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 Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا (Re: elmahasy)
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ادناه ما كتبه الشاعر بيتر جيفري Peter Jeffrey، استاذ الجامعة السابق والحائزة علي جائزة الدولة التقديرية في مجال العمل وسط خدمات التعدد الثقافي، في صحيفة المهاجر السودانية التي تصدر بولاية فكتوريا با ستراليا
SUDAN TAKES FRESH ROOT IN AUSTRALIAN SOIL
‘BET OF THE ARGIL’ BOOK LAUNCH
ETHNIC COMMUNITIES COUNCIL OF WA
As late as 6.30, without the benefit of the daylight saving enjoyed in the Eastern States, the late West Australian sun tore in at the side windows of the old North Perth Town Hall
with a full and blinding force, as people assembled for a serious early Saturday evening
entertainment and the launching ceremony of Afeif Ismail Abdelrazig’s first published book in English ‘BET OF THE ARGIL.
Professors and politicians and executive officers mingled with retirees and children, Sudanese and other multicultural Australians and performers, to make an intriguing mix of representative Australia, all keen to learn of each other’s culture and to celebrate the singular qualities of a distinguished poet, whose work has translated with equal vigour into English as it was generated in the original Arabic.
As the sun slowly settled down and the old town hall settled down in cool and shade, the ceremony was opened and chaired by Russel Raymond, a former ECC President and a key journalist of the WEST AUSTRALIAN’s Real Estate section.
The current president of ECC WA Ramdas Sankaran then spoke of the joy that his organization had in sponsoring the event as the first of a series of presenting artists, musicians, performers and writers from the ‘emerging’ countries of Africa, whose people were beginning to migrate to Australia as political and economic refugees, changing the people-scape of Perth from its original aboriginal and Anglo inhabitants in a definite and richly colorful way.
He made the valid point that Australia should not only seek skilled workers in the industrial and commercial fields but it would gain immeasurably by attracting artists who could enrich Australian culture in a multi-faceted way for Man does not live by bread alone.
He hoped Australia would provide a sanctuary for Afeif and his family, after the trials and tribulations of the prisons of Sudan, and selected the riveting poem ‘BOOK OF SCREAMS’ written in Australia and graphically telling of the continuing tragedy of Darfur. Of it he said, “ Its impact on me has grown not lessened on each occasion [ I have heard it read or read it myself].What reputable journalists have done in reams of print matter to convey the horrors of war, Afeif has managed to do better in one mind-blowing poem. I only wish that our trigger-happy macho leaders the world over would read this poem. Maybe then world peace would be a reality.
It was such a contribution to Australian and world culture that shows the worth of bringing distinguished artists into the country.
These remarks followed his introduction to West Australia’s new Minister for Multicultural Affairs Margaret Quirk and she now in turn commented on Afeif Abdelrazig new book beginning with ‘Missa al khair’ to honour Afeif’s contribution to Arabic poetry and welcoming the mixed audience. At the same time she acknowledged that the site of the ceremony was a traditional Noongar or aboriginal meeting place.
Succinctly she indicated Afeif’s many talents as poet, playwright and artist, as well as his commitment to sport and cross cultural activities in Sudan, with considerable strength as a human rights advocate, having suffered several periods of imprisonment for his opinions. She said that paradoxically Afeif had overridden his incarceration commenting,
“I felt that my poems were free like a bird; this prison has not been able to contain me or isolate me from my goals. The jailer is no longer effective’. He has expressed this beautifully in his poem THE PRISON.
She said that his poems had a deep layer of complexity, for they were both tumultuous yet calming, revealing yet gracious, subtle but deafening. He has intertwined his cultural journey with feelings of sadness, pain, despair, fate and hope. Australians may have a glimmer of these, but they are far deeper for refugees who have been robbed of their lands and forced to take refuge elsewhere. His poetry had a capacity to unite enemies, break silences, expose injustices and to empower the powerless.
Australians must be ever-vigilant to ensure that the rights of all people as individuals are not compromised. In Western Australia there were some 1500 Sudanese people, and 900 had come to Perth through the Humanitarian program since 2003. She agreed along with Afeif that ‘diversity creates dimension in our world.’
In conclusion she read from the poem EQUATION
The fanatics call him; heretic.
