Taha Muhammad Ali

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Taha Muhammad Ali (Arabic: طه محمد علي‎), born in 1931 in Saffuriyya, a village in the Galilee, Israel, is a contemporary Palestinian poet.

1 Biography
2 Poetic style
3 Published work
- 3.1 Anthologies
- 3.2 Plays
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] Biography

Taha Muhammad Ali fled to Lebanon with his family when he was seventeen after their village came under heavy bombardment during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The following year, he returned to Nazareth, where he has lived ever since. In the 1950s and 1960s, he sold souvenirs during the day to Christian pilgrims and studied poetry at night. His formal education ended after fourth grade. Still owner of a small souvenir shop near the Church of Annunciation which he operates with his sons, Muhammad Ali writes vividly of his childhood in Saffuriyya and the political upheavals he has survived. ^[1]

[edit] Poetic style

One of his translators, Gabriel Levin, has described his style as "forceful" and "in short lines of varying beats with a minimum of fuss and a rich array of images drawn primarily from his village life." In a review of Never Mind: Twenty Poems and a Story, he is described as a "beguiling story-teller who maintains a tone of credibility and lucidity without diluting the mysterious or distressing aspects of his tale...By avoiding commonplace response to everyday experience he has has written poems that are fragile and graceful and fresh." ^[2]