Cairo by Piri Reis, 16th century. Source: Wikipedia
Cairo’s coolest cosmopolitan hotel. General Manager: Youssef Rakha.
Arabic calligraphy by Mahmud Atef
Arabic language Arab Spring art Beirut black and white Cairo death Egypt Fiction History Islam literature love Muslim Novel Poetry Revolution
رواية سفر شعر شمس ضحك غرام قصة قصيرة قصيدة نثر قلب قهوة كتابة مدينة مرض مطر موت موسيقى نص نوم
محمود المنيرواي: هكذا أفتح صدري بفأس الحقيقة
Hassan Hajjaj, “Musician Hindi Zahra, 2011”. Source: designindaba.com
لا يعجبني حالي مهما فعلت
ولا حيلة لي معي، أنا الغريب في جلدي
جلدي الغريب عن بيته في حي الجنينة
جنينة من يعرفونني وأعرفهم
أعرف أن من اتبعوا هواهم ظلّوا
لكنني أوهن من جناح بعوضة
لذا لا يعجبني حالي مهما فعلت
.
Robin Moger: A New Poem by Mohab Nasr
René Magritte, The Lovers. Paris, 1928. Source: moma.org
Life eternal might not be ours
but there’s what’s worse
that we are really forever
Music through earphones
casts no shadow
does not say to you when you must stop
nor through the earphones
signals No
سأعتبر ما يقطر من شعرك صدقا مع النفس: أربع قصائد جديدة لمهاب نصر
Leonard Bramer (1596–1674), Mors Thriumphans. Source: Wikipedia
(١)
ولو لمرّة
أريد أن يغوص كاحلاي في الثلج
أن تنتثر ندف بيضاء من شفتي
أحدثك من هناك
في تسجيل حي
غير أن ما يصلك
ليس إلا هواء يتقصف على منحدر
ومن بعيد
يظهر بيت ودخان
الشاعر ينتظرنا.
مخمور في آخر العالم؛
العالم الذي احترق فعلا.
Fatima Berro’s Beirut | البحر بعيد: بيروت فاطمة برّو
لا تُحدَّد النهايات ببطء. ولا تُقاس بحجم العمر
البحر بعيد ولا مجال للسباحة في كوب غاز
هذه المواد تخرّ أمامي فأستعملُها
Jessica Sequeira: Race of the Horses
Han Gan (742–756), Night-Shining White. Source: metmuseum.org
An old man used to sit outside my school every day, playing music on a traditional Chinese instrument. He would move a light wood stick over two pieces of metal. Most of the time the songs he played were slow, but some of the time he’d play ones that were real quick, and at those moments we kids would gather around. We had no problem making excuses to our teachers to leave class for five minutes, or take an extended lunch break.
Antonio Denti: Notes on War in Times of Peace
Generations
I’d rather fight a war tomorrow than think my son might have to do it one day.
This sentence, which I know to be true, does not belong to me. It does not emanate from me. It inhabits me because I am part of this living planet. It originates in the deepest strata of life, in the mechanisms that regulate the way life is handed down from being to being, from generation to generation, across time. It does not make me any more courageous than the moderately frightened – or more heroic than the moderately selfish – man that I am.
-
- Maidan Shar, Afghanistan. November 2001. The Frontline: Kabul had been liberated and the Taliban had fled. The frontline had shifted some 60 km south of the capital. It was very quiet, apart from sporadic gunfire. In truth, no one knew what lay beyond. No one knew where the Taliban had gone. Time would tell they they were still there.
-
- Kabul, Afghanistan. November 2001. The Price of a Battle: Two Taliban fighters await their fate in prison, having been captured defending Kabul when their positions were overrun by victorious Northern Alliance soldiers.
-
- Kabul, Afghanistan. November 2001. Children play in the liberated city.
-
- Baghdad, Iraq. April 2003. US Marine: When it became clear that to stay in Iraq was going to be much harder than it had been to get there.
-
- Near Hilla, Iraq. May 2003. A History of Violence: Shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, mass graves from the Saddam era started to surface in various parts of the country. The Mahawil mass grave near the ancient city of Babylon contained the bodies of over 3,000 Shias killed during the 1991 uprising, which followed the first Gulf War. It was the largest one found.
-
- Eastern Iraq. May 2003. The Search: A US marine searches a local man at an improvised check-point. But what would have been useful to find – the history, the fear, the hatred, the faith, the desire for revenge or victory – none of it could be found in this way. Yet only those things really mattered, only things that cannot be kept in a man’s pocket or hidden in his socks would shape the years to come.
-
- Baghdad, Iraq. April 2003. Out of place: A US marine guards a tiger that had belonged to the Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, Uday. Two very deadly creatures, the largest predator and a human soldier, both somehow out of place.
The Brimming Sea: More Ibn Arabi from Robin Moger
The Prophet Ilyas Rescues a Prince, from the Hamzanama, India, 1567-1572. Source: britishmuseum.org
Then the secret was there in my heart
and I was gone and my star set away
my heart by my lord’s secret changed and I
absented from the body’s feeling frame
wherefrom therewith I came
upon a ship of my high resolution
disposed therein my fortress thoughts
through a dark gulf of what I knew
unthought
.
and on my ship my longing blew
as winds, and so it passed
an arrow’s passage through the sea
and across that sea Approach I cut
till I perceived unsecret what
was without name. You!
.
I said, by my heart seen!
I loose an arrow at your love
for you are dear to me
and you are my festivity
the end of all my passion and my prize.
.
Ibn Arabi’s original poem can be found here.
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