Some bilingual books merely translate. Others create dialogue between worlds.
Honey & Colocynth was conceived as a collector’s edition in which English and Arabic exist
not as parallel texts, but as equal visual and cultural presences within a single artistic
structure. Typography, proportion, page sequence, and rhythm were all developed with this
duality in mind.
The edition explores contrast at multiple levels: sweetness and austerity, light and darkness,
desert and night, silence and illumination. These tensions extend beyond the text itself into
the bindings, each of which assumes an interpretative character.
Certain versions evoke nocturnal landscapes interrupted by distant points of light. Others
recall desert horizons shaped through layered leather, tonal transitions, and restrained heat-
coloured surfaces. No single binding dominates the edition; variation forms part of its
meaning.
Printed on art paper and bound entirely by hand in artistic leather, the work belongs to that
category of collector’s editions in which the external form becomes a continuation of literary
atmosphere.
Selected bindings entered private Middle Eastern and European collections following
publication. Additional variants may be presented through direct correspondence.
Fine Press Masterpieces
Honey & Colocynth, Pre‑Islamic Arabic Poetry
EDITION DETAILS
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Publisher and bookbinder: Kurtiak & Ley Publishers and Bookbinders
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