The Sparrows' homeland
(Watan Al-Asafir)
By :
Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah
Translated by:
Hassan
Hegazy
//////
Text reading
((If you over passed
a letter , you will be rightly in the
vision - Alnfri))
By:
Dr. Mohammed Khalil
The writer
does not aim or look
forward to change the present
actuality , but he aims radically to
change the human being by calling for
absolute renunciation of war, aggression and violence totally , as a step in
the right direction towards the embodiment of the encounter between the ego and
the other to the possibility of achieving peace and harmony between the
opposing parties which confirms the writer's desire and his true intent to build a new world , whether it is virtual
or imagined .
1
Once again, the writer Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah comes
again and presents us his new masterpiece ,
" The Sparrows' homeland
"( (Watan Al-Asafir) (1), which is added to a long list of his
unique creative works . This new creative
experience may gain special significance and double value as it aspires
to achieve the dream of humanity
as whole since eternity, namely peace and coexistence desired, especially among the people of this
country, and the contribution that can
result in the interaction of the two cultures: Arabic and Hebrew. This can be done through translation
Which is considered as a bridge linking human cultures to each other and it is a very
effective tool in the cultural exchange,
through the promotion of rapprochement, and technical communication
between them.
From here we can say : Art, in all its forms
and manifestations, is one of the most modern means which is available to bring together the "I"
and "the other" among the peoples, and among the people of our two
countries specifically . Our author has
made clear and sincere efforts
that can be highly referred
to in this regard .
"
The Sparrows' homeland"
( Watan Al-Asafir )
It is an advanced artistic experience refers clearly and tells us openly
about a creative writer, sensitive and
conscience of fertile imagination and the extent of the extremes , can
not emancipate himself from
the obsession of writing that is still chasing him, which imposes his
presence on the recipient or make him a prisoner walking with the text where he
wants him to arrive. He does not let him even accompany him in his space or swim in his
water , in search of added value and wanted pleasure. Honestly , praise and vaunted
rhetoric remain one of the slips of literary criticism, which calls for us to
be as cautious, objective and impartial as possible to protect our approach to
this text .
2
The aspiration of reading the following , what the effort can
do , to provide a reading beyond the
apparent meaning of language with the story of "
The Sparrows' homeland" to the inside of the meaning , because if
we only read the apparent without going to the depths, the story would be
nothing more than a simple ordinary story or familiar that does not offer something new or valuable . So
what we need is an inductive reading and innovative call is required in-depth, trying to reproduce the text again.
And we thought that the gems do not float on the surface but in the depths!
Al-Nafri says: If you over passed
the letter ,
you will be rightly
on the vision - Alnfri ( 2) .And this what we inspire and try to do.
In our discussion of the text, the first thing
we face the language , it is the
ordinary language. If we are satisfied with it or what is known as the apparent
language , we can not find anything of much value, or as Al-Ghathami
says, "but it is the [the language] that does not stand as something of value, this happens only when it overpasses the appearance of the
language and extracts its secrets and
discover its hidden constructs and its beauty .
If you are confined on what is in the language
only as it is , you would be like
someone who is explaining water
after effort with
water "(3)!
It has been idiomatically agreed
for long to call
such reading with the reading of
the explanation that is adhering
to the text , but it only takes the visible meaning and gives the apparent meaning an immunity that makes it rise high
above the words. So the
explanation of the text in it , will be done
by placing alternative words for the same meanings, or it
is a shallow repetition by using
the same words.( 4)! And this is not what
is required and needed from the outcome reading or the
illuminating one . The productive
reading or the aesthetic
acquisition of the reception is the real
reading , as it is a creative act
and a cultural aspect , completely like the act of the creative writing .
On the other hand, there is the so-called
reading beyond language, which is the language of the language, which is
what Gergany means " the meaning " and "
the sense of meaning " where he says " the meaning and the sense of
meaning , means in the sense of the apparent
meaning of the word that you can reach it without
a means . And the meaning of the
meaning is that you can reach and
realize it from the apparent word a meaning
then that meaning
leads you to another meaning
"(5)
It is
idiomatically agreed on
calling such reading with the poetic reading and it is
" reading the text through its code , based on the aspects
of its artistic context. The text here is a living cell moving from
within , driven by a force that does not
respond to break all the barriers between the texts. Therefore, the poetic reading seeks to reveal
what is hidden inside the text , and
read in it beyond what is in the present word "(6).)
