A Dove in Free Flight

In 2002-just after 9/11 and prior to the US invasion of Iraq-a group inspired by Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury's seminar on Arab prison literature decided to collectively translate Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar's collection A Dove in Free Flight. Smuggled out of prison, the poems were published in Beirut without his knowledge, as a means of publicizing the poet's plight as a political prisoner, and exerting pressure on public opinion to pay attention to his case. A French version, translated...