Alive with the wisdom, artistry, and emotion of more than 250 poets from nearly one hundred countries, this anthology celebrates the multifaceted experience of contemporary manhood. The lives into which these poems invite us reveal the influences of culture, heredity, personal experience, values, beliefs, wishes, desires, loves, and betrayals. Men are notoriously reluctant to open up and discuss these things; and yet when they do--as in these poems--they tell us about their families, lovers, relationships, political and religious beliefs, sexuality, and childhoods. There is much to learn here about who men are and how they see their worlds. Collects close to three hundred poems, in English or English translation, by more than 250 poets. Nearly one hundred countries are represented, from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand). Organized in topical sections: Boyhood and Youth; Families; Identities: Cultural, Personal, Male; Men and Women; Myth, Archetypes, and Spirituality; Politics, War, and Revolution; Sex and Sexuality; Poets and Poetry, Artists and Art; Brothers, Friends, Mentors, and Rivals; Work, Sports, and Games; Aging, Illness, and Death.

The histQry of this book dates back exactly 20 years. When I first set foot on the shores O'f Indonesia in September 1947, I was, amongst other things, assigned the task 0'£ teaching Malay literature in an advanced teacher-training course, with the instructiOon to' lay stress on modern literature. This was easier said than done, as very little had been written Oon the subject, and few materials were available to me. From this period I recall with great gratitude the regular and friendly contacts I had with Mr. Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, whO' in many ways me with information and documentatiO'n. helped The editQrs of the magazine "Kritiek en Opbouw" found my lecture nffies Qn some pre-war authors worth publishing. These articles, with an introduction on Bahasa Indonesia and some other additiQns, were subsequently coUected and published by Pembangunan under the title Voltooid Voorspel (Completed Prelude) (Djakarta 1950). The little book sold fairly quickly, but rather than publishing a new edition in Dutch the publisher was interested in bringing out an Indo~ nesian adaptation. Much material was added, the larger part of which had been CQllected by writing occasional reviews Qf Indonesian literary works for the Dutch newspaper Nieuwsgier in Djakarta. The text of the book was very conscientiously turned intO' Bahasa Indonesia by Anku Raihul Amar gl

How Arabic influenced the evolution of vernacular literatures and anticolonial thought in Egypt, Indonesia, and Senegal Sacred Language, Vernacular Difference offers a new understanding of Arabic’s global position as the basis for comparing cultural and literary histories in countries separated by vast distances. By tracing controversies over the use of Arabic in three countries with distinct colonial legacies, Egypt, Indonesia, and Senegal, the book presents a new approach to the study of postcolonial literatures, anticolonial nationalisms, and the global circulation of pluralist ideas. Annette Damayanti Lienau presents the largely untold story of how Arabic, often understood in Africa and Asia as a language of Islamic ritual and precolonial commerce, assumed a transregional role as an anticolonial literary medium in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By examining how major writers and intellectuals across several generations grappled with the cultural asymmetries imposed by imperial Europe, Lienau shows that Arabic—as a cosmopolitan, interethnic, and interreligious language—complicated debates over questions of indigeneity, religious pluralism, counter-imperial nationalisms, and emerging nation-states. Unearthing parallels from West Africa to Southeast Asia, Sacred Language, Vernacular Difference argues that debates comparing the status of Arabic to other languages challenged not only Eurocentric but Arabocentric forms of ethnolinguistic and racial prejudice in both local and global terms.