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Bilingual poetry reading draws crowd

Renowned Iraqi poet Amal Al-Jubouri visited Smith earlier this month, accompanied by Rebecca Howell, one of the co-translators of Al-Jubouri’s latest work, “Hagar Before the Occupation, Hagar After the Occupation.” A native Iraqi, Al-Jubouri’s life story speaks to the country’s recent troubled history; she even fled to Germany for several years in 1997, returning to Iraq mere days after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Al-Jubouri work ranges from poetry—she published her first collection at 19—to Arabic-English translation, journalism, and even co-producing two documentaries about Iraq during and after the U.S. invasion. In one of the many touching moments during the reading, Al-Jubouri thanked Smith for hosting her and showing her the “bright side of America, not just the dark side I experienced in my home country.” She also explained that she is “from a generation… that know[s] nothing, just war and then embargo and then war and invasion.”

Al-Jubouri’s poems, described as paired “meditations on the upheaval of a nation,” conveyed a wide range of emotions in both the Arabic (read by Al-Jubouri) and English (read by Howell). Al-Jubouri’s readings contrasted sharply with Howell’s. The emphasis and length of certain syllables in Arabic led to a lyrical and at times almost breathy delivery. In contrast, Howell’s interpretations of the English felt reflective and reserved. The chance to see and hear the beauty of a country’s culture that we so often associate merely with war and violence offered an enlightening and encouraging experience despite the generally serious tone of the poems.


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