Abu Nuwas, whose full name was al-Hasan ibn Hani al-Hakami and whose life is generally dated from about 756 to about 814, occupies a singular position in the history of Arabic poetry. Few poets have been so admired for verbal brilliance, so censured for moral provocation, so repeatedly transformed into legend, and so difficult to confine within a single image. He is remembered above all as the great poet of wine, urb…
“Say to him who claims knowledge in philosophy: you have grasped one thing, but many things remain hidden from you.”
Neighbourhood:
Ancient & Classical Poets, Arabic Poets, Classical & Ancient Poets, Love Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Persian Mystic Poets
Emotional landscape: Sensuality, Joy, Longing
Constantine Peter Cavafy, universally known as C. P. Cavafy, was born Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis in Alexandria, Egypt, on 29 April 1863, and died there on 29 April 1933, his seventieth birthday. The coincidence has naturally encouraged a Cavafian reading of his life: a date returning with a measured inevitability, an ending that seems to complete a private design. Yet Cavafy’s achievement was anything but neat or pr…
“I am not a poet. I am a historian.”
Neighbourhood:
Greek Poets, Modernist Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Despair, Sorrow, Longing
