30‏/08‏/2010

poems / Hassan Mutlak

4 poems by

Hassan Mutlak


Translated from Arabic by Safaa Sheikh Hamad


Masks

The poet is someone who writes a poem only to misplace it later.

Look,
"Hegel" is a great man
For he lost the philosophy
"Gaston Bachelard" did not find

Because he looked at the ceiling upside down
And thought of thinking,
Because the irony was still standing

They all died ...

Only those sophists men
Lost knowledge
By never speaking of it

They are great
For they admitted earlier
The sound of the sparrow
Is louder than Aristotle

-----------------------------------

The names of the night

I think I love you

* * *

The sky is high
And barking ascends from all around

Croaking in the ponds
And when the wolves howl
That is the time for insects to wake up

Evil is an idea
Love is the bread instinct
And one has only to cry between the two pillars

Freedom has a black taste, like trees
And the female is a release from slavery and the devil

Oh, positive cold
Croaking
Headache
Which one of us knows the other's cure?
And who glorifies his companion in the prayers?

The moon has fallen down in the swamp
Where the anthem of frogs started

We both fell in the bed
Glorifying each other's wounds

Yet,

The lightening
Rustling
Lust
And the harping are of the names of the night

------------------------------------------------

Countryside song

Grasshoppers landed on fire
Then the bags, calculators, women, the sheep and the axe
The scythe was there too ;
Hamdan is a thorn before T. V.

The wrinkles and the slopes are there

It happens that we get divided by "hello" .
We cross hearts to come back to us
Whenever the streets get us lost

The woman is a thorn
The bed is the bones of dead animals
The grasshoppers are precious
Like coffee

The sheep is ------?
* * *

Hamdan is amongst us
Farms land on his shoulders
So, he dreams of the Amazon

He is these faraway farms
And the eggs of partridges .

-------------------------------

Ishtar

Ishtar,
My daughter:

From the faraway exile
I write the smashed poem
For you, the lady of the beautiful shores

Winds and soldiers surround old Babylon

Ever since I was exiled,
I lived in a state of missing you

And to hug your mother "Aphrodite"

Ishtar
Ishtar
The little ones all went away
All went away

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hassan Mutlak (1961-1990) an Iraqi writer, painter and poet. He was born in Isdeera village at the north of Iraq .He holds a B.A. in education and psychology from the University of Mosul. He made many painting exibitions and was awarded many prizes in short story. He issued with a group of friends, (THE EDUCATOR) magazine. He worked as a teacher at the Teachers Institute in Kirkuk, and a principal for many high schools. His novel "Dabada", the peak of his literary works, was published in 1988.
Mutlak was hanged at the 18th. of July, 1990 for participating in a military coup against the dictator of Iraq. This had many intellectuals to call him "the Lorca of Iraq". His other literary works include "the Power of Laughter in Ura", "the Fictional Works", "the Book of Love: their shadows on earth" and "Masks: me, you and the homeland".


picture of Hassan Mutlak

28‏/08‏/2010

4 قصائد / حسن مطلك

قصــائـد

حسن مطلك


الأقنعة

الشاعر: شخص كتبَ قصيدة عظيمة ثم أضاعها.

أُنظر:
" هيجل " رجلٌ عظيم،
لأنه أضاع الفلسفة
ولم يجدها " غاستون باشلار "،
لأنه نظرَ إلى السقف بوضع مقلوب،
.. لأنه فكرَ بالتفكير ..
لأن المهزلة لم تزل قائمة.

فقد ماتوا جميعاً ..

فقط، أولئك السوفسَطائيون،
رجالٌ أضاعوا المعرفة،
لأنهم لم يتحدثوا عنها أبداً
.. إنهم عظماء
فقد اعترفوا مبكراً
بأن صوت العصفور يعلو
على أرسطو.

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أسماء الليل

أعتقدُ بأنني أحبكِ
* * *
السماوات مرتفعة،
والنباح يصعد من الأرجاء.
النقيق في البِركِ،
وحين تعوي الذئاب تكون تلك الساعة وقتاً ليقظة الحشرات.
الشرُ فكرة، والحبُ غريزة الخبز
وما على المرء غير البكاء بين العمودين.
للحرية طعم أسود كالشجر،
والأنثى انعتاق من الربوبية والشيطان.
.. أيها البرد الموجب،
النقيق،
الألم في الرأس :
مَن منا يعلم بشفاء الآخر ؟
ومَن ذا الذي يمجد رفيقه في الصلوات ؟
لقد سقط القمر في المستنقع،
حيث بدأ نشيد الضفادع.
لقد سقطنا في الفراش .. كلٌ يمجد جرحه
إنما : البرقُ،
والحفيفُ،
والشهوة،
والعزفُ من أسماء الليل.

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قصة الريف

حَط الجراد على النارِ
فالحقائب والحاسبات
والنسوة والنعاج والفأس
هناك المنجل ذو النصل،
وحمدان شوكة أمام التلفاز
هناك التجاعيد والمنحدرات..
يحدثُ أن ننقسم بالتحية اثنين
نعاهدنا بالرجوع إلينا كلما ضيعتنا الشوارع
فالمرأة شوك
والسرير عظام النوافق
والجراد عزيز كالقهوة
أما النعجة ..؟
* * *
حمدان فينا
تحط الحقول على كتفيه
فيحلم بالأمَزون
حمدان تلك المراعي القصيّة، بيض القطا،
………………………………………
…………………………………..
……………………………….
………………………..
………………..
………….

