Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi at the Fitz
The Fitzwilliam had Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi and Sarah Maguire reading his poetry in their seminar room today. It was quite a special experience; Sarah reading first in English and then Saddiq in Arabic, the audience quietly drinking the words in as pictures of Sudan silently flicked on and off behind them.
Afterwards questions were tossed gently out of the audience and Saddiq tried his best to answer them and when his English abandoned him, Sarah stepped in with tales of poetry competitions in Yemen and the accolade poets in the Arabic speaking world get. It was the first time I’d heard of the Poetry Translation Centre – it’s a fascinating endeavour – a collection of translators and poets working together to make poetry accessible to audiences who would otherwise never get a chance to see it.
Afterwards Malte and I wandered around the museum looking for the Nubian exhibits and between giggles discussing this, that and everything in between.