Middle East/North African Lit discussion
This topic is about
Tablet & Pen
Cruise Seminars -reference reads
>
Tablet & Pen. editor, Aslan (May/Aug 2012)
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I didn't start reading yet, though...just glanced through the ToC and Intro.
I reread the poems in the dedication and epigraph, wondering whether the tone they set continues throughout the anthology. Section one, 1910-1920, describes the flowering of Arabic language, literature, and nationalism, using western genres of the novel and short story to tell about traditional lives amidst a changing society and to critique society in metaphor.
Wiki's informative article about Khalil Gibran's life says that he was Lebanese-American and later died in the U.S. His piece of writing in this anthology is "The future of the Arabic language", a topic about which he asks and answers questions. His theme is that Invention/Innovation and Initiative keep alive the language and bring order out of the politcal confusion. Invention is taking progressive steps, looking into the curious, and following your succession of dreams; its opposite "boredom" is imitative of others and is influenced by what suits others than oneself. His equating Poets with being innovators does not mean just literary people.The poet is both the father and the mother of language; language travels the same roads he travels and stops to rest where he stops to rest...
By poet, I mean every inventor, be he big or small, every discoverer, be he strong or weak, every creator, be he great or humble, every lover of pure life, be he a master of a pauper, and everyone who stands in awe before the day and the night, be he a philosopher or a guard at a vineyard.
"The First Lession" from Yaḥyá Ḥaqqī's Good Morning! And Other Stories is so good, I was wondering why I'd never found that story in anthologies. Set in a tiny Egyptian train station just outside a village, the story depicts the quality of an older man's and a younger boy's friendship. Yusuf Hilmi doesn't get the tenderness he needs from his stationmaster father nor the manly talk from his mother, but from the Sudanese Amm Khalil, a government employee at the station, Yusuf gets love and attention. Tragedy haunts Amm, while Yusuf gets his first taste of suffering in school.
Diary of a Country ProsecutorTawfiq al-Hakim, a playwright, is identified here as combining arabic and western literary styles and as developing modern Arabic literature whose subject was rural lives in a changing society.
A provincial prosecutor tells about the many defendants brought before the "conscientious" judge. Many accused are doing what they have always done in their lives and are uncomprehending about having done wrong under the laws of the new legal system.
"Not a single one of the defendants showed any sign of believing in the real iniquity of whatever he had done...fines had fallen upon them from heaven...they had to be paid...Could one claim that these judgments had a deterrent effect when the delinquent had not the least idea of what fault he had committed?
Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal, pen name Arrar/ArarWiki says that he is known both as Poet of Jordan and as a Don-Juan. His first poem here is "Are You Intoxicated?", i.e., with wine. I liked the way the poet interchanged the ideas of "time" and "a fool":
Time has made a fool of meHis next poem here, "The Sheikh Says...", exemplifies his willfulness to continue being a Don Juan,
and I shall make a fool of time itself
thanks to this overflowing cup of wine.
...singing'Laila' means Night or Dark-haired; my research didn't find anything about Kalvadara.
or flirting with Laila or Kalvadara.
My Kinsmen Say "Leave Her!" again displays Arrar's libertinism. He asks,
Who dares deny that the most precious things of manHis friends advise him at eighty-years-old to "repent" of wine and women. Having considered that advice, he rejects it. First, his "heart" is "delivered" to god, not to man; second, his friends' way of living is without "thrill" and is heedless of his "yearning"--
are his tongue and his heart?
O my throbbing love-sick heart,Banipal, Magazine of Modern Arab Literature, no. 13, Spring 2002, featured those poems.
consumed by fire.
Abd al-Rahim Mahmud (1913-1948) is a revered poet of Palestine who died fighting for its cause. His poem here "The Aqsa Mosque" is also printed in Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature, pp209-212 with two other poems "The Martyr" and "Call to the Motherland"; all are in Google Preview. The poem is a complaint to the visiting Prince Saud Ibn Abd al-Aziz about incursions from non-Islamists to the mosque and is considered an omen about Palestine's future.
The Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock share the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Islamic-style mosque with minarets and silver dome has a capacity of five thousand people and is the third holiest site of Sunni Islam.
