Gravelly Reflections on Life in Revolution

This October, Aboud Saeed’s first book, “The Smartest Guy on Facebook“, was published in English translation, following the release of a German edition in March. Currently on a reading tour across Germany, Saeed was born in 1983 in Minbj, rural Aleppo, and is one of the most brilliant poets to emerge from the shocks of the Syrian revolution.

His self-deprecating poetic voice is sparked by detailed collisions between empathy, rebellion, vulnerability, and anger. Syria has a long, rich tradition of satire, political and otherwise, and Saeed writes in this vein, but with modern updates. Many of his commentaries focus on the life of his rebellious, heavily bombed hometown, where he works as a smith and welder.

In the poem “The Ink Was Dry”, he makes fun of his own attitude to school, recalling “I was scared of writing, the pen, the notebook and the book“. And as he didn’t know who Marx was, he told classmates that a picture of the philosopher he’d collected was of his late sheikh uncle.

For more info –Aboud Saeed’s Facebook Page