Al-Maqaleh’s Complete Poetical Works come out [Archives:2005/879/Culture]
SANA'A- “Silence is nicer than words,” said Dr. Abdulazeez al-Maqaleh at the moment of celebrating the coming out of his complete poetical works. The event took place at the Culture House, Sana'a, in the presence of Minister of Culture and Tourism Khaled al-Rowaishan and a host of men of letters.
Dr. al-Maqaleh expressed his gratitude to the attendants and embosomed “the good deal of psychological happiness” he experienced. The speakers on the occasion commended the great Yemeni literary figure as “giant and modest.”
“He is a tremendous mixture of the springs of culture, enlightenment, change, tranquility, education, tasting, patience and wisdom,” said the Minister. “He is father, not only to one generation, but to all generations.”
On the other hand, Dr. Hatem al-Sakr, a professor at the Faculty of Mass Communications, took his turn in edifying Dr. Abdulazeez al-Maqaleh. With luscious and sincere words, he said, “The letters of our poet are read in the light of tears” and that “With our [celebrated] poet, poetry stops to be as a means to show oneself or announce artistic innocence.” However, poetry in al-Maqaleh's hands is invariably an “inner experience resisting the same fears and challenging the might of frustration and absurdity of life.”
A profile of the poet:
Abdulazeez al-Maqaleh was born in 1937. He is currently the director of the Yemeni Center for Studies and Research. He was formerly a rector of Sana'a University from 1982 to 2001. He is also holding the post of Cultural Affairs Advisor to the President of the Republic.
Dr. al-Sakr describes him as being among the generation of the sixties. He has published numerous poems and essays on literature, among which are: Marib Speaks (1972), The Alphabet of the Soul (1998) and The Book of Sana'a (2000). He is a modernist poet who writes free verses. Moreover, he is a critic and a professor of Arts and Literature at Sana'a University. He authored studies such as “A Reading of Yemeni Literature”, and “The Crisis of the Arabic Poem.”
Dr. al-Maqaleh won many awards such as al-Sharegah Award and some of his poetry has been translated into foreign languages.
The following excerpt is from poem 47 of the Book of Sana'a:
The spirit of the city floats
On the water of years.
Do not wake her
Let her moan while her children drown.
Do not light her pale alleys,
For the streets are still wet
With the sweet blood of martyrs
Who died for their homeland
And turned the pages of life too soon.
——
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