The literary text is a form of a linguistic
expression that is revealing on what it does not say and conceal more than it shows! So, depending on the
context and code , which are the two
most important characteristics of the text and they are the spirit of its
excellence , the literary text is
supposed to be a reference text, not a phrasal text
, and the role of the reader is to interpret those references. It
conceals inside in its innermost several
loads more than it reveals in its appearance , which means it has several meanings and
faces . This depends on the language of the text or the
so-called the code of text, which is
formed from the content, the form and the knowledge culture
of the author of the text, on one hand, and on the reader's skill and his
ability to receive , where the literary
text derives its value from the cultural , intellectual , cognitive background
and the imaginary energy of the reader, who is interacting with it and in his taste of the language and aesthetics ,
when he is talking to the text
or redrafting it again .
3
The story is based on a
narrator who knows well the events and
transmits the story's events and its images according to the vision of
the author himself, who, in his story, " The Sparrows' homeland,"
pleads not only a description of a forest full of life, where everything is going on
well, or as he says " The forest was getting up on the sounds of the birds' songs .. very
happy , active and full of life
"(P. 37). In the evening ,
the forest "sleeps on the farewell
songs" (p. 37) and the birds play
and fly happily in their "
country which is sunken in the beauty
" (p. 37).
There is the "old Woodman who lives on his banks [the river] most of
the seasons" (p. 37). But this
reality did not last long, and overnight things turn , in the forest, upside down, and life in it
turned to be bad and filled with evil ,
For what was is not present now
and what is , changed now ! Forcing the birds to escape and leave their homeland, after having been safe and happy , but the forest has almost become a deserted
place and impact after an eye. The birds are no longer heard as they used to
do. That beautiful reality has changed from a happy past to a painful and
miserable present .
The next day, the woodman wakes up to a new
reality, which drives him and is surprised to say : " In the morning the woodman wakes up alone without the
singing of the Sparrows .. wondered .. where did they go ? … where have they migrated?
.. How and why did they leave the forest
.. these beautiful singing creatures? (P. 40)?
It was not so long for him to wonder and the answer came as
quickly as "Now he
realizes it .. discovered the
mystery of images and shadows .. Knows
the truth of what he heard last night .. Seeing the elephants shaking the trees
and falling the nests of the birds
above the dirt and trampling them .. And other animals eating
.. devouring everything that
comes across from the sparrows ..
"(p. 40)!
Even the river was polluted and the bodies of
the dead sparrows floated on its surface, turning it into dirty water,
while crocodiles and sharks came on to swallow up all the
beautiful colored fish and
devoured them. In short, the
forest was dominated by elephants,
predatory mammals and crocodiles
(p. 44), and they were wreaking it havoc, killing and destruction ! When the governor of the
neighboring town arrived to inspect what had happened to the sparrows
and what had happened in the forest , some snakes came out of the logs of the woodman which
were filled with packed coal and made their way
to bite the governor
to die at once
. The woodman was accused to
be the murderer! During the
investigation, he was asked whether some
one has planned or
assisted him? But he denied the charge, and managed to convince the investigator that there must be
a search for a solution to the problem to satisfy all
parties, and indeed so it was .
The scene was so frightening that it was
unbearable ! why not , as
such elephants, predatory animals and crocodiles, trampled the peaceful forest
with its legs until it became ,
from the last hours of the night to the sunrise, a desolation and an
abomination of death, killing and
destruction? "(Pp. 40-41)!
The narrator, watching the events closely, did
not like
what his eyes saw and heard from the forest, and what happened to the sparrows
who were terrifying of terror, murder, destruction and displacement. So the man
under investigation says that he knows for certain that "the forest is
only for of birds "(P. 63)! And no one has the right to
own it but them , and these elephants
and crocodiles are mere strangers came
on to the forest, and then adds:
It is necessary to "return the forest as it was" (p. 63)!
What is strange, however, is that the reader
did not notice, at least even a try , or
any possibility of resisting and repelling these strange animals or any other possibility of self-defense
by the sparrows in the face of injustice and aggression. As
it is known that each bird or creature has its own means of innate defense ! But the sparrows just
chose to escape away
terrified to keep themselves alive and preserve their own spirits.
The narrator and every observer, who saw
that scene which happened to
the forest homeland when it
was destroyed and the sparrows were abandoned , forced to emigrate and became homeless , so he began sometimes by photography and another by expression, to translate from
that scene in all its dimensions and projections on the living
reality of those " sparrows " victim!
As it
is known, that the field of literature
and its origin is the human experience and the reality of man himself. So
" The Sparrows' homeland has
come to " express an
integrated literary expression of anxiety, sorrow and fragmentation within the
dreamy and the romantic writer, Where "The Romantics sing
passionately to the beauty of the
souls, whether they are great or humble
.
