Poetry
ديوان البلبل والوكر
Not translated into English
Ibrahim al-Asta Umar · 1967
Synopsis
Poems in which the songbird deprived of its nest speaks of exile and of occupied Libya, mixed with love pieces, satires of the powerful of the day and laments for the lost land. Composed by a blind poet and transmitted orally before being printed, many were set to music, so that the collection records a sung repertoire as much as a written work.
Context
The collection appeared only seventeen years after its author's death, and it was two Libyan scholars, Abd al-Basit al-Dallal and Abd al-Latif Muhammad Shahin, who gathered its poems: the poems had lived by word of mouth before print, learned and recited while Italy held the country, which explains how a blind man could become one of the most frequently repeated voices without publishing anything in his lifetime. The title sets the singing bird against the nest of which it is deprived, an image his readers have read as that of an occupied country.
Who it is for
A divan in Arabic, not translated. Several of these poems have become songs, and it is sung that Libyans know them best.
Prizes and reception
A posthumous collection that put into writing a body of work never printed during its author's lifetime.