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Contributor

Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Kareem James Abu Zeid
Contributor

Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Kareem James Abu-Zeid is an award-winning freelance translator of authors from across the Arab world. His most recent translation is the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish’s Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021). He lives in the countryside just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Articles by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

The Monastery of Saint Naum
Fif' from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Near the Shrine of Saint Naum
By Najwan Darwish
I stood in the red church, / its tiny domes like buds / blossoming in stone
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
MultimediaMultilingual
A Wave in the Sea: Najwan Darwish on “Exhausted on the Cross”
By Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Born in Jerusalem, Najwan Darwish published his first poetry collection in 2000. He has since become one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets, and one of the most powerful poetic voices to emerge from…
Two Poems
By Ines Abassi
I / am stolen splendor on a darkened street
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
The Veil: An Extremely Short Play
By Mansour Bushnaf
The men pull dollar bills out of their pockets and throw them at the women’s heads.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Anatomy of the Rose
By Soukaina Habiballah
The blooming petals: a navel.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
Solitary Confinement on the Seventh Floor
By Mazen Maarouf
One day / I’ll tear off my lips / and eat them / like candy.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
“Your Baby”
By Asmaa Alghoul
The phantoms behind the white sheet were moving more quickly now.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
A Knockout Punch
By Eyad Barghuthy
It was in New York that he learned the real ways of boxing.
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Multilingual
Life in Mount Carmel
By Najwan Darwish
Their poems reach me from their temple
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
A Stray Bullet
By Mazen Maarouf
a stray bullet / veered slightly off course
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual
Downtown
By Mazen Maarouf
I roll my pierced heart / across the bedcover
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual
On Death
By Mazen Maarouf
But we run up against / the stone slab over our bodies
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid & Nathalie Handal
Multilingual