And they
take pity on the whole human race. Their eyes filled with tears for the victims
of the society calling to be just and fair to them , attacking what is settled
down from rules ….The Romantics
may dream of an ideal society in
which rights are given without efforts to perform duties ... The
Romantics in their literature do not seek
the truth that the humankind has been set and accepted by the prevailing logic ...
because they live in a world where there
is only the heart and the emotion " 7"! What is known is that
"in order for the literary work to be successful, it must have the
sincerity of the expression of the reality of life, and the accuracy of
photography of the problems of society" (8).
And this what the writer has done and successfully achieved it . The writer and
every other artist is the son of his entire human environment and his entire
world community, so he sees, hears , understands and feels, as it is assumed,
all what is going on around him in this
human society, the small cosmic village,
let alone what is going on around him in his smaller community, especially the local ?!
In this context we can refer the reader to a
press interview with the late poet Mahmoud Darwish, who says: "I consider that the first source
of poetry in my personal experience is the reality, and create my symbols out of this reality. My symbols are my own, where the critic or the reader can not transmit them to any reference to the former, that is, I
turn the daily into symbolic, reality is a major source of my poetry "(9). This confirms the extent to which
the creator, in the depths of his soul, is associated with both the individual
and the collective dream, and his unbridled desire to fly high in search of his
lost paradise, in his virtual or imagined world. The creator of his dreams is
like a bird who never stops flying, exploring new horizons, taking pictures and
turning them into expressive and artistic
paintings. [10]
This is what called recruitment of modulation
and painting in narrative writing. The paintings created by Sabiha Hassan's brush are beautiful, expressive and highly
consistent with the content of the story. Thus, the language of the story came
closest to the language of images and forms " because the language of
dreams does not use the abstract language in the terms that people used, but
use images and shapes" (11)!
For example, saying: "And suddenly he
saw a
bird trying to leave the place
and can not .. The wing was broken and her comrades left
the place .. Another time he heard her song
that was sadly crying .. As if
saying goodbye, my dear home " (p. 41)! The
picture is truly expressive, and the picture is really better than
thousand words!
4
It is difficult to bear the horror of the
scene. It is a shocking and painful reality, physically and morally, that has
destroyed the "sparrows' homeland " from killing, destroying, and
forcibly displacing sparrows, especially by every human being, regardless of
energy or endurance. He was afraid to see the principles of freedom and justice
collapse before his eyes, as well as the values of right , goodness and
beauty, and replaced by vanity, injustice, evil and oppression, which forced
him to declare his grievance and rejection and protest in defense of the right
and justice and the rejection of falsehood and injustice, and declares that the
right must be achieved and return it to its owners, no matter how time changes
and transformations of the place, says: "We have to save the city and
return the forest as it was" (p. 63)!
Thus, we see that the word as a declaration of position, at the very
least, can free us all from that
painful reality , therefore the
magic of speech is only when it relates
to feeling and conscience !
The event, which was brought by the forest
and overwhelmed it , is evoked
by an editorial with an actual sentence bearing the connotations of the last
act. He says "The forest was awakened by the sounds of birds' songs"
(p. 37)! With a tone ,filled with a lot
of agony and sorrow. However, the times
are often intertwined, as an evolution of story events or as an important
element of narrative art.
Since past actions have many functions related
to the meanings that they contain in context, the reader observes that the most
prominent of these meanings: movement, change, moving description, fear, and
anxiety. It plays a prominent role in
the story narrative mobile, which is frequent use of the last shape of verb to
be ( was ) , and this is what the
reader sees in the story board. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the
narrator was seen and heard and it is
used , in the great majority of the events of the story, the language of
the past tense of words and vocabulary, and so longs for the past time with all
its details and colorful songs and beautiful memories, the days of serenity of
that beautiful time that the forest enjoyed and its birds, quite the opposite
of the present time and the accompanying of the beast , misery and tragedy! The
present time has many moral functions, for example: kinetics, vitality,
description, and life acquisition of the event and its permanence
The author has been able to reach the reader's
conscience in his own style, his poetic language, based on simple, easy
narrative language, and close to the reader's understanding , to match the
story's events. The language which is
closest to the language of the modern story, which depends on the
language code that is loaded with the
connotations of reality, including the
coding which is easy and simple, does not require much effort
and through his own technical vision, to
combine the familiar and strange in the
forest, between the past and present, between Peace and War, and other
contradictory contradictions . It should
be noted that the use of the symbol as a method of expression does not
correspond to meaning and truth face to face, but from behind the mask.
As such, the conflict between mind and
imagination, between existing reality and the desired dream, has been eased, for
what the forest has turned to . The reader can also notice that the symbol
in the story has come to a whole unit
and complete the atmosphere of the story and its events, because it
increases the dynamics of events and its
vitality.
As well
as being very harmonious with the reality, which imposed its presence
with all intensity and strength , the forest, it seems, symbolizes the
homeland, and the sparrows symbolize humans, sparrows and birds,
all small or grown, they symbolize
humans. Thus, the use of the symbol has
become an urgent need at varying levels in modern literary writing, poetry or
prose, to transform it into wonderful art that can enrich texts and deepen them
intellectually and aesthetically, so
that they appear vivid and responsive, and may be attractive and influential in
the context of their narration . The
"Brotherhood of Safa and Khulan Al-Wafa" , (known in the fourth century
AH ) as the most
prominent of using the birds
as a symbol .
And this leads us in the end or refers to the
understanding of the symbol as it is, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, with its social, intellectual and political connotations, which to
this day has been reaping human lives and material losses from both sides for a
long time. Or any other dispute, at any
time and place, such specifications may apply. Hence, when analyzing creative
writing of any kind, it is necessary to turn it into questions related to
reality and turn it to the present
living through the movement of fusion and interaction with contemporary
reality, as well as to the exciting and
influential energy in the thought and culture of the individual and society
alike, which invites the reader and
urges him to meditate , reflect and reconsider all that surrounds him from the
reality of living, in order to search for answers or appropriate solutions.
Also, the reader can see the employment of the
question frequently in the story, as it has become a major component of writing
the modern fiction. In an attempt by the writer to penetrate the painful
reality, and dispel the atmosphere of bitterness and dark darkness around him,
which is touched by the reader in the story of " The Sparrows' homeland ,"
for example, saying "how they came and where they were? And did they
really come from the forest? ... Where did the snakes hide? Have they
parted and left the neighborhood ? Dozens of questions that
pierced the investigator's skull without
complete or partial answers? "(P.
60). "Who now settles there? We all know strangers , elephants and hungry
crocodiles, so the sparrows no longer
have a homeland" (p. 61)!
It may be interesting to emphasize that the writer aims not only to
change the current reality, but also to radically change the human being by
calling for the absolute renunciation of
war, aggression and violence as a step in the right direction towards the
embodiment of the encounter between the ego and the other, To achieve Peace and harmony between the conflicting
parties. Which confirms the writer's
desire to build a new world, whether virtual or imagined. "War means hostility," says the man
(the woodman).( 12) Here , in that
context, "war means enmity. The hostility that breeds resentment and
retribution is the retry in every war we lost or won. The war is inevitably
death, among us and them ... I suggest peace ... nothing lasts on the ground
like peace .. Peace is the song of life
and the banner of freedom. The more we increase our culture, the more awareness
we are and to be closer to peace "(p. 65) .)
The words of the
woodman gives an idea worthy
of attention and calls to think, which
is the realization of the mind and activate it does not disable it even surpass the mind to
force the power and overcome it . It is necessary to open a new page, because
the wheel of history can
not go back but always
going to the front .
In the ninth scene, which is the last scene, the idea of woodman has the interest of the
investigator and it is accepted , so
the woodman is suggesting that after the new change in the reality of the forest, and as a
logical realistic exit, sharing the
forest equally between animals and sparrows . "We will leave half the
forest for animals and the other half for
the sparrows, and then peace will prevail and good will be upon us
"(p. 75)!
The idea of sharing the disputed place and accepting
a compromise is not new, but perhaps it is time to accept it and call
for it, which means our right to stop
shedding blood, saving lives and preserving property. Indeed, this is what happened, and the story
ends in the most perfect possible way .
The two parties are satisfied after a long period of conflict, hatred
and enmity that prevailed between them.
He says "The birds are coming back, the
forest is rising again, the animals are training and tamed . For weeks the forest became a hotbed
of sparrows and animals, and the ropes were removed and
the borders were ended . The lake
became pure and clear , returned as it
was ; its water shone and glowed in the light of the sun "(p. 77).
A bright
painting , there is no
hatred , no hostility, no restrictions
and no limits, after today. The end will
better , peace and harmony prevail in the forest instead of conflict , war and
hostility, as peace is the best solution and the best outlet in such
circumstances , provided that it
provides everyone with a free life,
a decent life, and preserves the
rights of their owners, says the woodman , "I suggest peace.. Nothing
lasts over the earth like peace. Peace is the song of life and the banner of
freedom" (p. 65!)
---------------
Margins:
1- Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah: Watan Al-Asafir (The Sparrows' homeland) , Dar al-Huda
Publishing and distribution Karim, Kafr
Qara, 2014. The book includes the text in both Arabic and Hebrew. In a related
context we can refer to the poet Nizar
Qabbani, who says in his poem "Citizens without a homeland", which
was thrown for the first time at the fifth Marbud Festival in Iraq in 1985 :
Oh my homeland
..
All the sparrows have houses
Except the sparrows that are
infatuated with freedom
They die outside their homelands .
- See also:
Mahmoud Darwish, Al-Diwan, 1, I, 14, The Sparrows die in Galilee, 1969, p. 245,
Dar Al-Awda, Beirut, 1994.
2- Mohammed bin Abdul-Jabbar bin Hassan bin Ahmed Al-Nafri, was
born in the city of Nefr, located on the
banks of the Euphrates River east of
Iraq and attributed to it. He was one of the greatest Sufis and traveled a lot
between Iraq and Egypt, and one of the most famous books of The situations and The Conversations. One of the most famous is that he said : "The wider the vision , narrowed the phrase" ! He died in 375 AH / 965 AD
.
3- Al -Ghathami, Abdullah Muhammad: Sin and Atonement , From Structural to Anatomical, p. 21, Cultural Club, Jeddah, 19085.
4- The same source above , P : 76.
5-Abdul Qahir
al-Jarjani: Evidence of Miracles, read and commented by Mahmoud Muhammad
Shaker, Third Edition , p. 263, Dar Al Madani, Jeddah, 1992 .
6-Al-Gathami,
Abdullah Muhammad: Sin and Atonement, From Structural to Anatomical, p. 76 .
7- Mohamed
Ghonaimi Helal: Romanticism, p. 18, House of Culture, Cairo, without a date .
8- Abdul
Wahid Louloah : The Quest for Meaning, Critical Studies, p. 7, Freedom House
for Printing, Baghdad, 1973 .
9- Mahmoud
Darwish: A press interview, Al Bayan Gulf Newspaper, Dubai, 20/5/1986 .
10- Michel Foucault in his book «Words and things», Center for
National Development, Beirut, 1990 .
Mohamed
Ghonaimi Hilal: Romantics, p. 95 ..11-
12 -It is no
an accident that the character of the woodsman is constantly repeated as a vital and
important element in the story of " The Sparrows' homeland" (Watan
Al-Asafir) as a popular figure and simple, one of the basic elements of old,
especially in the tales of popular literature for young and old alike. The woodsman, as a technical assignment
in the story that is focused on him, may suggest that he has an important role
in the development of the story and the escalation of events to the end. To the
extent that it can surprise the reader of his role of active and decisive in
the story, although it is a popular figure as simple as we have already
mentioned, and no wonder His power may be put in the weakest creation .
13-The Cover
and internal drawings of the story by :
Sobhiya Hassan .
/////////////
The Translator :
Hassan
Hegazy Hassan, an Egyptian Poet
and Translator,
Born in 16-7-1960, Graduated from Zagazig
University , 1982, got his BA, in
English language, Education and Arts .
Member in Egypt's writer union and a member in The Egyptian Translators and Linguists' Association , in Cairo.
In
poetry: Published seven
collections .
In translation:
Published about 12 works , from them :-
1-- A
whoop of Scent , a poetry collection for : Asmae’ Saqr Al- Qassimi . U.A .E . Emirate. Into English.
2--
Seven ages For Man , selected poems from English poetry
to Arabic language.
3-- Under
Warm Sun : Short stories, for the
Tunisian Writer: Ibraheem Draghouthy . Into English .
4- Bleeding
Under Sand : Very Short Stories . Hassan Ali Al-
Battran/ Saudi Arabia . Into English .
5- Songs
along The River Nile
.
6- Whispers from the other side of the world :
A poetry collection for 15 Arab poets
from different parts of the Arab world,
Into English .
7- Bee-
Flu : Alkessah Al-sha'erah . Mohamed Elshahat Mohamed.
Egypt . Into English .
8-The Conquerors , very Short Stories by :
Mohammed Ibn Rabea al-Ghamedy
,Saudi Arabia . Into English .
9- Paradise in
my chest , Tahani Al- Douihm , , very short stories , Saudi
Arabia . Into English .
10-The Signal
is Still Red ,Very
short stories , Ibtessam Al-Bakhmey , Saudi Arabia . Into English .
11 –Innovations from the east and the west . a
poetry collection. Asmae’ Saqr Al-
Qassimi . U.A .E . Emirate. Into English.
***
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