Mod
I am not sure when I will be able to join reading this book , I am in a real mess !! (how is everyone?)
Khalil Gibran is an iconic figure , For tho who is interested ; from "Worlds without borders" ; from “The Future of the Arabic Language”
- Away from this , I was wondering if anyone will be interested in reading The Prophet - originally written in English - at some point ?
- For Yahya Hakki ; I didn't read for him , but The Lamp of Umm Hashim and Other Stories is one of the most important classic movies (I like it a lot , it reflects the depth of contradiction between modernity and tradtion) . I think I had a copy from Good Morning! And Other Stories , why didn't I read it so far !
- Diary of a Country Prosecutor was one of my favorite novels but I read it so young , and I think I will need to reread it , I like Tawfik Al-Hakim sarcasm so much even though he is known as " Enemy of Woman "!
*******
Asmah wrote: "The Asqa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock share the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Islamic-style mosque with minarets and silver dome has a capacity of five thousand people and is the third holiest site of Sunni Islam...."
Thanks , allow me to add more details :)
Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) = Bayt al-Muqaddas = Al-Aqsa Mosque "The Farthest Mosque" is the third holiest site for all Muslims after " Masjid al-Harām in Makkah" and "Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, Medina" both in Saudi Arabia .
Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra - according to Islamic believes- the rock is the spot from which Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. And prayed with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
As in the image below " Dome of the Rock " is considered part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque /the Noble Sanctuary (the entire complex that surrounded by the ancient fence) .for the mosque in left with gray dome which here is called in English " Al-Aqsa Mosque " as a common use is (The Aqsa Mosque congregation building) , in Arabic we call it " al- Masjid al-Qibli" المسجد القبلي , it can accommodate about 5000 people worshipping inside it .
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tKOxaoQ86pk...
Nile daughter wrote: "...Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) = Bayt al-Muqaddas = Al-Aqsa Mosque "The Farthest Mosque" is the third holiest site for all Muslims after " Masjid al-Harām in Makkah" and "Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, Medina" both in Saudi Arabia . ..."ND, thks for that valuable information in your post. That area where the Aqsa mosque is located is richer in meaning! Your having read some of the books indicates that this anthology's selections are well-chosen.
After Section I, the rebirth of Arabic literature between 1910-1920, Section II turns to Turkish literature between 1920-1930. The excerpt from "Istanbul Boy: a memoir" by the humorist Aziz Nesin tells why he writes (the inspirational demons 1/10th human climbing over him night and day), then what his Istanbul childhood was like in several vignettes. His first memory at four years old was his mother escaping with him, his younger sister, and a few items ("The Koran, Sewing Machine, and Potty") from their rented house during a fire in Kasimpasa. In other stories, he describes some folk remedies in absence of medicine. Some, such as "Baby Mice in Olive Oil", unripened green wild plums, pine needles, and salt layered over with tobacco apparently did heal cuts and certain illness. Others were ineffective: boric acid and powder from decayed trees and mushrooms for his circumcision and nights alone in the cemetery for his sister's malnutrition and rickets. He wrote of his sister's dying,...I think the thing that made me a humorist must be my own life, my way here was along a path of tears.Similarly, a vignette is titled, "I came to the world to laugh; I cry and don't know why".
The last story in this excerpt is "Fergap Fesini Kap (Fergap, Grab His Fez), in which he is a young schoolboy innocent of school traditions. One of those was the teacher snatching off his fez at 'Fergap' during his recitation. I wonder whether that sign of approval and promotion to the student and the student's parents still is done?
Among Aziz Nesin's "prolific" writings are Turkish Stories from Four Decades and Memoirs Of An Exile.
Nâzim Hikmet (1901-1963), "father of modern Turkish poetry", Selected Poems"I Love My Country","I Love My Country" is a fireworks of favorite things about his country Turkey--trees, prisons, songs, tobacco, rebels, architects, poets, people at work, camels, train, Fords, sick donkeys, red earth, trout, pine forests, freshwaters, mountain lakes, goats, hazelnuts, apples, olive, fig, melon, grapes, ox, plow, people, Abant Lake of Bolu, and its vastness.
