Popular Asian Poetry Books
Find poetry books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (60)
Indonesia12.
Divan of Rudaki by Rudaki, translated by Paul Smith EN
Country: Asia / 
Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Description:
DIVAN of RUDAKITranslation & Introduction Paul SmithAbu 'Abd Allah Ja'far ibn Muhammad Rudaki (858-941) the 'father of Persian Poetry' and possibly the ruba'i, was born in the village of Rudak near Samarkand. First a wandering 'dervish' poet/minstrel he later served at the court of the Samanids of Bokhara. Nasr ibn Ahmad summoned him to his court and he prospered there amassing great wealth. He had 200 slaves in his retinue... and 400 camels carried his belongings when he travelled. In 937 he fell out of favour at court (and was blinded at this time as some commentators suggest) after the deat... continue
Maldives14.
Dying in a Mother Tongue by Roja Chamankar EN
IranDescription:
This collection of poetry by the celebrated southern Iranian poet and filmmaker Roja Chamankar (b. 1981) introduces English-speaking readers to one of the most accomplished and well-loved poets of her generation. Chamankar’s work blends surrealism and the southern coastal landscape of the poet’s upbringing with everyday experiences in rapidly urbanizing Tehran. While locating herself in the modernist tradition of Iranian poets like Forugh Farrokhzad and Ahmad Shamlu through form and imagery, Chamankar infuses this tradition with concerns unique to a generation that grew up in post-revolutionar... continue
Myanmar16.
Forest of Noise : Poems by Mosab Abu Toha EN
PalestineDescription:
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • "A powerful, capacious, and profound" (Ocean Vuong) new collection of poems about life in Gaza by an award-winning Palestinian poet. You are alive for a moment when living people run after you. Barely thirty years old, Mosab Abu Toha was already a well-known poet when the current siege of Gaza began. After the Israeli army bombed and destroyed his house, pulverizing a library he had painstakingly built for community use, he and his family fled for their safety. Not for the first time in their lives. Somehow, amid the chaos, Abu Toha kept writing poems. These are... continue
18.
Gaze Back : Poems by Marylyn Tan EN
SingaporeDescription:
"What do we expect of an author who is unapologetically female? What do we expect of consuming art in general? Should a work be easy, should a work be safe? Marylyn Tan's debut volume, GAZE BACK, complicates ideas of femininity, queerness, and the occult. The feminine grotesque subverts the restrictions placed upon the feminine body to be attractive and its subjection to notions of the ideal. The occultic counterpoint to organised religion, then, becomes a way toward techniques of empowering the marginalised. GAZE BACK, ultimately, is an instruction book, a grimoire, a call to insurrection-to ... continue
19.
Glaring Through Oblivion by Serj Tankian EN
LebanonDescription:
From Serj Tankian—Grammy Award–winning lead singer of System Of A Down, songwriter, activist, and poet. Following his critically acclaimed debut poetry book, Cool Gardens, comes this new collection of stunning and original poems of darkness and light. Complemented by the transformative illustrations of the noted artist Roger Kupelian.
20.
Country: Asia / 
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Description:
A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by an American poet of Persian descent. Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as wellas aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individ... continue