Celebrating the Poetry of Asia & the Middle East

For their inaugural joint exhibit, five area-studies librarians on the fifth floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library celebrate poetry from their own areas of expertise.

  • Marlis J. Saleh
    Bibliographer for Middle Eastern Studies

    This exhibit includes one item to represent each of the three major poetic traditions of the Islamic Middle East: Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish. Each item also offers an example of their respective traditions of manuscript illumination.

  • Laura Ring
    Librarian for Southern Asia and Anthropology

    Southern Indian Akam or love poems from the classical Tamil anthology Aiṅkuṟunūṟu.

  • Jee-Young Park
    Korean Studies Librarian

    Having followed one of the major incidents in Korean history, the poems provide insight to moments of sorrow, pain, forgiveness, and hope resulting from and surrounding the Jeju 4.3 Uprising in 1948.

  • Jiaxun Benjamin Wu
    Chinese Studies Librarian

    This exhibit shows poetry from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), an unparalleled system reaching its pinnacle in the development of the poem. Its great value consists of an ideal combination of thoughts and art. Li Bai and Du Fu are considered two superstar Tang Poets.

  • Ayako Yoshimura
    Japanese Studies Librarian

    This exhibit includes poems composed in the traditional fixed forms waka, haiku, and senryū.

We hereby showcase works from across Asia and across time.