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Article: Obituary: Bulland Al-Haidari
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- August 29, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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When the poet Bulland Al-Haidari died, copies of his latest
anthology, The Trails of the Exile, sat unwrapped by the side of
his sick-bed; it was published as he was admitted to the Royal
Brompton Hospital in West London.
Like many of his fellow Iraqi men and women of letters,
Al-Haidari lived the greater slice of his mature years in exile,
lamenting the fate of his nation, which was portrayed in a sad,
cold picture in the opening verse of his latest collection:
Step by step, We marched together,
My country, the horror of the lean
deserts' night, and I
Toward the exiles.
The tone of sadness, exasperation and a trace of nihilism
echoed, as many critics of Arabic letters noted, his earlier ...