Nizar Qabbani – A Poem for Balqis – First Edition 1982

A rare first printing of the poem lamenting the death of Nizar Qabbani’s wife, Balqis al-Rawi, who was killed in a bombing in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War in 1981.

The event prompted a profound shift in Qabbani, with this verse expressing anger and grief at the loss but also more broadly at Arab regimes and politics in the region.

Published in 1982 by Nizar Qabbani Publishing in Beirut. 82 pages. Softback, with pictorial card wrappers, showing a photograph of Qabbani and his wife to the front cover, and a portrait to the back cover. Some rubbing and creasing externally, but binding tight and square. Clean inside with no writing.