September 2024

I skipped the months of July and August. Life was happening with so much intensity, and there was little time for me to reflect or read. During the last two weeks in August I got to snuggle in my childhood room, surrounded with my books and journals. The dissonance of being at home during such a period is so poignant- I tried to write about it in an attempt to understand it but it hasn’t been easy. This blog post contains some poems and writings that I got to read and enjoy during these weird weeks. The presence of Andalusia is very strong, as I have been watching ملوك الطوائف and reading more about what happened during the 600+ reign of muslims in the Iberian peninsula.

Poems:

• Wallada Bint al Mustakfi, if this name doesn’t sound familiar then you’re at fault. This woman was one of the greatest Andalusian poets. Here’s a translated poem of hers to English. She held a literary salon in Cordoba during the 10th century, and was madly in love with Ibn Zaidun.
• Ibn Zaidun wrote a lengthy Nuniya poem (it’s called nunniya because the 52 verses rhyme with na). Each verse is comprise of sader & aajez:
  • أَضْحَى التَّنَائِي بَدِيْـلاً مِـنْ تَدانِيْنـا وَنَابَ عَـنْ طِيْـبِ لُقْيَانَـا تَجَافِيْنَـا
• Aisha bint Talha refused to put on the veil, she said “Since the Almighty hath put on me the stamp of beauty, it is my wish that the public should view the beauty and thereby recognized His grace unto them. On no account, therefore, will I veil myself“
• The equivalent of Wallada in Cordoba, is Hafsa bint Hajj ar-Rakuniyya in Granada.
• Cuban poet (Raul Rivero) asks the world: I don’t want anyone coming arounf to save me.
• Two love poems in Turkish by the great Cemal Sureya: https://mypoeticside.com/poets/cemal-sureya-poems
• Salim Barakat, one of Syria’s, indeed the Arab world’s, best authors was gifted a poem by Mahmoud Darwish.
• Samih al Qasim, a well-known Palestinian poet wrote to the ugliest city built on the lands of indegenous palestinian villages
• In 1993, Algerian Islamist groups assasinated one of Algeria’s greatest writers Tahar Djaout. Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi wrote him a poem called the Earth opens and welcomes you.

Writing prompt:

Language is falling short to describe the amount of pain, dissonance, and rage that we harbor inside as we move along in our daily routines and lives. This week’s writing prompt is to try to make up a new word. describe its meaning and use it in its context.