POETRY / PODCAST
Arabic Literature / Arabic Poetry
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The Mast of Friendship
— POEM by
Ahmed Farooq Baidoon
— Recitation by
Helen Pletts
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A true friend, that crutch of hope to lean on;
A companion in time of hardships when no sun shone;
That basking gleam of spiritual raft;
An abrupt buoy to safety to confront mighty vicious draft;
Let alone a chariot to cross your falls and dismay;
Let alone a gallant fighter hand in hand for victorious foray;
Let him be a paragon of altruism, generosity and happiness;
Let him be an ideal of giving, integrity and longingness;
Never let me down, keen on me;
Days tethered us, attached like binary lobes, jocund of glee;
In dire tribulation, who else I shall find?
My friend is that sanctuary and altar, I bear in mind;
Be that seagull conveying love and laughter;
Be that prophetic salvation purifying grudge and cruelty with banter.
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(Self-translation from ARABIC)
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Ahmed Farooq Baidoon
Lives in northern Egypt, Damietta. A poet, a novelist and critic. His avant-garde literary oeuvre was written in Arabic; namely, a collections of short stories, entitled: “A Human being but…?’; “Snippets Tinged With Savory of Oneself”, “Altar of Imagination”. More and above, regarding the release of poetic Arabic diwans titled: “Give me some slack” & “Humanity Shortcomings”, alongside with two novel outputs. Besides, some literary translation works to build up a cultural cauldron with counterparts worldwide. Also, worthy mentioning the repertoire of English poetic sharing and epistolary anthologies through social media platforms and magazines; i.e, Verseum; OPA; Poetry Tribune; Meipian; Homo Universalis; Orfeu; Puspaporvat; Global Poetry; etc… To rejuvenate that linguistic commonplace in tapestry of innovation in some other Arabic poetic electronic fora like Sefrou, Amarji, SIM ‘Snippets Electronic Magazine’.
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A British poetess based in Cambridge. But, she is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo 马永波. Also, she is a member of the committee for CB1 Poetry, the monthly poetry reading event in Cambridge. Until now, her work has been translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian and Romanian. Additionally, she and Ma Yongbo are joint creators of the ongoing ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip – Summer Tour 2025’, for International Times.IT, currently at Volume 30.
Moreover, her poetry has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) as well; two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022); a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019); a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022); 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
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