Sargūn Būluṣ: Writing Iraq baʿd al-qiyāmah

Journal of Arabic Literature · 2024-10-15

Abstract This paper explores how the poetry of the late Iraqi poet, Sargūn Būluṣ (1944–2007), responds to the material and epistemic violence inflicted on Iraq and Iraqis in recent decades. While Būluṣ was vehemently against podium poetry, he was never detached from politics. He believed that poetry could shelter the voices of those displaced and wounded by history. By reading several representative poems, this paper identifies the configuration of the aesthetic and the political in his poetic discourse. It explores the following questions: What are the strategies and tropes the poet deploys to mark and mourn the destruction and disintegration of a home/land? How does he do so without eliding the foundational violence of the nation-state or resorting to nationalisms? Which of the many Iraqs, real and imagined, does Būluṣ mourn, and how does he excavate the country’s history?

Adonis

Translation Review · 2022-01-02

Two Poems

Public Culture · 2022-04-06

Crazy Horse was not a crazy horse. He was an Apache child who ran faster than the windso his mother called him “Crazy Horse.” He hastened the seasons to grow up and defend the Apache. At night he dreamed of one thing: to be a strong bird, to soar in the belly of the sky, to nest in clouds, to pounce on the white man who hunted his ancestors like deer and scattered them in Arizona. But fever chased his soul from his body. It settled in a passing cloud. His body slept in a ditch. He never became that fierce bird.It was three years before the Apache's final defeat. When five thousand soldiers besieged Geronimo and dragged him and his men in shackles (Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, September 4, 1886).. . .Do dreams die with their dreamers? Or do they roam the night searching for someone to dream them all over again? Perhaps they become nightmares inhabiting the sleep of others.“Apaches” hover in distant skies.And the hunt goes on.Haditha, Al-Anbar Province, IraqKilo Company, Third Battalion, First Marine Division. . .Twenty-four unarmed Iraqi civiliansIncluding:A seventy-six-year-old amputeeIn a wheelchairHolding a Qur'anA mother and child bent overSix children ranging in age from one to fourteen. . .Execution styleThe US military paid $2,500 (condolence payments2) per victim to families of fifteen of the dead Iraqis. A total of $38,000.“Shoot first, ask questions later” were Sgt. Wuterich's orders to his men as they searched nearby homes after a roadside bomb attack killed one Marine and injured two others.Eight marines are charged.Six had their cases dropped and a seventh was found not guilty.Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 31, of Meridien, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty as the leader of the squad. The manslaughter charges were dropped.Wuterich was sentenced to a reduction in rank. He received a general discharge under honorable conditions. No jail time.Asked if he would have done anything differently that day, Salinas, one of the witnesses, said: “I would have just utilized my air to just level the house.”Another witness, Dela Cruz, admitted that he urinated on the skull of one of the Iraqis he and Wuterich had shot.Meridien, ConnecticutWuterich, who lives in California, returned home to Meridien, Connecticut, for a golf tournament organized by local veterans for his benefit.“The tournament was organized by veterans’ groups including the Polish Legion of American Veterans, the American Legion and Marine Corps League Silver City Detachment.”Bill Zelinsky, commander of the Polish Legion Sons Detachment, said combat veterans he's spoken with don't find fault with Wuterich's actions in Haditha.“Any of the veterans in this club that I spoke to said they would have handled the situation the same way Frank did,” Zelinsky said. “I have to believe he did the right thing.”Haditha, Al-Anbar Province, IraqThe twenty-four corpses are at homein The Martyrs’ GraveyardGraffition a wall in one of the deserted homesof one of the families reads:“Democracy assassinated the family that was here.”[Anamorphosis: a distorted projection or drawing that appears normal when viewed from a particular point or with a suitable mirror or lens (OED).]

18 The Arabic Prose Poem in Iraq

Edinburgh University Press eBooks · 2021-01-19

Poems from <i>The Dutchman's Pipe</i>

Critical Times · 2021-08-01

No One Looks at Their Back in the Mirror

World Literature Today · 2021-01-01

The Arabic Prose Poem in Iraq

Edinburgh University Press eBooks · 2020-08-31

The emergence of the Arabic prose poem in its early embryonic forms in the early 20^th century and in its mature phase in the 1960s was a radical break with an established poetic tradition going back to the 6^th century C.E. There are two major “schools”: The Lebanese School and the Iraqi School. The most influential representative of the Lebanese school is the Syrian-Lebanese poet and critic Adunis (1928–). His poems and translations from French were very influential in expanding literary horizons and shaping the debate about the Arabic prose poem. The Iraqi School was more influenced by Anglophone, and particularly American poetry. Its most representative figure is Sargon Boulus (1940–2008). His early translations from English and American poetry which started in the 1960s and continued until his death were transformative in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world and influenced generations of poet. Both Boulus and the Iraqi School are grossly under-researched. The main focus of this essay is on the prose poem in Iraq paying particular attention to Boulus who is a pioneer poet and translator.

Appendix D

New York University Press eBooks · 2020

• Geology
• Paleontology

Chapter 6. “What Did the Corpse Want?” Torture in Poetry

Fordham University Press eBooks · 2020-10-27

Appendix C

New York University Press eBooks · 2020

• Geology