Islamic Arabic Poems: Selected and Translated

Poetry is a universal medium that has inspired mankind almost since words were first invented. And with the use of careful and creative translation methods, poetry can now reach across cultural and linguistic borders and be enjoyed by people from all over the world. Poetry uses words and language not merely to express meaning or content, but to symbolize meaning and content. One of the most important issues in the translation of poetry concerns the nature of poetry and of the language it uses. Poetry is the most powerful form of language, wherein language achieves the summit of its emotional response and its complicated construction requiring that the translation must reflect its original material as closely as possible.Translating Arabic poetry into English is a difficult task indeed as most scholars maintain. There are certain types of expressions which are commonplace in all Arabic poetry, and understandable in an Arabic context, but if they are translated literally into English they are either unintelligible or convey a different sense from what the poet intended unless an explanation is given. This work is a collection of six poems.