Rasha Omran () is a Syrian poet. She is one of the most important women Syrian poets and the author of seven poetry collections and an anthology of Syrian poetry.
Biography
Rasha Omran was born in 1964 in
Tartus, Syria, into a family of
Alawite artists. She is the daughter of Syrian poet Mohammad Omran,
[Mohammad Omran] a poet, activist, and journalist, and their home was a cultural gathering place for intellectuals and artists. As a child, she read freely in her family library and she later attended Damascus University to study Arabic literature. She founded the Al-Sindiyan Festival of Literature and Culture in her hometown in the late 1990s, which she directed for 16 years, and published her first poems after the death of her father. She has published seven collections of poetry and is the editor of an anthology of contemporary Syrian poetry.
Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, she has publicly given her support for the uprising. “This is a dictatorial regime, .... How can I support a government that kills its citizens?”
She has lived in Cairo since 2012 where she continues to write and publish her poetry, as well as three weekly articles for online Arab media where she comments on political and cultural news.
Bibliography
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زوجة سرية للغياب (A secret wife of absence).
[A secret wife of absence] Poems. Al Mutawassit, Milan 2020
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التي سكنت البيت قبلي (She who dwelt in the house before me).
[She who dwelt in the house before me] Poems. Al Mutawassit, Milan 2016
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بانوراما الموت والوحشة (Panorama of death and solitude).
[Panorama of death and solitude] Poems. Dar Non 2014
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معطف أحمر فارغ (A red and empty coat).
[A red and empty coat] Poems. Syrian Culture Ministry 2009
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ظلك الممتد في أقصى حنيني (Your Shadow, Cast in my Utter Yearning).
[Your Shadow, Cast in my Utter Yearning] Poems. Al Tanweer 2003
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كأن منفاي جسدي (As though my Exile my Body). Poems. Dar Arwad 1999
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وجع له شكل الحياة (Pain in the Form of Life). Poems. Dar Arwad 1997
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أنطولوجيا الشعر السوري (Anthologie de la poésie syrienne 1980-2008) الأمانة العامة لإحتفالية دمشق عاصمة الثقافة العربية, Damas 2008
Translations
English
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3 Poems from A Secret Wife of Absence
[ 3 Poems from A Secret Wife of Absence] translation Phoebe Carter
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Other Poems from A Secret Wife of Absence
[Rasha Omran translated by Phoebe Bay Carter] translation Phoebe Carter
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Defy the Silence
[Defy the silence] translation Kim Echlin et Abdelrehim Youssef
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If I Were a Cat
[ If I Were a Cat] Rasha Omran’s Poetry in Three Languages
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When longing tormented me
[When longing tormented me] translation Camilo Gomez-Rivas
Further reading
External links
