The English language is a rich tapestry of words and expressions, where the beauty of poetry often lies in the artful arrangement of sounds and the rhythm of language. One of the most fundamental and powerful themes in poetry and…
Written in mid-seventeenth-century Egypt, Risible Rhymes is in part a short, comic disquisition on “rural” verse, mocking the pretensions and absurdities of uneducated poets from Egypt’s countryside. The interest in the countryside as a cultural, social, economic, and religious locus in its own…
Rhymes – Bawdy, witty and savage Yusuf al Shirbini’s Brains Confused is a battle between those who are “coarse” rural population against the “refined” urban populace. The first volume outlines the 3 rural “types”–peasant farmer, village man of religion and the rural dervish,…