"The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin" (excerpt from Poems of Nazım Hikmet ), and
"Since I Was Thrown Inside"
In reading the excerpt from "The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin" here, I hadn't remembered it from "The Poems of Nâzim Hikmet". So revisiting it was refreshing. It begins with the sultanate being usurped by a murderous brother. The foot annotation speaks of that person being Ottoman Sultan Memet/Mehmed II reigned from 1444. Those dates don't match up to the dates of Bedreddin--his rebellion in 1416 and his death 1420. The rival brother in the poem must have been Mehmed I Çelebi, who won the dynastic wars and reigned 1413-1421. He exiled Bedreddin to Iznik. Apparently, life at that time in Turkey was hard
In short, there was a sovereign, a fief, a wind, a wail.The final poem "Since I was Thrown Inside" muses about his ten years in prison.
...the earth has orbited the sun ten times.He wonders why a two-time murderer and smuggler gets less time than himself. Nor, has he seen his children, the city's new squares, and his family's new home during that decade. Inside the prison the availability and kind of bread changed three times, and outside the prison there was a second world war. Even though he is imprisoned he notices the people rising and still believes everything he wrote since he got there.
"The people, who are plentiful as ants on the groundThe anthology's biography calls his poetry unconventional with colloquialisms, epic, free verse, and leftist themes.
as fish in the sea
as birds in the sky,
who are cowardly, courageous,
ignorant, supreme
and childlike,
it is they who crush
and create,
it is but their exploits sung in songs."
And as for the rest,
my ten-year incarceration, for instance,
it's all meaningless words.
Refik Halid Karay's short story "The Gray Donkey" A dying guest in a remote village bequests his gold pieces and grey donkey to Hejaz, where are located "the holy cities of Mecca and Medina". The village's headman Hüsmen Hoca takes the donkey to the judge of a tiny town a few days away. Judge Melonhead being absent, Hüsmen tells his story about the dead man's donation over and over to all the townspeople. Told by the sergeant to return in two weeks, he actually needs to make three more trips between the village and town, the last trip with village witnesses, with the royally fed and unburdened donkey in tow before deeds are stamped. The villagers imagine that the grey donkey
...according to the worth and honor of the donkey...would go as far as the Hejaz without a load or any hardship, and that there it would carry water from the sacred well of Zemzem.Hüsmen discovers during a future visit to the tiny town the grey donkey, with the judge sitting astride and cautioning audibly, barreling through a crowded street.
Section III Once Upon a Time: Politics and Piety in Persian Literature 1930-1940Following §1 Arabic literature and §2 Turkish literature, § 3 Persian Literature samples Iranian poets, novelists, and short story writers. After the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925) ended, colloquial diction and secular themes predominated over the formerly "ornamental" courtly literary styles. Representative Iranian writers in these years are Nima Yushij, Sadegh Hedayat, Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, and Parvin E'tesami. Historically, the Qajar dynasty was usurped by Reza Khan, later Reza Shah Pahlovi (r. 1925-1941). In 1935, Persia was renamed Iran.
"Persian Is Sugar" by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh from the short story collection Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud [Once Upon a Time]Set during the 1905 Constitutional Revolution between constitutionalists and monarchists in Persia (Iran), the story is about how three inadvertently thrown-together Iranian men affect a fourth, a provincial from near the Caspian Sea who seeks from the rest an understandable reason for his arrest and detention. The theological, Arabic-speaking Sheikh and the political philosophizing, westernized French-speaking Iranian he regards as raving and ranting incoherently. The narrator, who speaks the same vernacular Persian as the provincial, however cannot convince him that Persian includes Arabic, French, and Turkish, as well as as his Gilaki speech.
Yes, by all means, Khalil Gibran's The Prophet!Nile daughter wrote: "You are making this thread very rich Asmah !! :D
I am not sure when I will be able to join reading this book , I am in a real mess !! (how is everyone?)
Khalil Gibran is an iconic figure , For t..."
An excerpt from The Blind Owl by صادق هدایت Sadegh Hedayat A little bit of a mystery, grave-yard, ethereal story, maybe even like a longer The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.
