Arabic Language Blog

       Yes, our blog today is about these sad feelings; expatrriation and nostalgia, experienced by the great and famous Prince of Poets أمــيـــرُ الــشــُــعــــراء in the Modern Arabic Literature. Ahmad Shawqi أحــمـــد شـــوقــــي wrote this patriotic poem قــصــيــدة وطــنــيـــة  in his exile الــمــنــفــى in Andalusia الأنــدلــُــس ; (now Southern Spain) during the First World War. In exile, Shawqi felt as if he has lost his freedom and was deprived from his homeland and people.

      I will present ovly a part from a long poem called the “Seeniyah الــســيــنــيـــــة “. Each line in the poem ends in the sound / letter س /siin/ that is why it is called ‘Seeniyah’. The poem is similar to another poem of an earlier great Arab Poet; Al-Buh’tory الــبــُــحــْـــتـــُـــريّ .

       The part that we will read today deals with three main ideas:

• Remembering and longing to the beloved home country and the happy times the poet had spent back there when he was young.
• Complaining and speaking to the ship as it was the usual means of transport that could take him (the poet) home.
• Stating and confirming his (the poet’s) eternal love to his country wherever he goes; even in heaven. 

     Now let’s read the part and hope that my humble translation will help you get the images, ideas and feelings of the poet. Remember that in Classical Arabic (Fus’ha) poetry, the line consists of two halves. At the beginning of the poem, the poet is speaking to some two imaginary friends in the dual number.

 Expatriation and Nostagia  غــــُــــربــــَـــــةٌ و حـــَــــنــيــــــن

 اِخــْــتــِــلافُ الــنــَّــهــَــارِ و الـلـيــْــل يــُــنــْــســِــى            اِذكــُــرَا لــِـىَ الــصــِّــبــَــا و أيــَّــامَ أُنــْــســِــي

Day and night make one forget               So, tell me about my early days

وَ صـــِــفـــَــا لـِــى مــُــلاوَةً مــــِــن شــَــــبــَــاب                 صـــُــــوّرَت مـِــن تــَــصــَــــوّرَاتٍ  و  مـــَـــسِ

And describe that period of my youth           that was shaped by imagination

عــَــصــَــفــَــت كـالــصـَّــبــَــا الـلّــعــُــوب و مــَــرّت             ســِــــنـــَــــة حــُــلــْــوَة و لـــَـــذَّةَ خــِـــلـــْــــس

Blew like the playful Saba (wind) and gone   

Like a sweet drowse and a quick pleasure

و ســَــلا مــِــصـْــرَ هــَــلْ ســَــلا الــقــَــلــبُ عـنــهــا          أو أســَـى جــُـــرْحـَـــهُ الــزَّمـــَــانُ الــمــُــؤَســِّـــي

And thou (dual) shalt ask Egypt; Has the heart forgotten Her?    

Or has Time cured its (the heart’s) wound?

كــُــلــّــمــَــا مــَــرَّت الـلــيــَــالــِــى عــَـــلـيـْــهِ              رقَّ , و الــعــَــهــْـــدُ فـى الـلـيــَـــالــِــى تــُــقــَــســِّــي

Whenever nights pass, it gets delicate          Though nights make the heart cruel

مــُـــســْــتــطــارٌ إذا الـْـبــَــوَاخــِــرُ رنـــَّـــت             أوّلَ الـلــيــْــلِ أوْ عــَــوَت بـَــعــْــدَ جــَـــــــــرس

Turning mad if the ships honked        At the early night or howled after the bell

رَاهــِــبٌ فـِـى الـضـُّــلــُـوعِ لـِـلــسـُــفــْــنِِ فــَــطــْــنٌ             كــُــلــّــمــَــا ثـــُــرنَ , شــَـــاعــَـهــُــنّ بــِــنــَــقــْــس

Like a priest in the chest, well-aware of the ships   

When they (ships) move, it (the heart) saw them off with beating

 يــَــا ابـْــنــَــةَ الــيــَــــمِّ مــَــا أبــُــوكِ بــَــخــِــيـــلٌ          مــَــالــَــهُ مــُــولــِــعــَـــاً بــِــمــَــنــْــعٍ و حــَــبــس

O, daughter of the sea, Your father is not tight

Why then is he fond of prevention and imprisonment?

أحــَــــرَامً عــَــلــى بــَــلابــِــــلــِــــــهِ الــــدَّوحُ              حــَــلالٌ لــِـلــطــَّــيــْـــرِ مــِــن كــُــلّ جــِــنــْــسِ

Is it forbidden for its birds to sing     While it is allowed to all other species ?

