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Voice from the past / [by Abdul Sattar Jawad]

Presented by Abdul Sattar Jawad, Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University.
"Read at Duke University, April 2006, in commemoration of Shakespeare's birthday. The title of the poem 'Voice from the past' indicates that the traditional and cultural life in Baghdad after the [war] on Iraq became part of the past or dead culture. In the poem, Shakespeare knocks at Scheherazade's door in the hope that she might recognize him but to his disappointment she was puzzled and perplexed that she was unable to recognize the world playwright who had enlivened Baghdad's theaters and deservedly called 'The second bible' in Iraq. The poem was read in English by the late Shakespearean scholar Professor Douglas Brooks."