Dictators make for lousy writers ...

Qaddafi wrote disturbing children's books like "The Astronaut's Suicide"; Saddam Hussein penned novels laden with profanity and laced with bestiality; Stalin wrote uninspiring poetry; and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wrote shockingly secular poetry. In all, dictators make for lousy writers.

A fun article examining the literary aspirations of some of the world's ruthless dictators can be found here.

Here is a quick sampling of their writings:

“Morning”

By Joseph Stalin

The pinkish bud has opened,

Rushing to the pale-blue violet

And, stirred by a light breeze,

The lily of the valley has bent over the grass.

The lark has sung in the dark blue,

Flying higher than the clouds

And the sweet-sounding nightingale

Has sung a song to children from the bushes.

Flower, oh my Georgia!

Let peace reign in my native land!

And may you, friends, make renowned

Our Motherland by study!

The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini  wrote this unnamed poem I've dubbed "Tavern." It's actually not that bad and quite surprising considering the subject matter.

“The Tavern”
By Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Open the door of the tavern and let us go there day and night,
For I am sick and tired of the mosque and seminary.
I have torn off the garb of asceticism and hypocrisy,
Putting on the cloak of the tavern-hunting shaykh and becoming aware.
The city preacher has so tormented me with his advice
That I have sought aid from the breath of the wine-drenched profligate.
Leave me alone to remember the idol-temple,
I who have been awakened by the hand of the tavern's idol.

And finally, an excerpt of Saddam’s Zabiba and the King

Even an animal respects a man's desire, if it wants to copulate with him. Doesn't a female bear try to please a herdsman when she drags him into the mountains as it happens in the North of Iraq? She drags him into her den, so that he, obeying her desire, would copulate with her? Doesn't she bring him nuts, gathering them from the trees or picking them from the bushes? Doesn't she climb into the houses of farmers in order to steal some cheese, nuts and even raisins, so that she can feed the man and awake in him the desire to have her?

 (The book's English translator believes the bear is supposed to represent Russia.)