It's the Persian New Year, a man given to opium greets his uncle at the door. While he's getting some old, old bottled wine from the top of the closet, there's a hole in the wood through which he spies a slender young woman with black, mesmerizing eyes and a bent, old, laughing man. Both are beside a cypress tree, a stream, and some scentless morning glories. Whereupon, he goes into a long trance, during which time his uncle has left.
Returning the bottle to the closet shelf, he cannot find any aperture in the wall. The rest of the story is re-encountering her and meeting up with the old man, who transports him in a horse-drawn hearse to and from a cemetery. Through all that and more, he relates the profound changes to his spirit, the physical changes of the ghostly woman, and the eerily geometrical, radiant, decaying world through which the hearse passes.
Poems "Cold Ashes" and "O People!" by Nima Yushij, "one of the fathers of modern Persian poetry", from the anthology Modern Persian Poetry"Cold Ashes"
The real images of "a small fire" outdoors now gone cold reminds the narrator of
...the dust of my thoughts,as well as of growing older.
Every line of it a story of long sufferings.
The breath of the autumn of my life,
An allusion to my fading spring:
Round a handful of cold ashes,
Once a small fire,
A few stones are still left
On a peaceful path through the forest
From nights long gone.
"O People!" A different translation online as "Hey, People"
Two interwoven scenes connected by
...the cry of the man in the seaThe self-satisfied, well-off people enjoying themselves on the seashore do not perceive the drowning man engaged in a life and death struggle with the sea.
...spreading out in the sound of the wind...
From A Nightingale's Lament: Selections From The Poems And Fables Of Parvin Eʻtesami, 1907-1941The two anthologized poems, "Iranian Women" and "A Woman's Place" by
Parvin E'tesami, are aphorisms about Iranian women's traditional role in society by contrast to their real equality, learning, and excellence.
§4 "Rise Up! Pakistan and the Independence of Urdu Literature, 1940-1950
A chronology between 1919 to 1948 whose main points are India's Independence Movement and its Partition.
Indian literature (Urdu and Persian) developed from the Mughal empire and European influences. Traditional poetry was the Ghazal but broadened into the themes of political freedom and of social progress and into the style of modernism. Besides poetry, other literary genres were also written.
Asmah wrote: "Julie wrote: "Yes, by all means, Khalil Gibran's The Prophet!..."Here it is! The Prophet"
Thank you so much, Asmah!
Julie wrote: "...Thank you so much...!"You're welcome, Julie.
These stories and poems are fascinating. I'm glad I'm reading them.
Asmah wrote: "Julie wrote: "...Thank you so much...!"You're welcome, Julie.
These stories and poems are fascinating. I'm glad I'm reading them."
I've read The Prophet again for the first time since being quite young. I didn't understand or appreciate then, but now, as with new eyes and a mature heart, I've found it is very beautiful. I really can't put the book down. :)
Mod
Asmah wrote: "ND, thks for that valuable information in your post. That area where the Aqsa mosque is located is richer in meaning! Your having read some of the books indicates that this anthology's selections are well-chosen..."
:)
I agree with you the anthology's selections seem to be well-chosen.
**It seems that I am not going to need to read the book after all of your posts :D I must read them in details ! thanks a lot for your effort ...
Julie ,
We have a thread for poetry in here
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
We can see there if others may like to read The Prophet , Since you already read it :) it will be very interesting to hear your thoughts about it .
Nile daughter wrote: ",,,It seems that I am not going to need to read the book after all of your posts :D I must read them in details !...Julie...a thread for poetry...http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4..."Right now, I'm looking at the tops of waving tree boughs by the lake and listening to a morning song at Naxos Music Lib. I'm coming back soon :)
"For Freedom's Sake: A Memoir" (excerpt) by Sa'adat Hasan MantoThe settings are Amritsar and Bombay in India during the revolutionary resistance, which followed the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh. The civil disobedience of the Congress Movement used slogans, arrests, fires, and sit-ins, hoping to win Indian independence from Britain. However, independence did not come until 1947.
