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Maxamed Ibraahin Warsame 'Hadraawi': The Poet and the Man

This is the first substantial introduction to and translation into English of the work of the preeminent contemporary Somali poet, Maxamed Ibraahin Warsame 'Hadraawi', published to commemorate his being awarded the Prince Claus Award by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.princeclausfund.org/en/news/2012-prince-claus-award-presented-to-hadraawi.html). I contributed an introduction and 40 pages of new translations, including key works by this internationally significant poet. This publication builds on my previous work with Martin Orwin on the poetry of Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye', published by the Poetry Translation Centre/Enitharmon in 2008, and positions me as the principal translator of the two major figures in this key generation of Somali poets. For the translation, I studied the literals of Mahamed Ali Hassan 'Alto', but chose to work from the original Somali texts with a close associate of Hadraawi, Said Jama Hussein, producing an interlinear text from which I could assemble a draft. This was passed to Said, Alto and the foremost expert on Dadraawi's work, Rashid Sheikh Abdillahi Ahmed 'Gadhweyne' for comments, but all final decisions on the text were mine.