كــُـــــــلُّ دَارٍ أحــــَــــــقُّ بـــالأهــــْـــــــــلِِ إلا              فــِــى خــَــبــيــثٍ مــِــن الـْــمــَــذَاهــِــــبِ رجــْـــــس

Every home is a right for its people      Except in bad and mean ideology

نـــَــفــَــســِــي مــِــرجــَــلٌ و قــَــلــْــبــِـــى شــِــراعٌ            بــِـــهـــمــَـــا فــِــى الــدُّمــُــوعِ ســِـــيــرى و أرســِـــي

My breath is fuel, my heart is a sail       

With them (both) you sail in tears and come to shore

و اِجــْـعــَـــلــِــى وَجــْــهـَـــكِ الــفــَــنــَــــارَ و مــَـجـــراك        يـــَـــدَ الــثـــَّــغـــْـــر بـَــيــْــنَ رَمــْــــلٍ وَ مــَــكــْــس

 And make the Fanar (Lighthouse of Alexandria) your destination

And the Thaghr (port) between Raml (suburb) and Max (suburb) your stream

وَطـَــنـِــي لــَـوْ شــُـغــِـلــتُ بــِـالــخــُــلــْـــدِ عــَــنــْـــهُ         نــَــازَعــَــتــْــنــِــي إلــيـْـهِ فـِـى الــخــُــلــْــدِ نــَــفـْــســِــي

O, my country, if I were to be kept busy by eternity   

My soul would long for it in heaven 

شــَـهــِــدَ الـلــَّــهُ لــَــمْ يـَــغـــِـــبْ عـَــن جــُـــفــُــونــِــى          شـَــخـْــصــُــهُ سـَــاعــَــةً و لـَــمْ يــَــخــْــلُ حــِــسـِّــي

Allah is a witness; it (my country) is never away from my eyes

 And it is never out of my heart.

Listen to the Poem in Arabic on our Arabic Transparent Youtube Channel

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Peace  سلام /Salam/

     Google celebrated the 121^st birthday of Mamoud Mukhtar مـحـــمـــــود مــخــتــــــار last Thursday.  Mukhtar was one of the few leading Egyptian sculptors نــَــحــَّــاتــيـــن . He is the maker of the famous Nahdit Misr Statue تــِــمــثــــال نــهــضــــة مِـصـــر (Egypt’s Renaissance Sculpture) and has a museum named after him in Cairo that exhibits his numerous works. His museum مــُــتــحــَــف is a very important destination to all students of arts and sculptures. The museum is also a witness شــَــاهــِــــدto a very important political and historical period ofEgypt’s history. Mukhtar is regarded as the father of the Modern Egyptian Sculpture. His works are distinguished for their realism as they reflect the everyday life or ordinary people in the countryside where he

Nahdat Misr Sculpture

grew up. 

      Mukhtar was born on May 10^th 1891 in a small village in Mahalla, Egypt. His father was the Mayor of the village. Mukhtar lived with his grandmother and used to spend most of his time by the canal playing with mud and clay, shaping and making sculptures تــمــاثــيـــــل of the environment around him. Mukhtar moved to live in Cairo in 1902. When he was seventeen, he joined the newly-opened School of Fine Arts مــَــدرســَـــة الــفــُـــنــُـــون الــجــمــيــــلــة . The foreign teachers discovered and admired his talent مــَــوْهــِـــبــَـــــة , so they set a special place for him to practise his art of sculpturing. The patron راعــِــــىof the school;

Al-Khamasin Winds

Prince Youssef Kamal sent Mukhtar on a scholarship toParis to finish his studies.

      Mukhtar lived a life full of success and struggle to put the sculpture craft in a high position in a society that looks at sculptures as an extension اِمــْـــتــِـــــدَاد of paganism الــوَثـــَـــنـــِـــيـــَّـــــة and idolatry عــِـــبـــَــــادَة الأصـــنـــْــــــام . Mukhtar dedicated his talent to serve the patriotic movement in his country at the time. His works reflected the political and social stage when he lived; the renaissance stage, especially at the time of the 1919 Revolution. His art got all the praise ثــنـــَـــاء and

Farmer Women carrying water home

respect إِحـــتـــِـــرَام of the French artists and critics. He also got an enthusiastic support تـــأيــيـــــد from the Egyptian people.

     Mukhtar was the first Egyptian to exhibit an artistic work in an international exhibition مــَــعــْـــرَض دَولــِـــى in Paris. He was the first Egyptian artist to win an award جــَـــائـــِــــزَة from a Parisian Salon when he got the gold medal from the French Artists Annual Exihibiton that is set in the Grand Palais for a small model of the sculpture of Nahdit Misr. A bigger copy was made and set in the biggest square of Cairo. He got another award from the Parisian Salon Exihibition in 1925 for a sculpture of Om Kolthoum أم كلثوم. He was also the first Arab artist to have a sculpture exihibition of his own in Paris in 1930. He was also the

Ibn Al-Balad

 first Arab artist to be welcomed by demonstrations in Alexandria after his return from Europe. His sculpture of the Egyptian leader زعــِــيـــــم ; Saad Zaghloul is still a landmark عــَــلامــَـــة بــَـــارِزة of Alexandria.