The memoir is told by the author, whose closest friend, the political speech maker Shahzada Ghulam Ali, is the story's main character and the new resistance's forty-first 'dictator' and 'prince'. The young Ghulam Ali's passionate political speeches are energized by charismatic Baba-ji, a spiritual-political leader, who is visiting the town from his ashram and who is also blessing Ghulam Ali and Nigar's wedding. Inspired by Baba-ji at the wedding ceremony to remain friends instead of lovers until India removes the chains of its slavery to the oppressor, the couple attempts to delay childbearing. Six years later in Bombay, the author encounters Ghulam Ali, who brings up-to-date the other about his life and beliefs. That part is worth the story!
Chughtai's short story "The Quilt"; Iqbal's, Miraji's and Rashed's Selected Poems from Urdu...Quilt
First person memoir. An adult recalls a childhood experience in which she spent an awful week, visiting her mother's 'adopted' sister.
Muhammed Iqbal's Selected Poems
'The Houri and the Poet'--
A female angel tells a poet
O what a fair world you have fashioned with your song.'Heaven and the Priest'--
It makes me feel as if Heaven were illusory.
Reminder of John Lennon's 'Imagine' in that a Preacher's concerns are incompatible with the ethos of Paradise.
'Gods Command to the Angels'--
Priests, idols, temples, mosques do not signify truth and creation, which are more likely found in sticks and mud and in people's rule. The 'Poet of the East' is Iqbal himself.
Like crystal, this new age is dazzling and brittleMiraji's Selected Poems
Teach the ways of Intoxication to the Poet of the East.
'Far and Nearer'--
The great physical distances are nonetheless spanned by the hearts' closeness.
'Devadasi and Pujari'--
The temple dancer, or devadasi, the priest says, is
my composure, my peace, my intellect/wisdom.'I Forgot'--
Forgetting everything is forgetting ordinary, civilized things and longed/asked-for things.
Whoever you look at, in their heartN. M. Rashed's Selected Poems
if there's a complaint
it's just this:
I remembered every single thing
but time forgot
us.
If anyone asks
who said this,
tell them what's in your heart.
Miraji talked and repented
and then,
having talked
forgot.
'Near the Window'--
Setting is dawn of a new day, but tyranny, hunger, sickness, and poverty and a bereft priest carry over from yesterday and accentuate the poet's helplessness to ameliorate those circumstances. The minarets ironically
...kiss the red sky a sad farewell.at dawn.
'Deserted Sheba'--
Refers to the King Solomon (Suleiman) and Queen of Sheba legend in which Sheba was an envoy/visitor to Solomon's court. In his sad, old age, Sheba is no more.
'Oil Merchants'--
Safeguarding modern cities such as Tehran and Masshad and finding hope
despite
[r]obbers ...pitching their tents
Dressed as oil merchants
...
We also have shed tears
--Though the black mole is worthless
That deep oozing ulcer which arose on earth's cheek
...
Our tyrant begins to sweat in his own fire
Place your hand in mine!
Place your hand in mine!
For I have seen
Rays on the peaks of Alwand and Himaliya
Through them at last will break
A Sun
Longing for this, Buqara and Samarqand
Have long been beggars.
PART II, 1950-1980, Section 5: Arab WorldChronology--Around these years, Israel and Algeria gained independence, Iraq and Syria had coups, some Arab countries had internal and external wars, and Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty."I am an Arab: Arabic Literature at Midcentury"--
Despite the rebellions and conflicts, there was a flourishing literature about the plight of "poor and downtrodden" people and about the hopes of pan-Arabic unity.
Ghassan Kanafani's "Letter from Gaza"
Short story in epistolary form. An engineer's future of joining a friend teaching in the U.S.A. is given up when a bomb causes his niece's amputation operation and his change of heart.
Reprinted from رجال في الشمس .
Selected poems by Abu Salma (aka The Olive of Palestine)
"My Country on Partition Day" takes issue with Palestine's partition
...our honor denies partition.and criticizes the unequal justice between the West and the East.
Maybe justice changes color and shapes!"We Shall Return", lyrical poetry about the eventual return of Palestinian land.
...
call on free men in every land
to raise the flag of justice where we stand.
"I Love You More", another lyrical and longing poem about Palestine, sees more love growing for that country in defending it.
Whenever your name sounds in muy ears, my words grow more poetic,Reprinted from Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature.
planting desire for you on every stoop.
