The Poet Of The Arab Revolution
The Arab Counter Revolution
The Abuse of Arab Jews
The Wives of Arab Tyrants
Tunisia's Faces of the Revolution
The Shaking Throne of Arab Tyrants
There has been no more exhilarating time for the Arabs for centuries, literally centuries, than this moment. This is bigger than the end of colonial rule. It is a great moment of hope for the Arabs. That they will finally truly have a hand, with God as the witness, in their fate and the longed for Arab Renaissance may begin.
And at the heart of the Arabs has always been poetry. This is the form of Arab art. From the age of Jahilliya (time before coming of Islam) to the present moment it has always been poets and their poetry which gave voice to the Arab moment of fear and hope, during war and peace, the past and now the future. It has always been poetry which spoke about the Arabs and their time.
It is indisputable who is the poet of the Tunisian and now boarder Arab revolution: the late Tunisian poet Abu Al-Qasim Ash-Shabi. He had been almost forgotten by many Arabs (not in Tunisia though where his memory has always lived and where he graces the 30Dinar note, until recently the highest currency) and much of his poetry remains unknown. He lived in the early 20th century, left one book of poems titles Songs of Life, and died at the age of 25.
In many ways he was like the James Dean of Arab poets. A talented artist who paradoxically accomplished so little and yet so much in such a short time before his time passed and left a lasting legacy of youthful greatness. And he reminds me of what Salles Gomes said about the French filmmaker Jean Vigo, "To dwell on the brevity of Vigo's career, and to speculate on what might have been if he had lived, is to dismiss the scale of his achievement." To do in so few years and most never do.
One of his most famous poems speaks to all Arab tyrants today:
To the Tyrants of the World
Hey you, the unfair tyrants...
You the lovers of the darkness...
You the enemies of life...
You've made fun of innocent people's wounds; and your palm covered with their blood
You kept walking while you were deforming the charm of existence and growing seeds of sadness in their land
Wait, don't let the spring, the clearness of the sky and the shine of the morning light fool you...
Because the darkness, the thunder rumble and the blowing of the wind are coming toward you from the horizon
Beware because there is a fire underneath the ash
Who grows thorns will reap wounds
You've taken off heads of people and the flowers of hope; and watered the cure of the sand with blood and tears until it was drunk
The blood's river will sweep you away and you will be burned by the fiery storm.
His poems are very beautiful, and the one that defined the Tunisian revolution, known by all Arabs, is titled "The Will of Life" and it is this poem which speaks in the hearts of all Arabs today [Translation by Angry Arab].
If the people will to live, providence is destined to favorably respond; and night is destined to fold, and the chains are certain to be broken; and he who has not embraced by the love of life, will evaporate in its atmosphere and disappear.
From Tunisia to Egypt to ... the Arabs today share one will in the name of providence and may He favorably respond.
