The BBC Poetry Competition

In view of the great interest shown in the poetry contests held by the BBC over the past five years, we are pleased to announce the holding of the sixth competition in the year 1946, and pleased likewise that the sister local stations in Cairo, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, Khartoum, Bahrain, and Aden are cooperating with us in this, each of them holding its own poetry competition and announcing its conditions.

Besides the poetry contests to be held by the eight stations mentioned, two other preliminary competitions will be held, one of them for listeners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For this purpose a jury of men of letters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be formed, with its seat in Jidda, as was done in the two past competitions. Competitors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should therefore send their poems to the representative of His Britannic Majesty's Government in Jidda. The tenth preliminary competition is open to members of the Arab communities in all other regions where no regional competition is held — that is, everywhere except the places already named. They should send their poems to the representative of the BBC in the Middle East, at No. 11 Ahmad Pasha Street, Garden City, Cairo, where they will be laid before a jury appointed by the BBC.

Prizes will be awarded to the three winning poems in each of the ten preliminary competitions, and the ten poems winning first prizes in the regional contests will be sent to London to be laid before a final jury appointed by the BBC. The judges will be eminent personalities of the Arab world, and according to their verdict the first, second, and third prizes in the final London competition will be awarded.

Here now are the conditions of the competition:

1 — The competitor may choose one of the following subjects:
(a) The League of Arab States.
(b) An anthem of victory.
(c) A peasant's hope.
(d) The nightingale.

2 — The poem must be the competitor's own work; no poem may be submitted that has been published before, or that is unfit for broadcasting.

3 — The poem must not exceed thirty-one verses.

4 — The language of the poem must be classical Arabic.

5 — Poems may be composed in the old meters or the new.

6 — Employees of the stations taking part in organizing the competition are not permitted to enter it.

7 — Poems submitted must reach the local stations before the first of March 1946; they must be sent to the addresses given in the published announcements, and must conform to the conditions each station lays down.

8 — Each local station will award three prizes: the first of ten pounds, the second of five pounds, and the third of three pounds. The announcement of the prizes will be broadcast from each local station on the first day of April.

9 — The jury in London will pronounce its final verdict upon the ten locally winning poems, and three further prizes will be awarded to the three poems chosen: the first prize of fifty pounds, the second of twenty-five pounds, and the third of fifteen pounds. The final result will be broadcast in the Arabic program from London on the first of July 1946, and the Arabic Section of the BBC will broadcast the prize-winning poems. The BBC reserves the right to broadcast or publish any of the poems submitted to this competition.

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To the poets of Lebanon:

Whoever wishes to take part in this competition should send his poem signed with a pen name, together with a sealed envelope giving his real name and his pen name, to the following address:

Office of the Press Attaché — Rustum Pasha Street — Beirut (the Arabic Poetry Competition)...