Golan Haji is a Syrian Kurdish poet and translator who writes in Arabic. He had to leave Syria after the war broke out at the end of 2011 and now lives in Paris.

Haji has worked with the English poet Stephen Watts on this poem which is inspired by the episode in The Odyssey in which Odysseus hears his own story told by a blind bard, but cannot reveal his identity. Yet, as much as this episode, the poem is driven by the idea of blindness as a different mode of perception: Homer is said to have been blind and Odysseus listens to another blind bard's account of himself, his own story taken over and changed by the others. Haji was struck, too, by parallels in the work of the great Arabic poet Abul 'Ala Al-Ma'arri, who was also blind. Ala Al-Ma'arri has the status in the Arab world of Dante in Europe and Haji's poem engages him. Look not for narrative in Haji and Watts' beautiful poem (though it is there), rather, enjoy its music and illuminating imagery.

Producer: Julian May. Show less