dictatorship of Omar Al-Bashir. Saddiq only escaped imprisonment because, thanks to the miraculous timing of Poetry Parnassus (the world's largest ever gathering of international poets at which Saddiq represented Sudan), he was in the UK when a series of mass arrests took place. He successfully applied for asylum and is now living in London. Saddiq's first poetry collection Songs of Solitude was published in 1996 (second edition, 1999). He has also published The Sultan's Labyrinth (1996) and The Far Reaches of the Screen... (1999 & 2000); all three collections were published in one volume as Saddiq's collected poems in Cairo in 2009. One of the six poets taking part in the PTC's first World Poets' Tour in October 2005, Saddiq received a rapturous response from audiences in the UK. In March 2006 he returned to the UK and gave a moving reading at the Poetry Cafe as part of their occasional series 'In Town Tonight' featuring important international poets visiting London. In the autumn of 2006, he was invited to take part in the LitUp festival in Kendal, and he also gave readings in Brighton and at SOAS in London. In 2008 he took part in the second World Poets' Tour. 'Poem of the Nile' was published in The London Review of Books one of the rare occasions the LRB has published poetry translated from Arabic and the first time they featured the work of an African poet. His poems have also been published in Poetry Review and The Times Literary Supplement. This is a real indication of Saddiq's growing status as an important international poet. Saddiq's involvement with the PTC stimulated his interest in translation. Back in Sudan, he began an innovative project that involved writers in Arabic from northern Sudan collaborating with writers in English from the south to translate each others' work, a project with enormous political significance in divided Sudan and which he later had to abandon because of the serious risks involved. In 2007, he set up the website Sudanese Ink, a showcase for writers from Sudan and beyond. In 2010 he was invited to take part in the prestigious Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam. He then travelled to the UK for a series of readings alongside Corsino Fortes from Cape Verde. Whilst in London, a party was organised for him at The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology which holds a significant collection of ancient Sudanese artefacts. As a result of the success of this event (and earlier visits to the Petrie in 2005 and 2006), the Petrie Museum made a successful application to ACE for Saddiq to spend time working in the Museum as their poet in residence during the summer of 2012.)

The Best Poem Of Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

A Star

Awoken by light, I scratch the glass
of dreams, and find myself
stepping free of shadows and silence.
In the distance a star was absorbing
my tiredness, and itself heading like a pilgrim
towards you, leaving blank its place in the heavens.
In the green pits of our being our inner
threads yearn; this radiance, that makes me feel I own
herds of horses, am as inspired as any knight -
what is its source? Shocked
into words, I defied the book-burners, the suffocators
of thought and feeling, all who'd censor and shroud knowledge.
And a violet blossomed fiercely in the bosom of the sky.

Star Woman,
the memory of our embrace still lives
in this bed, adjacent to your dreams
and desires, and near these handkerchiefs
drenched in your scent.
You woke in the dawn
at three exactly, drowsing,
still dazed…
Beneath the sounds of your breathing
lurks a worry: where is your mirror?
And this droplet of light
reflecting a passion
that found a name for everything…

Under the pillows also, an aroma
alive and ours - and the long list
of names we have bestowed
on this affair. Surely
a goddess lives there too, the one
who knows the names of all things.

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