Coming in September
wwnorton.com/books/97816314…
The Nights are the work of a thousand years and still in flux. Here is the earliest fragment of the text, from the 9th century, discovered by the amazing Nabia Abbott and held at the Oriental Institute, Chicago (OI 17618)
This book gives a glimpse of the Nights’ tangled journey. It includes core Arabic tales, the Sinbad cycle, and the stories told by Hanna Diyab—on which more here (bit.ly/3uNBWmg) and here (bit.ly/3wVeKEk)—which were first written down in French.
[Dia al-Azzawi]
The cover, designed by the brilliant @steveattardo, is based on a painting by the Iraqi artist Suad al-Attar. Here she is in Baghdad in 1965.
Sad to say I lost the battle on the title. The complete Nights in my translation, with truer title, should follow in 2023.
My reasoning, for what it's worth.
This book will include — among hundreds of illustrations — a few of the collages I made last year from Edward Lane’s translation of the Nights.
Here’s an essay about cutting up my predecessor: poetrysociety.org.uk/essay-seale-10…
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