Nazik al-Malaika, 85; the exiled Iraqi poet wrote in free verse

Nazik al-Malaika, 85, the renowned Iraqi poet who wrote Arabic poetry in free verse rather than classical rhyme, died Wednesday of old age at a hospital in Cairo, where she had lived in self-imposed exile since 1990, said Nizar Marjan, the Iraqi consul in the Egyptian capital.

Born in Baghdad in 1922 to a mother who was a poet and a father who was a teacher, al-Malaika discovered a love for literature early in life, writing her first poem at age 10.

She graduated in 1944 from the College of Arts in Baghdad, where she also studied music. Ten years later, she traveled to the United States to study, and she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin.

Al-Malaika published her first collection of poems, “Night’s Lover,” in 1947. Her second collection, “Sparks and Ashes,” arrived two years later.

“Bottom of the Wave” was published in 1957, and her fourth collection, “Tree of the Moon,” came out in 1968.

She spent 40 years teaching Arabic and literature in Iraqi schools and universities, and also wrote literary criticism.

Al-Malaika left Iraq in 1970, two years after Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party came to power. She lived in Kuwait until Hussein’s 1990 invasion, when she left Kuwait City for Cairo.