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Widad Nabi

Widad Nabi (Arabic: وداد نبي‎; * 1985 in Kobane, Syria) is a Syrian Kurdish poetess and writer who has been living in exile in Berlin, Germany, since 2015. She writes her poems in Arabic, and some of them having been published in French and German. In addition to writing about her experience of the political situation in Syria and her later life as a refugee, she has advocated for women's rights - both in Syria and also in Western Europe. Her works are part of contemporary Syrian exile literature.

Widad Nabi
Native name
وداد نبي
Born1985
Kobani, Syria
OccupationWriter and poetess
Period2013 - present
Subjectwar in Syria, exile as refugee
Notable awardsWeiter Schreiben Scholarship Wiesbaden, Germany

Life and career

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Nabi was born in Kobani, the capital of the district Ain al-Arab in northern Syria near the border with Turkey. The district is part of the Kurdish settlement area in Syria, also known as Rojava. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Aleppo.[1] During her time in Syria, she wrote for magazines and newspapers, and since her flight to Berlin in 2015, her essays about her exile have appeared in several German media.[2][3][4] Further essays about topics such as the personal choice of Muslim women wearing a hijab or not and her relationship with modern German literature were published by the German weekly Die Zeit.[5][6]

Nabi writes her poems in Arabic, the official language of the educational system in Syria. In 2013, she published her first book Time for Love, Time for War in Aleppo. In 2016, this was followed by her Syria and the Futility of Death in Beirut.[7] In German translation, her poems have been published in three poetry collections and anthologies.[8]

Reception

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In 2019, Nabi was invited to the Berlin International Literature Festival.[9] In 2018 and 2020, she was honoured with literary awards by the German cities of Rheinsberg and Wiesbaden.[10][11]

On the occasion of the 2021 International Frankfurt Book Fair, Al Jazeera Arabic called Nabi's work "at the forefront of the new Arabic poetry, by virtue of the rich poetic experience she accumulated at the level of language, symbol, image, and the extent of their fusion with the Syrian reality."[12] In 2022, pro-opposition Syrian television network Syria.tv published an article about Nabi's work, including interpretations of her poems.[13]

Selected works

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In German translation

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  • Eine Frau am Spreeufer: Geschichte und Gedichte. Sven Murmann Verlag, Hamburg, 2017, ISBN 978-3-96196-019-4
  • Kurz vor dreißig, küss mich. Ausgewählte Gedichte (Arabic/German). Translated from Arabic by Suleman Taufiq. Sujet Verlag, Bremen, 2020, ISBN 978-3-96202-066-8
  • Unsichtbare Brüche. Gedichte. Translated from Arabic by Suleman Taufiq. Sujet Verlag, Bremen, 2021, ISBN 978-3-96202-094-1

In anthologies

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  • Weg sein - hier sein. An anthology with works by authors living in exile in Germany. With an introduction by Sherko Fatah. Secession Verlag, Berlin, 2016, ISBN 978-3-905951-97-4
  • Khalid Al-Maaly (ed.) Die Flügel meines schweren Herzens. Lyrik arabischer Dichterinnen vom 5. Jahrhundert bis heute. Translated from Arabic by Khalid Al-Maaly and Heribert Becker. Manesse Verlag, Zürich, 2017, ISBN 978-3-7175-4092-2

In French anthologies

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  • Atfah, Lina, et al. Les Fruits de L’obscurité: Lina Atfah, Rasha Habbal, Widad Nabi, Maha Becker, Fadwa Souleimane. Bilingual edition Arabic - French, Atelier de l’agneau, 2018. ISBN 9782374280219.
  • Masri, Maram al-, (ed.) L’amour Au Temps de L’insurrection et de La Guerre: Anthologie de La Poésie Syrienne d’Aujourd’hui. Montreuil: Le Temps des cerises, no date. ISBN 9782370710321

Further reading

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  • Eigler, Friederike (2021). "Fostering Transnational, Multilingual Collaboration: The Berlin-based Artists' Initiative WeiterSchreiben.jetzt". TRANSIT. 13 (1). doi:10.5070/T713153423.

References

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  1. ^ "Berlin's Syrian poet: 'More than just a refugee'". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  2. ^ Widad Nabi (2017-09-09), "Die Syrerin Widad Nabi über ihre Flucht und ihr Ankommen in Deutschland", Der Spiegel, ISSN 2195-1349, retrieved 2023-11-02
  3. ^ Widad Nabi (2017-11-09). "„Weiterschreiben. jetzt": Syrische Autorin erinnert an Gebäude in Aleppo und Berlin" (in German). Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  4. ^ Nabi, Widad (2017-09-13). "Syrians in Germany : Writer Widad Nabi: ″Integration is the search for common ground″". qantara.de. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  5. ^ Nabi, Widad (2018-09-10). "Kriegstrauma: Ich habe Flügel, endlich". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  6. ^ Nabi, Widad (2022-10-04). "Kopftuch: Die Freiheit, den Hijab zu tragen – oder eben nicht". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  7. ^ "Arabische Frauen-Poesie: Lina Atfeh - Widad Nabi". Interkulturanstalten Westend e.V. (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  8. ^ "Khalid Al-Maaly (Hrsg.): Die Flügel meines schweren Herzens. Lyrik arabischer Dichterinnen vom 5. Jahrhundert bis heute - Perlentaucher". Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  9. ^ "Widad Nabi". international literature festival berlin. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  10. ^ Kossik, Jan (2019). "Widad Nabi". stadtsprachen.de. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  11. ^ Berliner Literatische Aktion. "Widad Nabi". stadtsprachen (in German). Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  12. ^ الحساني, أشرف. "الشاعرة السورية وداد نبي: الشعر أكثر هشاشة من إثقاله بعبء القضايا الكبيرة وحمولاتها" [Syrian poet Widad Nabi: Poetic differentiation from others comes as a result of honesty and self-flagellation]. الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  13. ^ المولى, محمد علاء الدين عبد (2022-05-01). "الشاعرة السورية وداد نبي.. بين خطاب المذبحة وجماليات الشعر الصامت" [Syrian poet Widad Nabi. Between the discourse of massacre and the aesthetics of silent poetry]. تلفزيون سوريا (in Arabic). Retrieved 2024-08-02.
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