Abu Dhabi - WAM
A new diwan (collection of poetry) of Emirati poet Dr. Shihab Ghanem titled " In Wadi Abqar" has been released in English language. This is a collection of translations by the poet himself of a selection of seventy five of his Arabic poems, written over a period of fifty years, and widely ranging in subject from love poems to nationalistic and political poems, to meditative and spiritual poems. Although all the original poems are in meter form, either in the amoodi two hemistiches form, or the modern tafili form, these translations are in prose form. Several of the original Arabic poems of Shihab Ghanem, who is the first Arab to receive the Tagore Peace Award, have been converted into songs by persons such as Sami Yousuf, Osama As-Safi, Ahmed bin Ahmed Qasem, Dr Nizar Ghanem and others.