Somalia/UAE - Looking at the situation of the Middle East from Palestine and Lebanon to Iraq, and further afield to Sudan's Darfur, Somalia and Afghanistan, the only wisdom that rushes to my memory is the classic children's nursery rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
It is however by delving into the Arab literary wisdom that one stumbles on the prophetic manner in which Arab and Muslim poets and philosophers through history have predicted the present situation with precision. One feels as if time has been frozen. I just let these wise men speak:
IRAQ
Singing in Baghdad, the satirical Iraqi poet Al Hassan Ibn Han Abu Nawas, 8th C, said:
Death is ever near us, never far removed.
Everyday brings death's call and the wailing of keening Women...
How long will you frolic and jest in delusion
When every day death glows to the flint of your life?
The Lebanese poet Khalil Hawi (20th C) gives us even grimmer picture:
Deepen the hole, gravedigger,
Deepen it to a depth with no limits
Ranging beyond the orbit of the sun...
The blind poet-philosopher Abu Ala Al Marri, 11th C, captures the current situation of Iraq with surprising precision:
My clothing is my shroud, my grave is my home; my life is my fate,
And for me death is resurrection.
But amid the stench of death and gloom, the Iraqi poet and pioneer of modern Arabic poetry Badr Shakir Al Sayyab, 20thC, breathes hope into his people
In every raindrop
A red or yellow flower-bud.
Each tear of hungry and naked people,
Each drop spilled from the blood of slaves,
Each is a smile awaiting new lips,
A teat rosy on a babe's mouth
In tomorrow's youthful world, giver of life,
Rain, rain, rain
Iraq will blossom with rain.
LEBANON
On Lebanon it is non other than the writer of the Prophet, Gibran Kahlil Gibran, 20th C, who gives us the real picture of his country's eternal problem:
"...Your Lebanon is a political dilemma
That the days are trying to resolve,
But my Lebanon is hills, rising with
Reverence and majesty towards
The blueness of the sky."
PALESTINE
In Palestine, the distinguished woman poet Fadwa Touqan, who died in 2003, expressed her people's perpetual fear of the long journey but also of the unknown tomorrow:
I'm afraid of tomorrow
I'm afraid of the unknowable resources of fate
O God, don't let me be a burden, shunned by young and old
I wait to arrive where the land is silent, I'm waiting for death
Long has been my journey O God
Make the path short and the journey end.
It is, however, Palestine's most celebrated poet Mahmud Darwish, who reminds us of the Palestinian's people's defiance and pride in their Arab identity and their love for life:
Write it down!
I'm Arab,
And my card number is fifty thousand;
I have eight children
And the ninth...is due late summer.
Does that annoy you?
ISRAEL
To talk about the poetry of misery in the Middle East and leave out Israel's celebrated poet would be like drawing an incomplete circle. In the following lines Yehuda Amichai, 20th C, envisions death everywhere:
Is all of this
sorrow? I don't know.
I stood in the cemetery dressed in
the camouflage clothes of a living man: brown pants
and a shirt yellow as the sun.
Cemeteries are cheap; they don't ask for much.
Even the wastebaskets are small, made for holding
tissue paper
that wrapped flowers from the store.
SUDAN
One cannot find a darker picture in today's Darfur than that portrayed by the Africanist poet of Sudan Mohammed Al Fayturi:
When darkness erects
Over city streets
Barriers of black stone,
People extend their hands
To the morrow's balconies...
Their days are ancient memories
Of an ancient land,
Their faces, like their hands, gloomy...
You might think they are submissive,
But actually they are on fire!
SOMALIA:
In Somalia, I will borrow one a few old anonymous lines from the land of Bards:
"The grief cry bursts from every lip
Fear sits on every brow,
There's blood upon the courser's flank!
Blood on the saddle bow!
My favorite Proverb:
Amid this apocalyptic scenario, following is my favorite Arab proverb for the American Administration: "Whoever gets between the onion and its skin will only be rewarded by its stink."
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Comments (19)
My favorite proverb is Somali proverb that Somalis in the Southern regions use.In Somali it goes like this( MUKULAAL MILINKEED JOOGTA MICIYO LIBAAX BAY LEEDAHAY.)
In English : A cat at its home, has lion's teeth.
In the history of mankind that proverb was proven right, rich and powerful over and over again. Cases in point, the Great British Empire was beaten by poor Nomadic Afqanitans. The Afqans did again to the Soviet Union Super power.
Iragis had beaten badly the Great British Empire and they are doing now to the only Super power in the world: USA.
Hisbullah have shown the only Great military power in the middle East Israel could not and can not beat one in his homeland not matter how ill equiped they are.
Those of us from the Northern parts of Somalia used to redicule and laugh at the Southerners assuming they are not good in literature. This proverb is rich, powerfull and has universal applications.
December 25, 2006 10:09 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 25, 2006 22:09
A. Musa,
Good point. I might add (as a southerner) the current dream of Ethiopia to divide and concour Somalia will be short-lived. The invading forces of Ethiopia to Somalia soil will feel the pain inflicted by the sons of our great country, sooner or later.
Unfortunately, Bashir is among those who cheers Ithiopia's current activities in Somalia (air strikes, ground invasion, etc) according to his previous postings. But that is not new either. Sell outs and traiters have been highlighted in any nation's struggle against occupation or colonization.
December 26, 2006 8:52 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 26, 2006 08:52
A girl got a pet goat. She liked to go running with her pet goat. She played with her goat in her house. She played with her goat in her yard. But the goat did some things that made the girl's dad mad.