...
Oh Palestine! Nothing more beautiful, more precious, more pure!
The more I fight for you, the more I love you.
Mahmoud Darwish (aka Palestinian national poet)
"To the Reader"
The anger of unfulfilled promises.
Though the street frowns in my face"Identity Card" are several brief descriptions of Arabs. They are applying for identity cards, giving information and warning.
it protects me from shadows and malign glances,
and so I sing for joy
behind fearful eyelids.
When the storm struck in my country
it promised me wine, and rainbows.
I do not hateIn "Athens Airport", "we waited for years" to be able to leave.
and do not steal
but starve me, and I will eat
my assailant's flesh.
Beware of my hunger
and of my anger.
"They'd Love to See Me Dead", a sequence of interrogation questions and answers without sense or coherence.
Reprinted from Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology.
PART II, Section 5, contd. Adonis
"The Pages of Day and Night"
Stunning beauty of language and images.
Before the time of day--I am."The Wound" (Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs)
...
(from The Pages of Day and Night)
Describes the wound throughout the poem, as in
..."Grave for New York (excerpt)" (A Time Between Ashes & Roses)
O world decked in dream and longing
O world that falls onto my forehead
etched like a wound,
keep your distance. The wound is closer than you.
Keep your seductive charms away. More beautiful than you
is the wound.
And the magic that reaches from your eyes
to the last kingdoms
has only been the wound's pathway.
The wound has passed over it,
stripped it of its deceptive sails
and left it without its island.
A critique in poetry about the condition of world and about the silence
of people and nations.
The Word is the lightest of things; and yet, it contains everything.Mozaffar al-Nawwab
Action is a direction and an instant, and the Word is all
directions and all time. The Word--the hand, the hand--
the dream:
I discover you O fire, O my capital,
I discover you, O poetry,
and I tempt Beirut...
"Bridge of Old Wonders (excerpt, Side Two of the Cassette)" (Iraqi Poetry Today)
Al-Nawwab, a performance artist, recites his poetry live with the audience applause in brackets. The idyllic, opening stanzas,
This land is called "The daughter of the morning"The "elegy" itself describes the "urgent concerns for the Arab world" with vivid examples in revolutionary language. The title possibly means the East-West connection and the none-too-new story.
This land is called "The daughter of the morning"
The wandering Arabs left her behind,
gathering pomegranate blossoms
at the Mediterranean
They journeyed across two deserts,
and when they noticed they'd forgotten her,
they found all the filth of the world in her
and they recited an elegy.
Stanza repeated.
PART II, Section 5, cont'd."The Enemies" by Zakariyya Tamir/Zakaria Tamer.
Powerful description of an authoritarian society in twenty-six short pieces. For example, a developing and ever-advancing society is a myth; living cowards are better than dead heroes; children's not laughing cannot be legislated; asking for a raise or making suggestions in a state-owned factory serves the enemy; planes not food are being produced; etc.
"The Aorta" by Yusif Idris/Yusuf Idris
Reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. The last line is the swinging aorta like a pendulum. After an aorta operation, a bandaged man is taken for a thief. His pursuers think that he is hiding the stolen money in the folds of his body bandage.
"The Dance of the Savage Prairies" by Haydar Haydar/Haidar Haidar in Modern Arabic Fiction: An Anthology
Algerian setting during revolt to regain independence. In retaliation, the city suffers with increased state authority and police. That oppression contrasts with the sea and the moving sun. In the peaceful prairies, the main character Alazrak joyfully visualizes a girl on a rock. Depicts social injustice and inequality.
The Seventh Heaven: Supernatural Tales (excerpt) by Naguib Mahfouz
A truly great story about life after death. Abu the lawyer questions, defends, and pronounces verdicts on each dead person in First Heaven. Abu temporarily reprieves murdered Raouf Abd-Rabbuh from condemnation (rebirth on earth) by giving him an assignment. He is to guide spiritually his friend and murderer Anous Qadri on earth, while both men's mothers and Raouf's girlfriend Rashida contact the spirit world through seances. Very enjoyable reading.
