Letter #6
3/4/1956
Directorate of Public Trading, Baghdad
My Kind Brother, Dr. Suheil (Idris),
Sweet Arab greetings to you. Yesterday I received your kind letter and
welcomed your decision to entrust “the reading of the previous issue” to Mr.
Abdul Sabour. We hope that he will be fair in his criticism. Otherwise, our
pens are ready, and we look forward to the precious opportunity to reevaluate
much of the criteria and points of view. This is my opinion and it is also
shared with our brother, Muhyyi al-Din (Ismai’l).
As for our brother, Kathem (Jawad), he blames you because you entrusted the
“reading” of the issue of al-Adaab to “a person who is even ignorant of
prosody,” but we, brother Muhyyi al-Din and I, have convinced him of the
importance of the rationale that prompted you to do this: namely, to reveal the
truth through the struggle between values and criteria. As of yet, we have not
seen the last issue of “al-Adaab” – we have learned from trusted sources that it
will imminently appear in the market.
You will find a poem with this letter … Rather; it is an attempt to write
poetry in a new style: it is up to the reader to discern the meaning of the
symbols or not to see any symbols at all. The reader may see in “Tammuz” a
symbol of fertility and life, and in his death, the death of fertility and
growth. And in Marjana, there is much more than what appears on the surface.
She is the Negro who is unaware of her heritage, and who turns on the light and
radio for her mistress so that her mistress may “be in touch” with the world and
listen to Jazz music [Marjana’s heritage] - which the mistress and her cohorts
consider “the ultimate” in taste and “culture.”
The reader may compare the ambulance at the beginning of the poem to the
hearse at the end, and he can also compare the fish made of gold and silver to
the dead fish that al-Khidr threw into “the sea of life”and which came back
alive.
The reader may or may not make these comparisons. – This is an attempt on my
part, but I cannot claim to have been successful. Would this poem find a place
in the pages of al-Adaab? I hope so.
We were very happy to learn from our brother, (Khalid) al-Shawwaf that you
intend to visit Iraq. You are most welcome in your homeland, among your people
and your brothers.
“al-Adaab” has been a powerful agent in the success of “Dar al-‘Ilm
Lilmalayyin.” By independently taking over the management of al-Adaab, you will
acquire greater moral and financial gain over any loss that you might incur -
assuming there would be any loss at all.
I thank you for your generous offer. I will make arrangements from now to
prepare a volume of poetry, and I have entrusted our brother, Muhyyi al-Din
(Ismai’l), to write an introduction for it. I will ensure that it resembles the
books that appear in Iraq.
“Some people” have told me – in a challenging tone- that their magazine, the
“National” Culture, will include a long article attacking me. I beg
of you, when such an article appears, to cut it out of the magazine and send it
to me by registered mail so that I may have an opportunity to respond to it. I
will write a response that will avenge every intellectual who has been harmed by
this magazine and its likes.
In conclusion, please give my greetings to all the brothers, and accept the
greetings of our brothers, Muhyyi al-Din, Kathim, al-Shawwaf, al-Huly and
al-Naqdi.
Take care of yourself.
Sincerely yours,
Badr al-Sayyab
[From the book, al-Sayyab’s Letters, by Majid al-Samurra’i, (Beirut: Al-Mu’assasa al-‘Arabiya li-al-dirasat wa-al-Nashr, Second Edition, 1994, p.
123) Translated from the original Arabic and with an introduction by George Nicolas El-Hage, Ph.D., Columbia University.]
3/4/1956
Directorate of Public Trading, Baghdad
My Kind Brother, Dr. Suheil (Idris),
Sweet Arab greetings to you. Yesterday I received your kind letter and
welcomed your decision to entrust “the reading of the previous issue” to Mr.
Abdul Sabour. We hope that he will be fair in his criticism. Otherwise, our
pens are ready, and we look forward to the precious opportunity to reevaluate
much of the criteria and points of view. This is my opinion and it is also
shared with our brother, Muhyyi al-Din (Ismai’l).
As for our brother, Kathem (Jawad), he blames you because you entrusted the
“reading” of the issue of al-Adaab to “a person who is even ignorant of
prosody,” but we, brother Muhyyi al-Din and I, have convinced him of the
importance of the rationale that prompted you to do this: namely, to reveal the
truth through the struggle between values and criteria. As of yet, we have not
seen the last issue of “al-Adaab” – we have learned from trusted sources that it
will imminently appear in the market.
You will find a poem with this letter … Rather; it is an attempt to write
poetry in a new style: it is up to the reader to discern the meaning of the
symbols or not to see any symbols at all. The reader may see in “Tammuz” a
symbol of fertility and life, and in his death, the death of fertility and
growth. And in Marjana, there is much more than what appears on the surface.
She is the Negro who is unaware of her heritage, and who turns on the light and
radio for her mistress so that her mistress may “be in touch” with the world and
listen to Jazz music [Marjana’s heritage] - which the mistress and her cohorts
consider “the ultimate” in taste and “culture.”
The reader may compare the ambulance at the beginning of the poem to the
hearse at the end, and he can also compare the fish made of gold and silver to
the dead fish that al-Khidr threw into “the sea of life”and which came back
alive.
The reader may or may not make these comparisons. – This is an attempt on my
part, but I cannot claim to have been successful. Would this poem find a place
in the pages of al-Adaab? I hope so.
We were very happy to learn from our brother, (Khalid) al-Shawwaf that you
intend to visit Iraq. You are most welcome in your homeland, among your people
and your brothers.
“al-Adaab” has been a powerful agent in the success of “Dar al-‘Ilm
Lilmalayyin.” By independently taking over the management of al-Adaab, you will
acquire greater moral and financial gain over any loss that you might incur -
assuming there would be any loss at all.
I thank you for your generous offer. I will make arrangements from now to
prepare a volume of poetry, and I have entrusted our brother, Muhyyi al-Din
(Ismai’l), to write an introduction for it. I will ensure that it resembles the
books that appear in Iraq.
“Some people” have told me – in a challenging tone- that their magazine, the
“National” Culture, will include a long article attacking me. I beg
of you, when such an article appears, to cut it out of the magazine and send it
to me by registered mail so that I may have an opportunity to respond to it. I
will write a response that will avenge every intellectual who has been harmed by
this magazine and its likes.
In conclusion, please give my greetings to all the brothers, and accept the
greetings of our brothers, Muhyyi al-Din, Kathim, al-Shawwaf, al-Huly and
al-Naqdi.
Take care of yourself.
Sincerely yours,
Badr al-Sayyab
[From the book, al-Sayyab’s Letters, by Majid al-Samurra’i, (Beirut: Al-Mu’assasa al-‘Arabiya li-al-dirasat wa-al-Nashr, Second Edition, 1994, p.
123) Translated from the original Arabic and with an introduction by George Nicolas El-Hage, Ph.D., Columbia University.]