The independents call him; non-principled.
People of the left call him; dissident.
Himself;
He loves God’s face.
Bread
And Freedom.
And then gave her best wishes in Arabic ‘atamana lakuun masaan sayidan.’
Leading Perth poet and academic Professor Dennis Haskell gave a lengthy speech that indicated a rigorous reading of Afeif’s verse to try to pin down its elusive style. The first remarkable feature for the Professor was Afeif’s calmness about his prison experience.
“ I find this amazingly detached and unfussed showing no emotion or mention of his own martyrdom’. He isolates Afeif’s style as ‘quizzical and non-Romantic’ and the stance of an observer rather than a direct participant.
He felt that he could but echo the Minister’s comments in that;
“Afeif’s spirit can not be imprisoned. Freedom is in the spirit, and prison cannot contain this. This poetry is strong evidence that tyranny and savage dictatorial regimes cause enormous suffering, however they can never achieve their goals. His poetry is a testament that this kind of soul cannot be imprisoned.”
He went on to comment on Afeif’s epigrammatic style as in say:
People commit suicide
For trivial reasons
And for the same reasons
They commit living.
Finding this flip back of alternative meanings quite quirky much in the spirit of the great American poet Emily Dickinson and her request that the poet ‘should tell all of the truth.’ Afeif does this as in:
Erase all of us,
And leave the sun.
or even a quirky sense of humour as with :
The usurer mourned
Because he had lost a great client.
The irony has undertones of bitterness and ‘brain teasing’ as with the cryptic:
The Shadow of the Sword told
The Shadow of the Knight,
“I could
Kill you
Without blood!
which reads differently to the tone of English poems, prompting Professor Haskell to add,
‘It undeniably true and I will go on thinking about these things …well … forever, I suppose’
The qualities of Afeif’s poetry makes a unique and refreshing addition to future Australian poetry.
“From the moment of our first meeting, we have been friends!” asserted the next speaker Sheila Jessop Blundell Wignall, much in the spirit of Khalil Gibran who stated words to the effect ‘what is not known and revealed in that first moment of meeting; cannot be developed though you may spend a lifetime or eeven generations in pursuit of it.’ Though she had met many people of note, Afeif struck her above all for his integrity, his piercing insight, and his mastery of his art.
She echoed Professor Haskell’s remarks by remembering that Perth poet and musician Ross Bolleter had described Afeif’s poetry:
“The end of a poem always surprised, turning sometimes like a tiger, taking a new
direction, which startles the reader and prods one awake!”
Since their first meeting she has worked with Afeif on the preparation on her own first book GROWING PAINS, and feels that it would not have come to fruition without the inspiration of his persistence and dogged belief. Along with his vision that is shared with his wife Nyzak and Sheila is the dream and now formation of a literary group WINGS which is concerned with Cross Cultural Development. Membership is open to all at the most modest of costs.
Determined to help form solid relations between Afro-Arabic and Australian peoples, Sheila undertook to publish Afeif’s first book in English and hopes to go on with a multicultural publishing group SAMANTHA, named after a three legged cat for its optimism and obstinate courage that will be concerned with a program of international and multicultural books. She spoke of their shared pleasure in translation and sang the praises of the book’s chief translator Dr. Aida Seif Eldawla as rendering lively and penetrating cross cultural meaning.
She went on to explain the double meaning of the word “Bet” as the favorite activity of Australian wagering or betting, and alternately the clay that is formative of the earth with the potential of so many good things. The book then is a wager within the promise of Australian life and the development of an even richer and more diverse literature. Briefly she commented on the artwork of the book and indicated that recently Afeif had taken up graphic arts at TAFE and wished him well.
Afeif’s friend Abdulla Mustafa Adam, a poet and representing the Sudanese Australian Friendship Society began his speech telling the tale of King Timorlink and the poet Karmani, who contrary to everyone’s belief that he would evaluate the king in his own weight with diamonds in cowering flattery, gave an initial price of 25 dinars, which made Timorlink splutter that that was what his own belt was worth, and Karmani said he had thought of that but on reconsideration he was worth less than a cent.