PART II, section 6, TURKEY 1945-1982Abbreviated "Chronology"
1945, Turkey joined UN;"Strangers in a Strange Land: Turkish Literature after Atatürk"
1952, joined NATO;
1960, 1st coup and beginning of Turkey's Golden Age of literature;
1964, associate of European Union;
1971, 2nd coup;
1974, invades Cyprus;
1980, 3rd coup and end of Turkey's Golden Age of literature;
1982, new Constitution.
Nâzim Hikmet;
Village novel depicting traditional way of life, Memed, My Hawk;
A Mind at Peace;
Sait Faik Abasıyanık's short story;
Garip (=strange) Movement: "dramatic changes taking place in Turkish society".
My mum actually bought this book not long ago. I'll try to pry it away from her and join in the discussion :)
The stories and poems are memorable, very well written by prominent, representative writers. Definitely worth reading from start to finish.
I may try to read this, at least in part, next year. I seem to be saying this about a lot of books lately!
It's the thought that counts! (right...)
Mod
ND, Great idea! After a little breather, I am definitely ready to take up from where I bookmarked in it. The selections for this anthology are well chosen and are often captivating.
Mod
Great , then any time dear :)
Picking it up from the library sometime today :)
I'd like to get started on this one as well :)
This excerpt from Memed, My Hawk differs from its movie version. Here, Memed's girlfriend Hatche is imprisoned with Riza's mother Iraz. The older and younger women become confidantes while a visit from Hatche's mother brings unwelcome news about Memed's possible death. The next selection will be an excerpt of Ahmet Handi Tanpinar's A Mind at Peace.
The excerpted Tanpinar's "A Mind at Peace" is dense with romantic mismatches but also with philosophical disagreements about the new Turkey. Many characters yet light, fast pace at a ferry landing, a seaside café, and a character's house. The next entry is "Such a Story" from Sleeping In The Forest by Sait Faik Abasıyanık.
Favorite lines from Sait Faik Abasıyanık's fantasy, "Such a Story", are:"Hidayet [who sells sesame helva] crouched in my pocket like a sesame grain.and
"The sesame grain in my pocket turned into a flea..."and
"Let's think about living some day in a world made of friendship, with hearts beating with duty and feeling and people and animals and trees and birds and lawns..."The rest of the last quote is in Quotes Asma Likes.
After Sait Faik Abasıyanık's story comes three Turkish poets: Melih Cevdet Anday, Orhan Veli Kanık, and Oktay Rifat.
Melih Cevdet Anday's selected poems make use of ancient history, surrealism, and inevitability of aging. Orhan Veli Kanık's lyrical poem often repeats the refrain "I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed", as in the last stanza:
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closedOktay Rifat takes his theme and titles from Homer's The Iliad--three poems "Agamemnon I" "...II" "...III". He illuminates Troy's Phoenician-Phrygian heritage as well as some mythological landmarks. Modern technology and Wm Blake get mixed into the narrative. The storyteller surprisingly isn't the commander of the Achaeons but a Trojan once connected with Agamemnon. Time is an historical invention and Death a character.
A bird is flying round your skirt;
I know if your forehead is hot or cold
Or your lips are wet or dry;
Or if a white moon is rising above the pistachio tree
My heart's fluttering tells me...
I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.
The next section turns to Iran, Persian literature between 1950-80.
Sue wrote: "I'm enjoying these selections Asma."The excerpt from Tanpinar's A Mind at Peace left a good impression of his subject and style, too.
The anthology chose quality literature.
When I have a good block of time I'm going to get it from the library. It would be nice if the kindle version went on sale!
Middle East/North African Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad (other topics)An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry (other topics)
Snow (other topics)
A Mind at Peace (other topics)
The Iliad (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Melih Cevdet Anday (other topics)Orhan Veli Kanık (other topics)
Oktay Rifat (other topics)
Sait Faik Abasıyanık (other topics)
Sait Faik Abasıyanık (other topics)
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The anthology's editor Reza Aslan is Iranian. Poetry by Hamid Mosadiq dedicates this book "to the people of Iran". The epigraph is Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem "Tablet and Pen". Writing and literature was the way to express dissent; here it continues that function in reframing the view about this area of the world.