Eman Al-Saeedi’s poetry collection “Handkerchiefs Rigged with Whiteness” is a raw and evocative exploration of existence in a world filled with suffering and war. Translated from Arabic by Hatem Mohammed Al-Shamea, Al-Saeedi’s poems tackle themes of alienation, loss, grief, and the struggle to find hope and meaning amidst chaos.
The collection ranges in tone from melancholic lament to fiery protest. Al-Saeedi draws vivid imagery of bombed-out cities, faceless corpses, starving children, and other visceral scenes of human pain. Yet she also pays homage to the endurance of the human spirit, to art and poetry’s power to memorialize, and to the possibility of rebirth after ruin.
Written mainly in free verse, the poems employ metaphor, surreal juxtaposition, and rich sensory language to immerse the reader in the therapist’s heightened emotional states. While rooted in the particular experience of war in Yemen, Al-Saeedi’s raw outcries against violence and her search for beauty in a ravaged landscape speak to universal human truths.
This collection marks the emergence of a bold, new voice in Arab poetry. Al-Shamea’s sensitive translation aims to introduce Al-Saeedi’s work to English readers while retaining the essence of her distinctive style.
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