Abdulkarim Baderkhan

In prose translation, Baderkhan was the first to translate César Aira into Arabic. His translation of Bukowski’s novel “Hollywood” was highly appreciated, and his introduction to Venus in Furs was the first Arabic study in Masochism and Sacher-Masoch literature.

Baderkhan decided to leave Syria in 2013 due to security reasons. He lived in Egypt first, then moved to Turkey where he worked in the humanitarian field. He moved to Norway in November 2015, and he is still living there as a political refugee.

In 2011, he was a strong supporter of the Arab Spring, and wrote related poems during the first weeks, one of them is: "Dairies of The Syrian Wound" (Arabic: يوميات الجرح السوري). Then, he criticized the revolution harshly, when he saw the Islamic groups stepping to the front and taking the lead.

He started his translation career when he became interested in English romantic poetry of the 19th century. During 2009 and 2010 he translateda number of poems by Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats and others. In the following years he translated many poems, short stories, articles from English into Arabic.

In 2008, he participated in the “Festival of Young Poets” which was held in Homs and won the first place. Then, he won five poetry awards in 2009: “Arab Writers Union Award”, “National Union of Syrian Students Award”, “Spring of Literature Award”, “Golan Award” and “Okaz Award”. In 2014, he was awarded “Al-Sharja Award for Arab Creativeness” (Arabic: جائزة الشارقة للإبداع العربي) which is considered one of the most important literary awards in the Arab world, for his first poetry collection: “Funeral of The Bride” (Arabic: جنازة العروس).

Baderkhan published a poem for the first time in “Al-Thawra” newspaper in February 2006. Then, his poems were welcomed by most editors and publishers in Syria.

In October 2004, Baderkhan chose to enter Faculty of Law in Damascus University, but felt out of place, so he spent his university years reading Arabic literature at home by using his father's books. Then, he started reading English literature by borrowing his friends' academic books.

Abdulkarim Baderkhan (Arabic: عبد الكريم بدرخان ‎) (born 22 November 1986) is a Syrian poet, translator and critic. He is considered one of the most promising poets and translators in the Arab world. Starting his career in February 2006, he published three poetry collections, and translated seven books from English into Arabic. Also, he published articles, critical studies and translations in several Arabic newspapers and magazines.

Baderkhan was born to a well-educated middle-class family in Homs, Syria in 1986. He became interested in diverse collections of books, films, and music records and found himself surrounded by bold discussions about history, religion, literature and art. His father Adeeb Baderkhan (Arabic: أديب بدرخان) was a well-known educator in Homs, who published a novel in 2006 Memory of Migration (Arabic: ذاكرة الرحيل) in which he described his grandparents’ migration from north of Caucasus to the middle east during the last quarter of the 19th century. His uncle Mohammad Baderkhan (Arabic: محمد بدرخان) is a film director, translator, and writer. He has directed films and television series in Syria, translated several literary works from Russian into Arabic, and published a novel “Sons of The Rain" (Arabic: أبناء المطر).