The Other Diwan

About this book

Between the present's din and memory's calm, poet Zeinab Shaker opens in her collection "The Other Diwan" a window overlooking the realm of meaning lost from us in the days' crowd. This work is no mere assembly of poems, but an exploratory journey into the soul's geography, where homeland blends with dream, and time becomes adversary and friend at once. The poet transports us from Rabat's ancient alleys to estrangement's horizons, seeking "the meaning" hiding behind similar words, and "the homeland" we inhabit at times and which inhabits us at others. The collection progresses in a poignant tone, beginning from absence questions and ending with hope's radiance, where poems mend reality's fractures with touches of delicate poetic imagination. Can the poem be a refuge when roads narrow on us? And does the dream remain faithful to us when everyone departs? In "The Other Diwan" abstract feelings turn into tangible images; we see the rain walking on stone, and hear wishes' voice caressing destiny's imagination. It is a book.