Incomprehensible Lesson: in versions by Anthony Howell

Shortlisted for the Sarah Maguire Prize 2021 Fawzi Karim’s poetry has been widely translated, among other languages into French, Swedish, Italian and English. Carcanet published Plague Lands and Other Poems (2011), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. This new selection, translated by Anthony Howell working from the author’s own versions, explores the experience of becoming at home in London, passing from a sense of exile to a sense of uneasy belonging. In his introduction the poet is tactful, candid, touching on some of the most urgent themes of our time including exile and the possibilities of home. Between the poet, a major literary presence in his language, and his translator, a poet of many talents and skills, a kind of dialogue exists. The accommodations between two traditions formally uneasy in one another's company is compelling to read. The poet’s and the translator’s contrasting memories meet and confer at the level of language and image.

About the Author :
Fawzi Karim (1945 - 2019) was a well-known Iraqi poet, writer and painter. Born in Baghdad in 1945, he was educated at Baghdad University before embarking on a career as a freelance writer. He lived in Lebanon from 1969-1972 and has lived in London since 1978.The Ivory Tower, his column on poetry and European classical music has appeared in a number of influential Arabic newspapers and is respected for its emphasis on the transcendent value of art and culture. He has published more than twenty three books of poetry, including a two volume Collected Poems (2000), The Foundling Years (2003), The Last Gypsies (2005), Night of Abel Alaa (2008), The Empty Quarter (2014) and What The poetry is, but a Slip of The Tongue (2016). He is also the author of sixteen books of prose, including The Emperor's Clothes: On Poetry (2000), Diary of The End of a Nightmare (2005), Gods the Companion, on music (2009), Pastures of Cactus, short stories (2015). The Music and Poetry (2014), The Music and Painting (2014) and a novel Who is Afraid of The Copper City (2016). His poetry is translated to many languages, including French, Sweden, Italian and English. Carcanet published his first selection Plague Lands and Other poems (2011), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for 2011. He died in 2019, aged 73, and is survived by his wife, Lily Altai, whom he married in 1981, two sons, Sammer and Basil, and two grandchildren, Maya and Layla. Anthony Howell was born in 1945. A former dancer with the Royal Ballet and subsequently a performance artist – he founded the Theatre of Mistakes 1974 – he has always been as active in literature as he has in movement. He has published several collections of poems and two novels. During 2002–7 he taught creative writing in prisons. He lives in London.