Portrait of Saadi Youssef

Saadi Youssef

Saadi Youssef (1934-2021), born near Basra, Iraq, is considered one of the most important contemporary poetsin the Arab world. Following his time as a political prisoner in Iraq, he spent most of his life in exile, working as a teacher and literary journalist throughout North Africa and the Middle East. He published over forty books of poetry, two novels, a book of short stories, and several books of essays and memoir. Youssef, who spent the last two decades of his life in London, was a leading translator into Arabic of works by Walt Whitman, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Federico García Lorca, and many others. A collection of his selected poems, translated by Khaled Mattawa, was released as Without an Alphabet, Without a Face by Graywolf Press in 2002. (updated 4/2023)

AGNI has published the following work:

Freedom

Poetry by Saadi Youssef Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa

To Pet a Dog In London!

Poetry by Saadi Youssef Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa

Obsession

Poetry by Saadi Youssef Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa

The Porcupine

Poetry by Saadi Youssef Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa

The Fence

Poetry by Saadi Youssef Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
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