Fady Joudah

Amjad Nāṣir

Amjad Nasser's masterful syncopated lyrical prose brings to life the once-lost city of Petra, unknown to the Western world until 1812 when it was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. Fady Joudah provides a powerful translation of this contemporary Jordanian epic, which doubles as travel guide to one of the world's wonders. In Petra: the Concealed Rose, we move between love and death, history and myth, Orientalism and Feminism, representation and presence until we are face-to-face with this marvel, able to feel its textures, breathe its air, and smell its scents. This is a timeless work of art where "symmetry repeats / But dimensions vary," and Nasser embodies the rocky desert rose to its perfect imperfection.

The Concealed Rose

Petra

"A Map of Signs and Scents" is a collection of sixty poems by an acclaimed poet whose life and work span Middle Eastern and Western worlds, centuries past and the vivid present, the sweep of history and the intimacy of love. Born in Jordan in 1955, Amjad Nasser has lived and worked in Beirut, Cyprus, and London. His work reflects a nuanced view of the currents of history along which individual lives play out, putting him in conversation with such poets as C. P. Cavafy, Octavio Paz, and Derek Walcott. And yet, within his peripatetic life, Nasser has produced a corpus of work that, far from evoking the alienation possible in a life of motion, puts him in deep camaraderie with the world. Through fresh translations by the award-winning poets Fady Joudah and Khaled Mattawa, readers will experience the fascinating evolution of Nasser s style through his prolific, highly praised career, starting with samples of the rich textures and fertile symbolism of his 1979 debut "Praise for Another Cafe." In selections from subsequent works such as "Climbing the Mountain since Gilead," "The Strangers Arrive," and "Life like a Broken Tale," readers will trace Nasser s work as it develops into a mature style that, while more precise and direct, confidently encompasses broad horizons. "

New and Selected Poems, 1979-2014

A Map of Signs and Scents

Khaled Mattawa

?Shepherd of Solitude is the first English collection for Jordanian poet Amjad Nasser, translated and introduced by the foremost translator of contemporary Arabic poetry into English Khaled Mattawa, with the poems selected by poet and translator from the poets Arabic volumes over the years 1979 to 2004.

Amjad Nāṣir

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