Though no one knew the ultimate fault of Karmani, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky some 600 years later remembered him and praised his courage as an appeal to all poets and writers to challenge tyranny and oppression. To speak out – as injustice can only take place if good men and women say nothing.
Afeif has spoken out with his book a poetic vision, a journey through life that manipulates African images, tales and mythology to portray the suffering, the struggle, hope and aspiration of a poet and his nation. But, it also represents a strong protest against injustice, oppression and the multinationals and environmental degradation. In speaking out Afeif has been made to suffer bitterly.
From the poem DARKNESS, Adam quoted;
Martyrs
Gain nothing
Except
Their Death
And then went on to speak of the misuse of the concept of martyrdom that seemed to promise the quickest route to riches and eternal salvation for the most disadvantaged and the poorest members of society. The manipulation of this concept has led to a war that massacred over two million innocent men women and children in the Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountians. It continues today with the same scenario for Darfur and Eastern Sudan.
Despite the compassion of his poetry, there are still people who would shout loudly at Afeif, “ Heretic … non-principled … dissident … you shall eat the …bread you love in Hell”. Adam further analysed from the poem BATTLE in which the shadow of the sword told the shadow of the knight, that it could kill him without blood, by means of harassment and misrepresentation confounding the democracy of the knight by the media and regulations and imprisonment so that finally victims would flee the country to seek asylum elsewhere.
Like the great Turkish poet, Nazim Hikmet, he said “Afeif has also struggled against tyranny, was imprisoned, wrote beautiful poems and is now living in exile.” Afeif clearly understands Hikmet when he declares:
If I do not burn – if you do not burn –
And if we do not burn together
Who is going to illuminate darkness.
Then, remembering the astronauts who saw the lights of Perth as they swept back to Earth, he opens his arms to say,
Welcome … Afeif .. . To the City of Lights.
Kumsa Bellew from the Catholic Migrant Resource Centre lightened the audience with his speech remembering that despite the usual happiness, nervousness and excitement of the incoming refugees his society met, Afeif had stood out with his calm tallness and sedate bearing while everyone was dancing, chattering and anxious around him. When Kumsa asked him why he was so calm, Afeif had said, “I was working on a poem, so it was my only concern.”
As another dimension to the evening music and songs were provided by the gifted young Jason Fisk, the extremely engaging French chanteuse Pascale Street, and the retired primary school principal and poet, Don Blundell – Wignall and his accompanist Betty Butterworth. The duet brought an old Australian feel to the reading with their rendition of the bush classic MY OLD BLACK BILLY and flourished the genuine article so that one could almost smell the gum leaves.
All in all a remarkable evening that augurs well for our multiculturalism and new directions in Australian Poetry!
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| العنوان |
الكاتب |
Date |
| صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 04:31 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 04:44 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | wadalzain | 06-11-06, 04:49 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 04:56 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 04:57 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 05:21 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 05:27 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 05:33 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 05:55 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 05:58 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:01 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:08 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:12 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:17 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:20 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:23 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:24 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | معتصم الطاهر | 06-11-06, 05:47 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:39 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | ابو جهينة | 06-11-06, 06:44 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 06:54 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | سفيان بشير نابرى | 06-11-06, 07:34 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 07:16 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | Abdelfatah Saeed Arman | 06-11-06, 07:26 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-14-06, 09:16 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-11-06, 07:29 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | ibrahim barssi | 06-13-06, 07:57 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | محمد بهنس | 06-13-06, 08:48 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | Inaam Saad | 06-13-06, 11:39 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-14-06, 09:24 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-14-06, 09:21 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-14-06, 09:19 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | معتصم الطاهر | 06-13-06, 03:36 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | معتصم الطاهر | 06-13-06, 03:58 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-14-06, 09:28 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | عاصم الطيب قرشى | 06-16-06, 07:14 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | Adil Osman | 06-16-06, 12:04 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-18-06, 08:36 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-18-06, 08:34 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | JAD | 06-17-06, 02:42 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-18-06, 08:39 AM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 06-30-06, 09:25 AM |
 Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | خالد العبيد | 06-30-06, 04:55 PM |
| Re: صدور أول ديوان شعري باللغة الإنجليزية لشاعر سوداني في تاريخ غرب أستراليا | elmahasy | 07-07-06, 08:08 AM |
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elmahasy
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