He Tells Tales Of Meroe by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is from the collection of the same name inspired by The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and published in 2015 by the Poetry Translation Centre.
The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Arabic by Saddiq himself. The poem was traslated by Rashid El Sheikh, Atef Alshaer and Sarah Maguire.
Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is widely regarded as one of the leading African poets writing in Arabic. Famous since a teenager, he is admired for the lyric intensity of his poetry and for his principled opposition to Sudan’s dictatorship. His Collected Poems was published in 2010. A distinguished journalist, he was forced into exile in 2012 and now lives in London.
