THE SHORT STORIES OF ZAKARIA TAMER

nal wounds, reaching its end of journey, finding some skilfully scattered spots, hidden in the bottom of the city, in which the river discharged its remaining waste.* In contrast, however, in the late 1950s, it was the Syrian poet Mohammad al-Maghut who carried the huge burden of transforming prose into poetry, pioneering a massive movement which will be, enthusiastically although rather hastily, baptized as the ‘prose poem’. Amazingly, it was al-Maghut’s diction – dazzling while ordinary, and warm while harsh – which seemed to accomplish in poetry what Tamer has been forging in the short story. “I am the flute

Zakaria Tamer Photo: © Khalid al-Maaly

76 BANIPAL 53 – SUMMER 2015