Love Poems of Arif Khudairi is a collection of 40 poems of love crafted with an adept and scholarly hand combining imaginative force with acute poetic sensibility. The poems of this anthology capture the love story in a new and fascinating poetic form. The poet, Arif Khudairi, excels at both nocturne and aubade, and his employment of metaphor and simile is direct, uncontrived and vivifying. He exhibits an astonishing mastery of pure light and shade, conveying the emotional anfechtungen of the 'voice' with remarkable ability. The collection is both compelling and absorbing. It engages the sensorial with superb exploitation of atmospheric effect and fallacy. This original poetic work, with its admirable, artistic qualities, will clearly touch the reader in a pleasurable manner.
What others say
"Love Poems of Arif Khudairi is a victory for lyricism. The musicality is astounding, the cadence is almost like ballet, and the tension of its metaphors and imagery is classic. Even if you're not the poetic type, you will definitely enjoy reading this or listening to it being read to you." - Charles Phebih Agyekum, Author & Editor
"Through the pages of this magical, mystical wonderland, we are allowed to watch and experience feelings be they gentle, stunning, thought provoking, poignant...the merry and misery go rounds of love." - Sylvia Lukeman, President, Poets Who Care, Liverpool, England.
"Arif Khudairi's Love Poems is indeed a marvelous collection. Its profound and lively poems arouse the aesthetic sense within its reader. The melody of the poetry is high and the construction is precise. It is an anthology that will definitely take its place among the works of the great love poets." - Prof S.R. Siddiqui, IIU, Pakistan.
About the Author Dr Arif Karkhi Abukhudairi, who writes in English and Arabic, has published more than 47 books including essays, collections of short stories, folk tales, poems (14 volumes) and translations. His work has appeared in publications worldwide. Some of his poems have been anthologized in Theatre of the Mind, Under the Canopy and Other Poems, in 1999 and elsewhere.
He is a guest poet in several international poetry festivals including Brunei international poetry reading (1994) and the XX International Poetry festival in Medellin, Colombia (2010).
He is the founder and editor of The Journal of Arabic Studies, as well as president of the Poetry Society, University of Brunei Darussalam. He was named Poet of the Month by three American journals in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005 and received several Poetry Awards. His work has been translated into Arabic, English, Spanish, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia and Urdu. In 1994,2005 and 2010, he was listed in Who's Who in Translation and Terminology, The International Who's Who in Poetry, and Antologia Poesia Universal, respectively.
Arif holds a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from Cairo University and has held teaching posts at several universities. He is an associate professor at the Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei Darussalam where he teaches research methodology, theories of translation and comparative literature. He is also a member of the Academy of Modern Arabic Literature, and the Egyptian Writers Association in Cairo, Egypt.
