Literature

I have no power By Nizar Qabbani translated by Norma Medawar I have no power to change you Or explain your ways… Don’t believe a man can change a woman and the claims of men fancying that woman comes from one of their ribs are false… Woman never emerges from a man’s rib…. It’s he who emerges from her pelvis like a fish rising from a basin of water he...

Book Review by Lisa Accadia   Daughter of Damascus by Siham Tergeman Published by Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1994         Damascus in my mind’s eye… is an Arabic house with an open courtyard, in its center is a small pool from which 70 brass pipes pour out cool water. A beautiful woman sweeps the courtyard with water, holding...

By Brigid Keenan, Thames & Hudson Review by Charles Newton, ESL teacher and artist  My husband, a diplomat, was posted to Syria in 1993, and I went with him. Very soon, like Isabel, the wife of the famous British Consul Richard Burton, a hundred and twenty-odd years before me, I found myself in love with Damascus. (Long after she left Syria,...

  Tears for the Souq of Damascus On the road to Damascus I dreamed of the Souk The delicious biscuit, barazeh The over powering smell of maazoot   Souk El Hamadeyeh’s narrow lanes Shoulder rubbing lanes of fabric Copperware, clothing, underwear The silversmiths, surely do reign   Traditional foods and modern cuisine Great fashion and jewellery Syria, home of pure cotton High-rise buildings add to the scene   Mar Yohanna’s historical church Now a mausoleum The ancient...