Poet, essayist, and playwright Muhammad al-Maghut—called one of the revolutionaries of the (Arabic) free verse movement—was born in 1934 in Salamiya, Syria.
According to Robin Yassin-Kassab over at Qunfuz, “Al-Maghut was locked up on several occasions for SSNP [Syrian Social Nationalist Party] membership. During his first imprisonment – in Mezzeh prison in 1955 – he met the influential poet Adonis and started writing poetry himself.”
Al-Maghut has been compared to popular poet Nizar Qabbani, although al-Maghut’s tone and outlook were surely different. According to Lebanese poet Abdo Wazin (trans. Sinan Antoon):
Al-Maghut’s poetic dish was the closest to that dreamy wandering and suffocation and disillusionment with the reigning world. He was, with his sarcastic tone and bleak outlook, the closest to our imagination, poetic memory and to the climate of Arab reality and its aborted dreams.
Rather than “aborted,” I prefer “deferred,” and now—despite everything—the dreams do seem possible. Why else keep fighting? Now, as we “reclaim…courage and strength,” Antoon’s translation of al-Maghut’s “Tattoo,” published on Jadaliyya:
Tattoo
Now
At the third hour of the twentieth century
Where nothing separates the corpses
from pedestrians’ shoes
except asphalt
I will lie down in the middle of the street
like a bedouin sheikh
and will not get up
until all the prison bars and suspects’ files of the world
are gathered and placed before me
so I can chew on them
like a camel on the open road
Until all the batons of the police and protesters
escape from grips
and go back (once again)
budding branches in their forests
In the dark I laugh
I cry
I write
I no longer distinguish my pen from my fingers
Whenever someone knocks or a curtain moves
I hide my papers
like a prostitute during a police raid
From whom did I inherit this fear
and this blood
scared like a mountain leopard?
More poems by al-Maghut:
“The Orphan,” trans. May Jayyusi and John Heath-Stubbs
“Shade and Noon Sun,” translator uncredited
“Shade and the Noon Sun,” with commentary from Duraid Jalili
“From the Doorstep to Heaven,” translator uncredited
“Weeping on a Hunting Trip,” trans. Abdul Kader El Janabi
“The Hill,” trans. Abdul Kader El Janabi
The opening of “When the Words Burn,” from Joy is Not My Profession, trans. John Asfour and Alison Burch
Book-length collections of al-Maghut’s work in translation include Fan of Swords, trans. May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye and Joy is Not My Profession, trans. John Asfour and Alison Burch
More poetry from محمد الماغوط:
From Adab.Com
From Jehat.Com
Poets and writers on today’s election:
Gheblawi Ghazi Gheblawi
Our heart is #Egypt and although it’s hurt we fight the pain and wish you all the best on the day of elections, make us proud as always
hadouta Rehab Bassam
this one goes to you, baby #EgyElections
marwame Marwa Elnaggar
We have to hope, even if there’s nothing to justify that hope. It has to start somewhere. #EgyElections #Egypt
