Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati

• Name — Abdul-Wahab Al-Bayati عبد الوهاب البياتي • Birthplace — Baghdad, Iraq • Born — December 19, 1926 • Place of death — Damascus, Syria • Died — 3 August 1999 • Occupation — Poet

Al-Bayati was born in Baghdad. Al-Bayati was an Iraqi Turkmen poet. One of his friends, Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi, said urban centers of "hotels and institutions, cafés and airports" were actually his temporary residences. He attended Baghdad University, and became a teacher after graduating from Dar al-Mu'allimin (the Teacher's College) in 1950, the same year that he released his first collection of poems, Mala'ika wa Shayatin (Angels and Devils). In 1996, he published a poem "The Dragon". The translation by Farouk Abdel Wahab, Najat Rahman, and Carolina Hotchandani is from the volume Iraqi Poetry Today (c) 2003, edited by Saadi Simawe. "The Dragon" is an example of al-Bayyati's frequent incorporation of mythological figures into his poetry. Critics have interpreted the poem as addressed to Saddam Hussein.

Al-Bayati was influenced by the Middle Eastern Sufi figures. One example is a poem by al-Bayati entitled "A’isha's Mad Lover" in his book, Love Poems on the Seven Gates of the World (1971): "In this context Al-Bayati's poetry becomes Sufi in default, since he assumes the position as a modernist whose aspirations for an earthy paradise have not materialized."

• Mala'ika wa shayatin (Angels and Devils), 1950 • Abariq muhashshama, 1954 • Risala ila Hazim Hikmet wa quas'aid ukhra, 1956 • Al-Majd li al-atfal wa al-zaytun, 1956 • Ash'ar fi al-manfa, 1957 • Ishrun qasida min Berlin, 1959 • Kalimat la tamut, 1960 • Muhakama fi Nisabur, 1963 • Al-Nar wa al-kalimat, 1964 • Sifr al-faqr wa al-thawra, 1965 • Alladhi ya'ti wa laya'ti, 1966 • Al Mawt fi al Hayat, 1968 • Tajribati al-shi'riyya, 1968 • 'Ulyun al-kilab al-mayyita, 1969 • Buka'iyya ila shams haziran wa al-murtaziqa, 1969 • Al Kitaba al Teen, 1970 • Yawmiyyat siyasi muhtarif, 1970 • Qasaid hubb 'ala bawwabat al-'alam al-sab, 1971 • Sira dhatiyya li sariq al-nar, 1974 • Kitab al-bahr, 1974 • Qamar Shiraz, 1976 • Mamlakat al-sunbula, 1979 • Sawt al-sanawat al-daw'iyya, 1979 • Bustan 'A'isha, 1989 • Al-Bahr Ba'id, Asma'uh Yatanahhud (The Sea is Distant, I Hear It Sighing), 1998

• Lilies and Death, 1972 (trans. Mohammed B. Alwan) • The Singer and the Moon, 1976 (trans. Abdullah al-Udhari) • Eye of the Sun, 1978 • Love Under Rain (Al-hubb tahta al-matar), 1985 (transl. Desmond Stewart and George Masri) • Love, Death, and Exile, 1990 (trans. Bassam K. Frangieh)

• Poet of Iraq: Abdul Wahab al-Bayati. An introductory essay with translations by Desmond Stewart, 1976 • Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, 1979 (a short introduction and four poems, trans. Desmond Stewart and George Masri)

• Abdullah al-Udhari, ed. and trans. Modern Poetry of the Arab World. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1986. • An Apology for a Short Speech • The Arab Refugee • The Fugitive • Hamlet • Profile of the Lover of the Great Bear • To Ernest Hemingway • Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ed. Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987 • The Birth of Aisha and Her Death • Eligy for Aisha • The Impossible • Luzumiyya • Simawe, Saadi ed. Iraqi Poetry Today, London: King's College, London, 2003 • The Dragon • An Elegy to Aisha • I am Born and I Burn in My Love • Love Under The Rain • The Nightmare • Nine Ruba'iyat • Shiraz Moon • Three Ruba'iyat • To Naguib Mahfouz [Amman, 15 April 1997] • To TS Eliot • Transformations of Aisha: Aisha's Birth and Death in the Magical Rituals Inscribed in Cuneiform on the Nineveh Tablets • Two Poems for my son, Ali • Who Owns the Homeland? • Writing on Aisha's Tomb