Wilderness

Assalam u alaikum,

Sometimes I feel like I'm out in the wilderness here. Walking through the crowds of young people sitting in front of Sharqawi's, I felt very sad somehow. One part of me was lonely because they looked so happy, laughing their heads off and smiling their lousy fake smiles. The other part of me was sad because I know that it will all come to nothing: all the time spent sitting on the street will not benefit those people or their country. It won't even bring them happiness. So why should I feel lonely? I walk alone through the valleys of my mind looking for the place I don't know the name of.

Yeah, so that was pretty spiritual. But I read my first Arabic poem in class on Thursday so I think I am entitled to use "the language of the poets." (Ameer laughs hollowly.) The poem was by a man named Iliya Abu Madhi. Born in Lebanon in 1891, Iliya traveled to Egypt when he was about eleven years old and made his living by selling cigarettes. Incredibly he spent his free time reading books, learning, and wrting poetry (did you know that in Arabic there is a special word for writing poetry as opposed to writing just normally? The root word is na dha ma, which is also the same root as the word meaing, "order" or "system". It's that whole mushtaqqat [branch] thing all over again).

When Iliya was twenty years old he travelled to New York to look for work. He joined the literary circle consisting of other Lebanese poets writing in Arabic and living in America. Their group is now called "The Mohajir Poets". Among them was the famous Jubran Khalil Jubran, better known as Khalil Gibran.

Iliya is famous for his optimistic look on life and his constant calling for people to appreciate the beauty of life and hope. He also argued for economic and racial equality. His poems "Theen" (like Jabal-al-Theen in Qur'an, not 'teen' as in 'fig') and the poem that I studied, "My Country" are often memorized by people all over the Arabian world. Here's my rough translation of "My Country":

*Note: Arabic poems have a meter, just like English poems. This poem is written in a meter called bahr ("ocean" in Arabic). Bahr is the same meter used in the famous Burda of the Prophet (SA), which Mesut Kurtis has made famous, "Mawla ya salli wa sallim daiman, abadan..."

Biladi

I passed a beautiful garden,
And I listened to the melodious birds of song,
And I was captivated; but my heart did not love them
As much as the birds of my earth and the flowers of my country.

And I drank from the waters of the Nile, that sheikh of rivers,
And it was like I drank from the water of Paradise [kawthar],
A river like that from ancient times,
Sweet, but not like the water from my country.

One day I tried to draw beauty in my mind,
Beauty; for beauty is the lord of poetry,
And I went looking for it but exhausted I became,
Until I beheld the daughters of my country.

As you can see, Iliya was more than a little bit obsessed with Lebanon, despite the fact he didn't live there very long. Please don't accuse me of trying to be flowery, especially because my translation is probably pretty bad. I just wanted to give all you "speechies" an update. One request, don't start telling Khala Su'ad about this otherwise when I get back all I am going to be doing is memorizing more and more Arabic poetry.

Otherwise alhamdulillah everything is going pretty well. I had my oral test today and alhamdulillah it went fine. I still don't understand what kind of superlative target my teacher has set, but I am glad he's doing it. Without Ustadh Ibrahim pulling me up by the scruff of my neck, I don't think I would have learned much at all.

Also, I think a tribute to Ammo Rafiq would be well deserved. His Arabic classes were so good that despite the fact I never studies, they are still helping me.

My update from the Markaz Al-Diwan campus (campus, hah, that's pretty funny).

As always, dua.

It's like the water from my country.

Ma'asalam,

~Ameer