Al-Maqaleh honored on World Poetry Day [Archives:2006/928/Local News]
SANA'A ) Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh was honored Monday, Mar. 5 in observance of World Poetry Day. The evening celebration was held at the Sana'a-based Henri De Monfried French Cultural Center where audiences listened to recitals of a host of Al-Maqaleh's poems. Several poets, intellectuals and interested parties attended the event, held in cooperation with the newly-established Poetry House.
“We would like both our nations to celebrate this occasion,” French Center director Alain Joly said at the beginning of the ceremony. Dr. Jean Lambert, director of the French Institute for Archeology and Social Sciences (CEFAS), then gave a brief profile of Al-Maqaleh, described as “the greatest Yemeni poet alive.”
A number of poets, including Ali Al-Muqri, Mohammed Abdussalam Mansour and Dr. Ali Al-Hadhrami, later took turns reading selected poems of Al-Maqaleh, who himself was invited to the podium to recite a couple of his poems.
He read from his own 'Questions and Mirrors': “Did I take the wrong path when I chose the letter as a space and wing? Did I take the wrong path and the letter fell on my way as thorns and wounds? O Mother, I was an embryo inside flower. Flower was an embryo inside water. And water was an embryo inside thunder
Al-Maqaleh congratulated the world's poets during the occasion, explaining why Mar. 5 is World Poetry Day: “This is because it is the beginning of spring, when flowers and roses naturally and magnificently start to bloom.”
Included in the audience were deaf students who were invited to take part in sensing and appreciating the poetry of Yemen's foremost poetic figure. A sign language interpreter stood onstage, trying his best to convey the meaning and nuances of verses to the keen students using his hands and facial expressions.
Al-Maqaleh is a poet, critic and intellectual, as well as the President's Cultural Advisor. Formerly Sana'a University rector, he now directs the Yemeni Center for Study and Research.
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