New article: Palestinian-Scottish bilingual poetry collection

Electronic Intifada, 1st May 2013

In 2003, Iyad Hayatleh and Tessa Ransford met during a project to introduce Scottish and refugee poets to one another. Hayatleh is a Palestinian “double refugee” — raised in Yarmouk camp in Damascus, he had to flee Syria for political reasons. Ransford is an established poet and well-known figure in Scottish literary circles.
Their ongoing collaboration has resulted in Rug of a Thousand Colours, a collection of Hayatleh’s poems in Arabic, translated by the two of them into English, and Ransford’s works presented in English original and Arabic translation. The collection takes as its point of departure the theme of the Five Pillars of Islam, exploring through poetry the meanings and common values these have for two people from different cultural backgrounds.

The full article is here.