Ramallah – Together – from Marfa’ Publications in Beirut, the first contemporary anthology of Palestinian women’s poetry was published, selected and presented by the Palestinian poet, journalist, and translator Dr. Yunus’ appeal is entitled “That Holy Word.” The collection is 300 medium-sized pages, and contains biographies and poetry selections of 23 poets who represent successive generations of contemporary Palestinian poets who write prose poetry from the diaspora and exile, and from Palestine occupied in 1948, as is the case for poets from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

‘This division does not reflect a forced political dimension, but rather reflects a cultural mark for the poetry of this exceptional and disjointed geography, and even unique in the history of peoples. It also constitutes a threshold for understanding how female poets think, the topics of their interest, and the position of the female body and the body of Palestine in their poetry, which this geography gives it its remarkab
le specificity. It enables not only to identify the form of the poetic voice across this occupied land and exile and its differences, but also sheds light on the movement of the female body in the poem and outside it.’

‘This anthology is based on historical and critical research, according to which this collection was chosen – in which we tried our best to include the largest number of poetic voices written by contemporary Palestinian female poets, so that it reflects in its entirety the richness, difference, and multiplicity of voices, and striking contrasts in the poetic experience, its freshness, its themes, the location of Palestine, and the female body.’ Including, and beyond the first pioneers”; Under the slogan: ‘A lot of poetry, a lot of life.’

This anthology provides ‘a panoramic look at the poetry written by Palestinian women since the seventies of the twentieth century in exile and the occupied homeland. It provides, through their poems, despite their differences, the disparity of their worlds, a
nd the intertwining of their ways of telling, the horizon for a broader understanding of the formation of poetic narrative in Palestine and in the diaspora and its themes.’

‘The water in which the poems are bathed here leads to a narrative that does not wear the clothes of traditional rhetoric, and that goes to amaze and capture the different or the dramatic. It also sometimes works like a chisel that carves and draws a different rhythm of movement and stillness. These rhythms are closely linked to the individuality of the self, and are reflected not only through… The semiotic systems that are employed, but also through overlay and play, which provide many games for the exchange of functions and determine the position of the poets’ feet from the world; but it is the rhythm that varies in its source between the outside, which provides tools that can be used to prepare a news report or a historical record as well as for a poetic description and between The hidden, mysterious interior that struggles for freed
om from the weight of everything and shouts loudly; it also differs in its ability to direct attention from the subject to the attribution and reference.’

These voices constitute a prelude to the consolidation of female poetic action in Palestine and the future of Palestinian poetry itself, and they also establish the foundation for subsequent celebrations of more male and female poets.

The anthology – which is currently being translated into French – will be published soon by the French publishing house Al-Manar.

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Nidaa Younis: A Palestinian poet, journalist, and translator from Tulkarm, Palestine (1977). She holds a doctorate in media and communication, and holds several higher university degrees with distinction in digital media, communication, translation, and languages. She has published seven collections of poetry: ‘To Be More,’ and ‘A Profile of Mr. Who.’ “The Collection of Anael”, “Nothing But”, “A Blind Woman Driving the Bus”, “He Comes Late” and “A Celebration of Nothing”. ‘I Stand’ as part o
f the Arab Women’s Poetry series that was published, supervised and presented by Adonis, and ‘Celebrating Nothing’ within the Ishraqat project published, supervised and presented by Adonis, and a collection in French under the title ‘I Don’t Know Poetry’ also presented by Adonis. Her poems have been translated into English and Italian. And other languages. The French magazine La Poesie chose her poems for publication in issues No. 167 and No. 177, alongside a number of the most important poets in the world today, such as Nazim Hikmet. Her poems were translated into English, French, Italian, and Spanish. She has published a number of articles and critical studies of published literary works, and a number of literary, intellectual and philosophical articles and research in media, communication and digital diplomacy. She translated the collection of the millennium Chinese poet Li Qingzhao ??? (1084 – 1155), who lived during the Song Dynasty in the twelfth century. She is considered one of the greatest poets in C
hinese history, and on a par with Shakespeare, under the title: Searching, Hunting, Desire, Drifting. In addition to many poems by Arab and Palestinian poets in English, she participated in a number of international and Arab festivals, such as Jerash and Sète. She also participated in the ‘Poets from the Five Continents’ program in France, and her poems were published in a poetry anthology issued by the Sète Festival in 2023. Younes prepared and presented it. Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Women Poets 2024, and is simultaneously preparing an anthology of poets imprisoned in occupation prisons.

Source: Maan News Agency