Bilal Al Masri is one of Lebanon’s foremost living poets. The publication of ‘Because of You’ is the first time his poems are available in English
London
Palewell Press London, UK has released a book ‘Because of You’, the selected Poems by Bilal Al Masri, one of Lebanon’s foremost living poets.
Camilla Reeve, poet and founder of the Human Rights and Environmental publisher Palewell Press, commented:
Bilal Al Masri is one of Lebanon’s foremost living poets. The publication of Because of You – Selected Poems is the first time his poems are available in English. The translation and editorial team included Dr. Mohamad Haj Mohamad, Dr Anba Jawi MBE and Camilla Reeve. The book will be in UK public libraries: The British Library, The National Library of Scotland, The Bodleian Library in Oxford, The National Library of Wales, and The Cambridge University Library; and in The Library of Trinity College, Dublin. Readings from the collection will occur at the South West Festival in Westminter this July and other events London later in the year.
Bilal’s poems capture the tension between our need for closeness to others and the fear we are doomed to remain apart:
Like smoke dispersing, words distance themselves
As you and I return to being strangers
Dr. Mohamad Haj Mohamad’s comment on Because of You acknowledges the poet’s skill that lures readers to its challenging and pleasant poetic experience. Bilal Al Masri’s style helps unchain the spirit to let roam freely to cream off the best images.
And Dr. Anba Jawi writes that Bilal’s poems consist of many layers… He digs deep into a beautiful yet harsh reality.
Between Lebanon and the UK, understanding will grow from wonderful lines like these:
Strangers know
That love can have no home nor trees to shade it.
For you are walking through a desert where one star guides you
And another leads astray but you are unconcerned – the route is in your heart.
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