Yusuf al-Khal (; December 25, 1917 – March 9, 1987) was a Syrian-Lebanese poet, journalist, and publisher. He is considered the greatest exponent of avantgardist prose poetry (qaṣīdat al-natr) in the Arab world as well one of the pioneers of Arabic surrealist poetry.
With fellow poets Adonis and Ounsi el-Hajj, al-Khal founded the magazine Shi'r ("Poetry") in Beirut in 1957, initiating a movement to modernize Arabic literature. Al-Khal's poetry has been recognized in Near East poetry collections. He was also one of the first to translate English-language poets such as Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost into Arabic.
Early life and career
Yusuf Al-Khal was born on December 25, 1917 in Amar al-Husn, Syria, the son of a Syrian Protestant minister from Wadi al-Nasara and a Lebanese mother from Tripoli.