Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Contributor

Khaled Mattawa

Contributor

Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa was born in 1964 in Benghazi, Libya, where he received his primary education. In 1979 he immigrated to the United States. He is the author of two books of poems, Zodiac of Echoes and Ismailia Eclipse. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, the Alfred Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, and two Pushcart Prizes, and he won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation in 2003 and 2011. His poems have appeared in numerous American journals and have been translated into French and Polish. Mattawa is also the translator of five volumes of Arabic poetry, and coeditor of two anthologies of Arab-American literature. He is an assistant professor of English and teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2014 he was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Articles by Khaled Mattawa

Sabratha Fleeing
By Ashur Etwebi
Here you are now sitting in a cafe in Sabratha
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Preface to the Libya Issue of Words Without Borders, July 2006
By Khaled Mattawa
When it comes to countries that have been locked away—or locked out of—the Western world, Westerners tend to believe that little happens there during the time that they are not paying attention. Like…
I Have A Musical Name
By Iman Mersal
Maybe the window I sat by foretold an unusual glory.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Happiness
By Iman Mersal
I have no patience to contemplate the sea
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
In Perfect Happiness
By Iman Mersal
I will make sure they are really there / in perfect happiness, / and that I am alone
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
He Marks the Weak Point
By Iman Mersal
Of course,the concrete pillars are not lacking in delicacy,and the columns of old houses are a nostalgia all their own.He added that he marks the weak pointand distributes its weight among the relatively…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Sometimes Wisdom Possesses Me
By Iman Mersal
One day wisdom will possess me / and I will not go to the party.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
I Look Around Me
By Iman Mersal
as a silent way of killing- / but flashing glances / from eyes I barely glimpse
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Things Elude Me
By Iman Mersal
One day I will pass by/ the house that used to be my home.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
Amina
By Iman Mersal
My perfect friend, / why don't you leave now.
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Learn
Five Crosses
By Saadi Youssef
We stopped in five stations and did not leave a souvenir.We did not shiver there, or get drunk, or strum a guitar.Five rivers of sand on the guitar.Five crosses made of silence:You are sad;I wipe the…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
A Shiver
By Saadi Youssef
Hold me, comfort meThe stones are nothing but pain tonightHold me to your breastso that I ramble:The stars are gray as ashand the road to themis ablaze with light.1993
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Jazz Corner
A moment after midnightevery nightjazz begins to soak the Jazz Cornerlike new winelike village wineA moment after midnightevery nighta woman descends a dark staircaseto sing Brazilor balconies in candlelightor…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Silence
By Saadi Youssef
Winds that do not blow in the evening,and winds that do not blow at dawnhave burdened me with a book of boughs.I see my cry in the silence.Night descends, blue, between staircases and stars. I seeblue…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Departure ’82
By Saadi Youssef
Soonall the rooms will be closed,and beginning with the basement,we will leave themoneby oneuntil we reach the gunson the roof.We will leave them too . . . like the roomsand go onto search in our bloodor…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
Koofa
By Saadi Youssef
We did not name it so that it would become a city.We came to it thirstystarvedlimping on blazing sands,blinded by sun glow.We cut the world from Mecca to the palace of Naaman.We cut the world with a sworduntil…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
The Bird’s Last Flight
By Saadi Youssef
When I enter the earth’s nestcontentedand glad,my wings resting,I will free my eyelids so not to seethe trees swaying nearer.Do not cry over me.I said do not cry.If you wish, remember that my wingsare…
Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa