{"id":13701,"date":"2015-09-24T02:02:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T06:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=13701"},"modified":"2015-09-24T02:03:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T06:03:00","slug":"muhammad-fanatil-al-hajayas-following-the-news-on-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/muhammad-fanatil-al-hajayas-following-the-news-on-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya\u2019s \u2018Following the News on Al\u00a0Jazeera\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Arab Literature (in English)<\/strong><\/em>:
\nBY MLYNXQUALEY<\/a><\/span><\/span> on<\/em> 0<\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFollowing the News on Al Jazeera\u201d is a pop-rhetorical\u00a0poem by Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya, an intervention into recent news, translated and introduced here by William Tamplin:<\/em><\/p>\n

By William Tamplin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hajaya<\/a><\/p>\n

Muhammad al-Hajaya has been recognized as representing modern Bedouin poetry. A literate, educated man with a varied career behind him, Hajaya stopped writing love poetry in 1988 and turned to the political. Hajaya wrote at least six poems on the second Iraq war, and his poetry continues to respond to current events: he\u2019s written poems of warning to Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin, mock-serious love poems to Tzipi Livni and Condoleezza Rice, and an elegy to Mu\u2018ath al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian pilot burned to death by ISIS.<\/p>\n

Hajaya is most remarkable for putting his poems into the mouths of political leaders. In his 2004 poem \u201cOh Condoleezza Rice!\u201d Hajaya wrote as if George W. Bush had been a Bedouin warrior-poet bragging about his conquests of Iraq and Afghanistan. He has since put poems in the mouths of Ariel Sharon, Saddam Hussein, and Barack Obama. Also notable about Hajaya\u2019s poetry is his use of animal imagery to portray international leaders. He\u2019s compared Qaddafi to a camel, Bashar al-Assad to a sheep, and Gulf countries\u2019 leaders to stud rams. Indeed, Hajaya criticizes Arab leaders as much as he does the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n

Animal imagery plays a part in this poem as well, as the Russian \u201cbear\u201d can devour both of the Americans\u2019 symbols: the elephant and the donkey. Whales are the ultimate symbol of greed and malice, gulping down refugees as they attempt the sea crossing to Europe. In this poem, Hajaya tries to goad Kerry into intervening in Syria by citing the Russians\u2019 encroachment in Latakia, Iran\u2019s hegemonic designs for the region, and the refugees who are suffering for all the politicians\u2019 scheming.<\/p>\n

The power of poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hajaya has faith in the power of poetry. In February 2012, Hajaya wrote a poem directly to Bashar al-Assad urging him to stop killing civilians and leave Syria. In the introduction to that poem<\/a>, he called for a good man to deliver it in hopes that it would reach al-Assad and convince him to leave. In August 2014, Hajaya wrote a poem from Obama to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, urging him to spare Steven Sotloff\u2019s life. Again, Hajaya sincerely believed that his poem could effect political change.<\/p>\n

An Anglophone analog to Hajaya\u2019s political poetry is spoken word and hip hop, neither of which are printed in mainstream poetry journals but both of which are heard, felt, and transmitted on the radio, on YouTube, and in lesser-known poetry magazines. Another analog is Calvin Trillin\u2019s \u201cDeadline Poet\u201dcolumn<\/a> in The Nation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In this poem, Hajaya pokes fun at Kerry\u2019s equivocations about Syria during his term as Secretary of State. He compares Kerry to the Russians, firm men who don\u2019t prevaricate or desert their allies. Hajaya criticizes Al Jazeera for its incessant claims that the Assad regime is on the verge of collapse, al-Assad for being the Russians\u2019 lackey, and Ayatollah Khomeini for reviving a 1400-year-old blood feud in order to assert its hegemony over Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Leaving the politicians behind, Hajaya turns to the refugees, sacrifices to the politicians\u2019 scheming. He ends by asserting that the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War were conspiracies planned by the West and executed by its Arab lackeys. Those lackeys are sitting in their palaces drinking whiskey and beer and following the news on Al Jazeera in the vain hope that the Assad regime is on the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n

Like his messages to al-Assad and al-Baghdadi, Hajaya believes that this poem might influence John Kerry. While he and I were translating the poem, he let on that he was being as hard on Kerry as he was in order to goad him into increasing the US\u2019 support for the moderate Syrian opposition. In case he\u2019s right about the extent of his poetry\u2019s influence, I\u2019ve translated it here.<\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the News on Al Jazeera\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya<\/em><\/p>\n

Trans. William Tamplin<\/em><\/p>\n

Kerry\u2019s always declaiming over the news;<\/p>\n

He sure has made a lot of public statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cBashar doesn\u2019t have to leave today!\u201d<\/p>\n

His word\u2019s no good because no one\u2019s advising him.<\/p>\n

Oh Kerry, today the secrets were laid bare:<\/p>\n

Your allies can expect nothing but defeat and humiliation.<\/p>\n

The Russians are firm men, and they\u2019ve proven their power.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not shaken by all Al Jazeera\u2019s barking.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s mascots are the elephant and the jackass,<\/p>\n

And bears can devour them both.<\/p>\n

Bashar\u2019s just another guard for the Russians\u2019 house<\/p>\n

Along with Mu\u2018allim, his foreign minister.<\/p>\n

Old Mr. Khomeini is bent on blood-revenge:<\/p>\n

Husayn\u2019s blood spilled at Karbala still has him all worked up.<\/p>\n

Our Arabs are caught between merchants, middlemen,<\/p>\n

And the malice now controlling the blood-avengers\u2019 conscience.<\/p>\n

From the beginning the West has been fabricating rebels<\/p>\n

And squadrons, and each one follows its own commander.<\/p>\n

Today the refugees are in every country,<\/p>\n

Scattered throughout every state and region:<\/p>\n

Some of them eaten by whales in the sea\u2019s depths,<\/p>\n

Some of them lost, their fates unknown.<\/p>\n

Behind all the outrage and harm<\/p>\n

Is a man sitting in his palace sipping whiskey and beer.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got slave girls and servants always at the ready<\/p>\n

And follows the news on Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

The poet recites:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen on SoundCloud<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/12398463\/George_Bush_Bedouin_poet<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/pdf\/25803017.pdf?acceptTC=true<\/a><\/p>\n

William Tamplin is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He studies Bedouin poetry, the Andalus, and literary translation. He translated political Bedouin poetry in 2013-14 on a Fulbright to Jordan and has lived, worked and studied in Jerusalem, Amman, and Alexandria, Egypt. He blogs here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

Share this:<\/h3>\n
\n