ما أنام من أجله اليوم
Based in the United States, former EUME-Fellow Mona Kareem is a poet, translator, and scholar. She has published three poetry collections in Arabic – Naharaat maghsūla bi Ma-e al ’atash (2002), Ghiyab bi asabi’ mabthūra (2004), and Ma anamū min adjlihi al yawm (2016) – two translations into English, including Ashraf Fayadh’s Instructions Within, and many essays and articles. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature from State University of New York, Binghamton, where she has also taught, as she has at Rutgers University and the City University of New York.
Kareem creates captivating and visual miniatures of day-to-day situations. Her work is characterized by its simple language. Her short lines rise above place and language, as is evident in the poem 'Dying like a Statue': "You sit in a plane, surrounded by black soldiers / sleeping and dreaming of Iraqis they had to kill." And, later on in the poem: "You know: / that your heart beats alone, / […] / that no promises can be saved after crossing the ocean." (Poetry International Archives, 2019)