Nizar Kabbani was a poet of great simplicity - direct, spontaneous, musical, using the language of everyday life. He was a ceaseless campaigner for women's rights, and his verses praise the beauty of the female body, and of love. He was an Arab nationalist, yet he criticized Arab dictators and the lack of freedom in the Arab world. Frangieh and Brown's elegant translations are accompanied by the striking Arabic texts of the poems, penned by Kabbani especially for this collection.