December 27, 2006 3:25 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 03:25
Poetry its been said is a form of escapism or as some others have said "fanciful imaginings".
In the case of the people that inhabit the region of the Middle East its both escapism and fanciful imaginings inflicted by people initially several hundred miles and now several thousand miles distant from the Nile, the Trigris-Euphrates, the Litani, the beginnings of the Nile and the resources in-between.
While in far off lands it took brother against brother to establish royal dynasties, revolutions for and against social systems, civil wars as in the case of the USA the whole lot has been brought by "outisder's intrusion" for control of the petroleum and other resources.
The poetry of the Middle East might be one of examplary misery but the killings and dying for the most part are induced and promoted by non Middle Easterner "poetry makers"..
December 27, 2006 6:38 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 06:38
Look into the philosophical writings of Molana j, Rumi (Turks write it as Mevlana) and or Omar Khayyam and other Persians such as Hafez, Saadi, Sohrevardi, Kharazmi, and others and you will see deep philosophical approach and not just sorrow and pessimism.
However, the writer's point on the overall negative atmosphere in the Middle East is noted. The only point to add is that this is all relatively recent, during the 2nd half of the 20th Century.....look deeper in the past and there are vast bodies of knowledge and thought, especially in Persia.
December 27, 2006 6:42 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 06:42
All the Middle East's options are bad- I think they are living hell on earth. Put a little less faith in fate, unburdon God with your problems and help yourselves.
December 27, 2006 7:07 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 07:07
"All that belongs to desert , must return to desert" a Beduoine saying
December 27, 2006 9:38 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 09:38
ONE SIDE ALONE
We say 'peace'
and they say 'war'
We say 'love'
and they say 'hate'
We want life together
and they tell us 'death is holy'
We hold out our hand
and they a sword
'Great is he who makes a friend of an enemy'
say our sages,
But after thirty- two years here
I know
One side alone
offering Peace
is not enough.
December 27, 2006 1:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 13:39
muslims are vile, violent people. i hate them all
December 27, 2006 2:05 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 14:05
My quote is Golda Meir's
"When the arabs love their children's lives more than they hate us[Israelii's] than there will be peace."
This quote to me summarizes the future hope and the present reality. What it doesn't tell me is how we reach the valuation of life that would rule out suicide killings and random bombings etc.
December 27, 2006 2:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 14:44
It is sad that the Muslim/Arab world is suffering so much these days. To those who hate all Muslims, you are just ignorant, and I hope one day you will be enlightened. Please pray for peace in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Somlia and Sudan. May 2007 bring peace to the entire world. From a Palestinian American.
December 27, 2006 2:54 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 14:54
To o k smith, baltimore, USA
Your quote is Golda Meir's
"When the arabs love their children's lives more than they hate us[Israelii's] than there will be peace."
Maybe when the Israeli's accept the fact that Palestinians have been there for hundreds of years, it was NOT a land without people, and right their wrong, maybe than there will be peace in Israel-Palestina. From a Palestinian American.
December 27, 2006 2:57 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 14:57
There is a point at which infamy becomes familiar.
That point has been reached and surpassed within the United States at this time.
The president is not weary , but caught..
He is the period that must be considered infamy as a resplendent trout of indulgent distortion...
Pillfering portal of distrust..
December 27, 2006 3:02 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 15:02
Project For a New American Century, becoming a continuing writer for the Washington Post?
do you all support preemptive strikes and disinformation as a formal policy decision?
December 27, 2006 3:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 15:36
Is the Golda Meir mentioned the one who was born in Madison, Wisconsin to a Russian gypsy family and became a kindergarten teacher?
Or is it the Golda Meir who claimed that her family was thrown out of Palestine by the British police for lying about being from a Russian gypsy tribe wanted in Kieve for abusive language in fortune telling?
December 27, 2006 6:12 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 27, 2006 18:12
considering all the wise men that live there, it is strange that they cannot find peace.
December 28, 2006 12:27 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 28, 2006 00:27
I do not believe the people who criticize the Palestinians know much about them. Have they asked themselves, did they ever listen to the Palestinian side? Or have they ever bothered to read what others write and say? Unless you are happy with the brainwashing material, then go and LOOK for the TRUTH.
December 28, 2006 12:26 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 28, 2006 12:26
A wonderfully written piece!
Today's world needs to look at India and learn to live in unity in spite of diversities!
Also, please learn from the teachings of Gita (an amazing Hindu Holy Book which talks about the Art of Living!) and Mahatma Gandhi - the great soul - the architect of India's Independence who 'fought' for freedom with peace and non-violence.
If only every disturbed country had a Mahatma Gandhi today and every individual followed Gita's way of life, our Earth will become a Paradise !
"Live and Let Live" - I simply practice this simple mantra of life and if the world adopts this sooner, we shall be able to prevent the humans from getting relegated into the pages of history.
A happy 2007 for all the inhabitants of our Earth - our Paradise :)
December 30, 2006 1:09 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 30, 2006 01:09
I am Koheleth; I was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
And I applied my heart to inquire and to search with wisdom all that was done under the heaven.
It is a sore task that God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
I saw all the deeds that were done under the sun, and behold, everything is vanity and frustration.
Kohelet / Ecclesiastes
Solomon / Suleiman
Some things are timeless.
January 7, 2007 10:19 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 7, 2007 22:19