Sania Saleh (1935–1985; Arabic: سنية صالح) was a Syrian writer and poet, who wrote and published several poetry collections.[1] Some of her poetry has been translated into English by Marilyn Hacker.[2]

Sania Saleh
Born1935
Masyaf, Hama Governorate, Syria
Died1985
TitlePoet, writer
SpouseMohammad al-Maghut

Biography edit

Sania Saleh was born in the city of Masyaf, in the Hama Governorate, Syria. She met the Syrian writer Mohammad al-Maghut in the 1950s at the house of the Syrian poet Adunis in Beirut. In the late 1960s she married Mohammad al-Maghut while she was still a student in the college of literature at the University of Damascus, Syria.[1] They had two daughters together and named them Sham and Salafa.

In 1985, Sania Saleh died at a hospital in Paris after having battled an illness for 10 months.[3]

The Egyptian poet Iman Mersal has lamented that fact Saleh's poetry was not more widely known when Mersal was young:

I grew up thinking that there were no modern Arab female poets for me – until I read Sania Saleh, just three years ago or so. And this makes you wonder: why such poetry was not available to me as a young reader? I think if I′d read her early in my life, it would have been fantastic.[4]

Works edit

  • Tight Time (1964) (original title: al-Zaman al-Dayeq)
  • Execution Ink (1970) (original title: Hebr al-Idam)
  • Zikr al-Ward (1988)
  • Dust (1982) (original title: al-Ghubar)

Poetry translated into English edit

  • "Autumn of Freedom". ArabLit Quarterly. Translated by Marilyn Hacker. Fall 2018. Republished in Marilyn Hacker (2019). Blazons: New and Selected Poems, 2000-2018. Carcanet. pp. 56–59. ISBN 9781784107161.
  • "The Deluge". Shenadoah. 70 (2). Translated by Marilyn Hacker. Spring 2021.
  • "The War of Memory". Shenadoah. 70 (2). Translated by Marilyn Hacker. Spring 2021.

Awards edit

  • An-Nahar newspaper award for best modern poem (1961)[5]
  • Hawaa magazine award for short stories (1964)
  • Al Hasnaa magazine award for poetry (1967)

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Friday Finds: The Poetry of Underappreciated Saniyah Saleh". Arablit. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Autumn of Freedom". Blazons: New and Selected Poems, 2000-2018. Translated by Marilyn Hacker. Manchester: Carcanet. 2019. pp. 56–59. ISBN 9781784107161.
  3. ^ "ديوان قصائد وأشعار سنية صالح | ديوان قاعدة بيانات الشعر العربي صفحة 1". DiwanDB.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  4. ^ Marcia Lynx Qualey (2016). "Interview with the Egyptian poet Iman Mersal: Crossing a universal threshold". quantara.de. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  5. ^ Daniel Behar (2019). The New Austerity in Syrian Poetry (PhD thesis). Harvard University. p. 122. ISBN 9798684608926. ProQuest 2459634620.