This fun challenge has been inspired by a brilliant post by Norman Darlington.
Norman assembled three books to create a haiku from the titles:
Far beyond the field / one hundred frogs / just living
Now our titles may or may not be so profound but let’s try. Using titles of two or more books, try to create a short poem, a wise saying, a headline, something funny or anything that you like.
RULES:
- Complete, authentic book titles should be used.
- No additions like and, but if, so etc.
- Be creative and have fun.
- If using not-so-well-known books please mention authors.
HERE’S MINE:
Romeo and Juliet/ Kidnapped/ The Hunt Begins
Grow long, blessed night / a beggar in Jerusalem / waiting for the wind
Grow long, blessed night – Love poems from Classical India, by Martha Ann Selby
A Beggar in Jerusalem, by Elie Wiesel
Waiting for the Wind – Thirty-one poets of Japan’s late medieval age, by Steven Carter
Bohat zabardast 🙂
Bohat shukriya 😀
How’s this one?
The Children of Men/ Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea/ Far From The Madding Crowd
Wah wah! (I can say that, too – see?) 🙂
Will have to work,on this one!
Truly madly guilty / the black widow / making history
What an inspired idea, Dawnwriter 🙂
Truly Madly Guilty, by Liane Moriarty
The Black Widow, by Daniel Silva
Making History, by Stephen Fry
That calls for a wah wah!! (Means Excellent. )
Shukriya! I learned ‘wah wah’ nine years ago when attending a ghazal reading in Bangalore. I had read ghazals before that, and they never really touched me. But the readers put so much soul into the poems that I was completely drawn in, and I can say that that was a turning point in my appreciation of the form 🙂
I love Urdu poetry . Have you read or listened to anything by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ghalib or Iqbal? (Not sure how much Urdu you know but I’m guessing it is probably as good as my English if you can appreciate ghazals)
The recitation I attended in Bangalore was bilingual, first in Urdu then English. It was entirely Ghalib’s work. My Urdu is very weak. I learned ‘Hindustani’ more than 20 years ago and it has been deteriorating ever since. I can dig my way through a sher, word by word, but where it helps my appreciation is in reading a parallel text: if I already know what the words are supposed to mean, then I can greatly appreciate the Urdu 🙂 I found a good bookshop in Mysore and bought everything I could find on ghazals. I got a wonderful CD of Abida Parveen singin Ghalib’s ghazals. I wonder do you know it? It raises the hairs on the nape of my neck 😀
But I also enjoy ghazals in English! I’ve even had a few published. Have you read any of Agha Shahid Ali’s English ghazals?
Excellent post!
Interesting post
Will have to think on this one!
War and peace/The Idiot/In search of Truth
Excellent. Thanks for taking part in the challenge. Add as many as you want.
That is brilliant, Ali!
And here’s a funny headline
The Count of Monte Cristo Kidnapped The Hobbit
LOL 😀
Here’s another one
As I Lay Dying / Death Be Not Proud/ Everything is Illuminated
Works
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
Death Be Not Proud, by John Gunther
Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Excellent!!