Preface In undertaking the translation of the poems included in The Blue Expanse, my main objective was to introduce Anwar Salman, a Lebanese renowned poet, to the English-speaking readers. Salman's poetic career started in 1956, when the young poet, still a high school student, won Maroun Aboud Prize for Poetry; and it came to an end in an unfortunate car accident on April 20, 2016. During these six decades, Salman's poetry was read with passion by so many Arab poetry enthusiasts in Lebanon and other Arab countries. Moreover, many of his poems were set to melody and sung by famous Arab singers, and some of these poems won prestigious prizes in major Arab song festivals. For many critics Salman is one of the best Arab lyric modern poets. Lyricism of course is not a literary movement. Rather, it is a broad term that can be applied to a spectrum of creative arts, including, music, painting, dance, film, and even architecture. In poetry, in particular, the term lyricism has been widely used to describe poetry belonging to different literary ages and different regions, as well as diverse poetry schools.
About the Author: About the Author Anwar Nayef Salman is a distinguished Lebanese modern poet who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Al-Shamiyah [the Levantine] school, a trend in Arabic poetry that focused on the esthetic aspects of the poem, with emphasis on visual and auditory imagery. Salman was born in Ramlieh, a village in Aley district, in 1938. In 1956 he graduated from The Universal College in Aley. That same year he won Maroun Abboud Award for poetry. He spent the early years of his career working as a teacher. During that period, he made his debut with a poetry collection titled To Her (1959). A few years later he worked for an organization specialized in producing music and song recordings as well as cultural and social programs for Lebanese and Arab radio stations. He also dabbled in journalism, becoming the editing manager of Meshwar magazine. Afterwards, he was employed by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and Higher Education as a Cultural Consultant for Cinema, Theater, and Fares. At the outset of his poetic career, Salman joined the "Thuraya Circle" (the Pleiades), set up in 1956 by a group of Lebanese poets including Edmond Rizk, Michelle Nemeh, George Ghanim, Chauki Abou Chakra, Nour Selman, Georges Chami, Raymond Azar, and Jan Jabour. Salman was also a member of the Lebanese Writers' Union, and in 1997 he became a board member, a position for which he was re-elected for four consecutive terms. Additionally, he served as a member of a committee that supervised the production of lyrical poetry texts in the Lebanon Broadcasting Station, and a member of the Founding Committee of the Songwriters and Melodists Council in Lebanon. Many of Salman's poems were set to music and sung by famous Lebanese and Arab singers. His poem, "I Don't Want An Apology" won the prize of "The Most Beautiful Song" at Carthage Festival, Tunisia, 1994; three years later, another poem, "The Beauty of Beauties," received the first prize at Cairo International Festival for Arabic Songs; and in 1999 he was granted the Arab Pioneers' shield for Arabic song poetry in Cairo, sponsored by the League of Arab Countries.