Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selected Poems

Rating:
Summary: Prescient words for a world gone wrong
Review: I concur with the assessment of Midwest Book Review, and there is a veridical power in Yusuf's poetry. I look forward to more of his work being released in English.

Rating:
Summary: A raw and unrestrained work of powerful and lyric fervor
Review: Without An Alphabet, Without A Face is a work of emotional poetry by Saadi Youssef, one of the Arab world's foremost poets, and is superbly translated into English by Khaled Mattawa. A raw and unrestrained work of powerful and lyric fervor, Without An Alphabet, Without A Face is enthusiastically recommended reading. On The Red Sea: We were not sailors/but the captain's captives,/the sweepers of his kitchen.../Sometimes he strolled/with his wolf dog/and we leapt in fright, terrified,/and fled to hide/in the corner of the stern./The ship traveled by night,/folded its sails in the morning/at African ports,/and the sailors walked/to taverns on the beach./As for us/we remained as we were/the captain's captives,/the sweepers of his kitchen...