P h o t o:

©StephenLock

The Saif Ghobash – Banipal Prize for Arabic Literar y Translation 2011

was awarded to Khaled Mattawa for

Adonis: Selected Poems published by Yale University Press

“Destined to become a classic”

Judges’ Announcement “Khaled Mattawa’s translation of this selection of Adonis’s poetry is destined to become a classic. It is a monumental piece of work, a long-overdue compendium of works by one of the most important poets of our time, a contribution to world literature that demonstrates the lyricism and full range of Adonis’s poetry. The translations are supple and fluent, flexible yet accurate, consistently sensitive to the poet’s nuances, and beautifully render into English Adonis’s modernist sensibilities. Anglophone readers will gain a new appreciation of why Adonis has so often been likened to TS Eliot and Ezra Pound, with the freshness of his lines and imagination liberated from the self-conscious archaism of other translations, and allowing his unique reworking of the legends of East and West, the arcs of love and death, to spring forth. This book should ensure that Western readers recognize the significance of Adonis’s contribution to world poetry.”

Barbara Romaine was declared runner-up for her translation of Spectres by Radwa Ashour, published by Arabia Books in the UK and by Interlink Books in the USA. Commended was Maia Tabet for her translation of White Masks by Elias Khoury, published by Archipelago Books, USA.

For more information about the prize contact T h e B a n i p a l Tr u s t f o r A r a b L i t e r a t u r e 1 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DE Tel: 00 44 (0)20 7832 1350

Email: info@banipaltrust.org.uk www.banipaltrust.org.uk