Image-Description

Ashraf Aboul Yazid

Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (1963) is an Egyptian writer, poet, novelist and journalist.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Silk Road Literature Series (since 2016). He has documented his travel writings covering more than 30 countries spanning over two decades.
He was named the Person of the Year in Culture, Kazan, Tatarstan in 2013. He won the Manhae Grand Prize in Literature, Korea in 2014. He was the winner of the Arab Journalism Award in Culture, UAE, in 2015. He is the member of the Egyptian Writers’ Union and the President of AJA (Asia Journalist Association), Korea.
His books in Arabic include-

POETRY
Washwashat Al Bahr, (The Whisper of the Sea), Cairo, 1989.
Al Asdaf, (the Shells), Cairo, 1996.
Zakirat Al Samt, (The Memory of the Silence), Beirut, 2000.
Fawqa Sirat Al Mawt, (On the Passage of Death), Cairo, 2001.
akirat Al Farashat, (the memory of Butterflies), Cairo, 2005.

NOVELS
Shamawes, Cairo, 2008.
Hadiqaton Khalfeyya (A Backyard Garden), Cairo, 2011.
(31), Cairo, 2011.
AT-Turjoman (The Translator), Cairo, 2018.

BIOGRAPHIES, CRITICISMS AND TRAVELS
Sirat Al Lawn, (the Story of Color), Art Criticism, Cairo, 2003.
Muzakkrat Musafer, (The Memories of a Traveler) Biography on Al-Sheikh Mustafa Abdul Razik travels to France, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2004.
Al Shiekh Mustafa Abdu lRaziq Musaferan wa Muqiman, (Al Azhar Sheikh Travels and Memories at home), Travels, Cairo, 2006.
Sirat Musafer (A Traveler tale), Travels, Cairo, 2008.
Abath al Shabab (The Joy of the Youth), Bayrem Al-Tunsi papers in Tunisia, Alexandria, Bibliotheca, 2008.
Noon Anniswa Nahrol-Fan, Feminine N, River of Art, Biography, Dar Al-Hilal, Cairo 2013
The Silk Road (A Cultural Pictorial Encyclopedia) Alexandria Bibliotheca, 2013
A River on Travel (Travels), Al-Arabi Books, Kuwait, 2015
The Caravan of Moroccan Tales, travels, Milano, 2017
Naguib Mahfouz, the narrator and the artist, art articles, Cairo, 2018
CHILDRENS’ LITERATURE
The Story of an Artist Who Lived 5000 Years, History of Art for Children, Cairo 2006.
The Arab World Kids, Poems for Children, Kuwait, 2006.
The Arab Travelers (Rahhalatol Arab), for children, Kuwait, 2009
The Sea Post Fish Poetic story for Children, Kuwait, 2011.
Shurali (The Carpenter and the Evil of the Forest), a folk tale by the Tatar poet Abdullah Tukay, for Children, Kuwait, 2011
The Sheep and the Goat, a folk tale by the Tatar poet Abdullah Tukay, for Children, Kuwait, 2013

TRANSLATIONS INTO ARABIC FROM OTHER LANGUAGES
Korean Folk Tales, for Children, Al-Arabi Books, Kuwait, 2008
I and Surrealism, Salvador Dali, (Biography), Dubai al-Thaqafeyya magazine, UAE, 2010
One Thousand & One Lives, an Anthology of Selected Poems Written by the Korean Poet Ko Un), Dubai Thaqafeyya magazine, UAE, 2012
Qeddison Youhalleqo Baaidan (The Far-off Saint), Translated Poems Written by the Korean Poet Cho O-hyun, Bait-Alghasham, Muscat, Oman, 2013
A Depressingly Monotonous Landscape, Poetry Collection by Indian poet Hemant Divate, Cairo, 2016

TRANSLATIONS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Shamawes, (Novel), (Korean), Seoul, South Korea, 2008
Una calle en el Cairo, (A street in Cairo), Poetry, (Spanish), Costa Rica, 2010
Yarali Güvercinler Irmagi, Anthology, Poetry, (Turkish), Istanbul, Turkey, 2012.

The Memory of the Butterflies, Poetry, (Persian), Tehran, 2013.
The Memory of the Silence, Poetry, (English), Mumbai, 2016.
A Backyard Garden, Novel, (Malayalam). Kerala, 2017.

  • The Memory of Silence

    About the Book

    Ashraf Aboul-Yazid breaks his silence, but in soft whispers. Like the soft susurration of the title of his first book of poems Washwashat Al Bahr (the Whisper of the Sea), his voice speaks to our soul directly, needing no aural recourse. His memories are a map rolled open, containing multitudes- cites and rivers, balconies and butterflies, evenings and sadness. We enter this atlas that is Aboul-Yazid’s selection of poems from his larger oeuvre and are introduced to one of Egypt’s most prolific poets, novelists, translators and literary critics. His poems evoke wehmut, a melancholy located in the acceptance of our transitory-ness in this world, which we inhabit but for two days- ‘A day to open his arms for friends/ And a day for hugging their mirage.’ In the Middle East of the present, beset with strife and displacement, his words are the many cuts on our complacency, rousing us from the safe acts of reading poetry in a book, bringing us face to face with protagonists of a history not of their own making. Those who are cursed to ‘know a homeland’ that is like a visa’. Those, beset with the weight of the past, stand exposed. ‘In the heavy rain; No one feels’ A lonely drop. Aboul-Yazid’s soft voice recounts memories from decades of remembering, mingling beauty and sadness, rising out from the depths of the Nile, into the balconies and mashrabiyas of Benha his hometown, and beyond into a poet?s state of permanent exile. – Mustansir Dalvi poet, translator and cultural theorist

    $16