      Mukhtar died on March 27, 1934 and in spite of his short life, he left a great and distinguished collection of sculptures. He managed to express his culture ثـــَــــقــــَــــافــــَـــــة and background خـــَـــلْــــفـــِـــيـــّــــة by his special style. He revived the Egyptian artistic traditions تــَــقـــَـــالــِـــيـــد  in all ages and did not forget the modern art experiences. He was and still an honrable figure in the history of the modern Egyptian art. That is why the government built a museum for him and his works and did great efforts to restore his works from France.

The Cheese Seller

The Farmer

 

Farmer Woman

Sadness

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Peace  ســَـــلام /Salam/

Regardless of their various walks of life, Arab people enjoy very much living life, and as a rule of thumb embrace it to the fullest.

Do you perhaps know an Arab person from your own entourage?

Chances are, he or she is a bon vivant(e), as the French put it. If not, then you can be certain that he or she is just حــــــالة استثنـــائيــــــــــة, an exception to the rule!

زهــــــــرة الحيـــــــــــاة (The Flower of Life) is a symbol common to many ancient civilizations of the world. The oldest artifact depicting it belongs to the Assyrians, whose capital was آشور‎ (spelled "Assur" in English), in northern Iraq

Now, having made that explicitly clear, to simply make the statement “Arabic people love life” would in fact be only telling half of the story.

How so?

Whether they are adherents to the Muslim faith, or even Christian faithfuls, Arabs usually agree on the wisdom reflected in the following maxim:

 اعمــــــل لدنيـــــــــــاك كأنَّك تعيــــــــــش أبــــدا »

« واعمـــــــــل للآخـــــــــــــرة كأنَّك تمــــــــوت غـــــدا

Meaning:

« Work for your life as if you were to live forever,

and work for your hereafter as if you were to die tomorrow »

If anyone is genuinely interested in understanding the mind and soul of people of Eastern cultures, grasp what guides them and what profoundly motivates them overall, then they will have to understand this مُعتقــــــد أساســــــي (fundamental tenet)—even if they don’t personally share it with them!

Of course, not everyone in الغرب (the West) perceives death as a محظـــــــور (taboo) subject, nor has it always been the case.

Renown Western playwrights and philosophers such as Shakespeare, Leibniz, Schiller, and others like Lord Byron, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, followed later by Sartre and Baudrillard  (to mention only those few) have long pondered over the subject of death. Each in their own manner, of course.

William Shakespeare, the author of “Othello” (a possible English transcription of the Arabic name “عُطيـــــــــل”), was a Rosicrucian whose name is believed by several authors to be a mere pseudonym. Some even suggest the “Empiricist” philosopher Francis Bacon as a potential candidate, whereas in fact the two men were deadly rivals in the English court of King James I.
The Arabic name “Sheikh Zoubir” is only one of such “nomen mysticum” put forth to “unmask” Shakespeare’s real identity—long before Libya’s ex-dictator would famously popularize the so-called “myth” of “الشيـــخ زوبيــــــر.”

Speaking of death in “Macbeth”, Shakespeare wrote:

« Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow »

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 19-24

However, one wonders, why is it that today, in general, the subject of “life coming to an end” tends to be shelved alongside the most sensitive -or “touchy”, if you will- of all topics in modern and post-modern Western culture, whereas that is far from being the case in Arab culture?

In one of the “Yahoo! Answers” provided to the question “Why death is such a taboo“, one Internet user (facetiously) goes:

“People are extremely uncomfortable with the fact that one day, they will eventually die, pass away, conk, croak, decease, depart, drop off, expire, breath their last, kick the bucket, buy the farm, move on to greener pastures, go way of all flesh, relinquish life, shuffle off their mortal coils, meet their makers, and bite the dust.”

And another one (soberly) explains that:

“Death scares us. Period. It is the end of pleasure, the end of family, the end of learning, the end of absolutely everything, and as most people grow fond of living throughout their lives, they grow equally horrified by the prospect of losing it all.
This fear is, of course, amplified by the fact that death is such a grave unknown. We don’t exactly know what we’re bound for when we depart.”

That pretty much sums up the answer to the first part of our question.

As for the second part, to understand the other perspective, namely why death is not treated as a taboo in Arabic culture, the key answer is precisely because death is not seen there as “ذلك المجهــــــــول الكبيـــــــر” (“that big unknown.”)

Speaking about it is neither “depressing” nor “overly scary.”

Instead of being perceived as نهاية كل شيء (“the end of everything”), it is on the contrary regarded as the beginning of another phase.

It is seen as the beginning of yet another life.

The term “الحيـــــــــاة الدُّنيـــــــــــا“, “this life”, “earthly life”, conveys the idea of being “lower” -as in the word “أدنى“- than “الحيـــــــــاة الآخـــــرة“, “the last life”, “the everlasting life”, or simply the “hereafter.”

Indeed, the trilateral Arabic root اخـــر can either designate the concept of “otherness” or that of “finality.”)

These two sorts of lives are both considered as important in Arabic culture, with the latter complementing the former, giving it both معنـــــــى (significance) and long-term غـــــرض (purpose.)

It is a culture which holds الدِّيـــــــــــن (religion) as its guiding principle, as well as its defining essence.