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عـشـتار

عشتار .. يا ابنتي..
.. من المنفى البعيد
أكتبُ القصيدة المحطمة.
إليكِ يا سيدة الشواطئ الجميلة ..
وبابل القديمة تحاصرها الرياح والعساكر ..
إليكِ يا صغيرتي اشتقتُ
مُذ نُفيت ..
إلى عناق أمكِ الحبيبة " أفروديت ".
عشتار .. عشتار
لقد نأى الصغار كلهم،
.. لقد نأى الصغار
يا عشتار.

من رسوم حسن مطلك

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* حسن مُطلك (1961 ـ 1990) كاتب ورسام وشاعر عراقي. ولد سنة 1961 في قرية سُديرة شمال العراق. أنهى دراسته الجامعية سنة 1983 حاصلاً على شهادة البكالوريوس في التربية وعلم النفس من جامعة الموصل. أقام عدة معارض للفن التشكيلي وحاز على جوائز في القصة القصيرة وأصدر مع مجموعة من أصدقائه في الجامعة مجلة (المُربي)، عمل أستاذاً في معهد المعلمين في كركوك ومديراً لعدة مدارس إعدادية. نشر سنة 1988 روايته (دابادا) التي تعتبر قمة أعماله الأدبية. أُعدم شنقاً بتاريخ 18/7/1990 الساعة السابعة مساءاً، لاشتراكه في محاولة لقلب نظام الحكم الدكتاتوري مما جعل بعض المثقفين يصفونه إثر ذلك بأنه (لوركا العراقي). ومن أعماله: قوة الضحك في أورا (رواية)، الأعمال القصصية، كتاب الحب.. ظلالهن على الأرض (مذكرات ويوميات في العشق)، أقنعة .. أنا وأنتِ والبلاد (شعر).
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*نشرت في مجلة (إلـى) بتاريخ 26/8/2010 م.

20‏/08‏/2010

The Power of Laughter in Ura ... in Baghdad


The Obstinacy of Love in Baghdada

by Sami Al-Bedri

According to Elliot, when the Hollow Men feel a desire to kiss someone, they are unable to. Instead, they say prayers to broken stones.
Hassan Mutlak wrote in the introduction of his novel: “there is an old memory, since I was a student in the second grade in primary school; I witnessed a man who found a beautiful alabaster box and sold it to an English man for 4 dinars. At that moment I suffered.. and I am still suffering”.

“I dream of a magic wand
Which turns my kisses into stars
So that, at night, you can
Stare at them
To know that they are countless”

Those were Dunya Mikhail’s verses, said in a prayer of love.

Hassan Mutlak, and before being executed by Saddam regime, had signed a copy of his novels to Dunya Michail who kept asking about him when he dissapeared. So let me tell you about Dyam, the protagonist in Hassan Mutlak’s novel “The Power of Laughter in Ura”:
Oliver came to Nineveh to look for the Assyrian treasures. Dyam was a local boy aiding him. Oliver gave his hat as a present to Dyam, but as Dyam took-on the hat, he could not anymore see the skies, because of the hat borders, and not that only, but he started to hear about the Hollow Men of Eliot.
Dyam had seen the Assyrian tressures deep into that dark well, but he lied to Oliver saying that there is nothing in that well. Oliver was frightened to go and check by himself because of the extraordinary creatures living deep in the darkness of the well.
It was raining and Oliver offered Dyam a ride in the car but Dyam answered: “why would I came inside the car and the rain has started?” Dyam went walking “receiving the wide drops like kisses” as the novel says.
Dyam who wished to “die in a moment of a kiss” kept talking about his coming death. As if Hassan Mutlak knew that they will kill him. Dunya Mikhail kept asking people about him while people's faces were turning yellow from fear, and she was asked finally not to mention his name again publicly.
Hassan Mutlak knew about the Styx River which marks the borders between life and death, but he refused to join the Elliot’s Hollow Men in their scarecrow show as he tells us symbolically throw Dyam.
Hassan Mutlak's brother, Muhsin Al-Ramli, told us in an article about their mother and her night stories and especially that story of the illiterate man who invented his own prayer and how funny and sincere it was.
Hassan Mutlak prayers were published openly in Iraq after the 2003 and I received them lately while I was making my own version to Baghdad, picturing those drowned boats, those poor people, this burned-out court of justice, and this demented river.


Baghdad, we love you obstinately.

Lag3ud bi tali el leal (= I swear I’ll wake up late at night)
Ya 3nayid ya yaba (=o you little stubborn)
Wallah wathkur waleefy (= to remember my lover)
Wib 7igat el 7alman (=and on the excuse of dreaming)
Ya 3naid ya yaba (=o you little stubborn)
Ana lamshi 3a keafi (=I will sleep-walk to wherever I want)
3eani w dhay 3eani (=my eye, and the light of my eye)
Ya 3naid ya yaba (=o you little stubborn)
Tiswa hali w kul lil garaba (=you’re equal to my kin and all my relatives; means you are more important to me that them all collectively)
Ya 3nayid ya yaba (=o you little stubborn)

*Thanks to my friend who provided me with the burned-out court photo. The song lyrics and music is said by most to be made by Hudairy Abu Aziz. But some regards it as a Jordanian Folklore. Muhsin Al-Ramli article about his mother is published in the Iraqi journal “Mesopotamia” in its Issue 2 December 2004. “The Power of Laughter in Ura” novel which was written in 1984 is published by the Arab Scientific Publishers after 2003 and available in the net on http://www.aspbooks.com/books/bookpage.aspx?id=145165-106480
Baghdad was written as "Baghdada" or "Baghdado" in the writtings from the Keesh era, 1500-1117 B.C. and it was the oldest mention of Baghdad according to Taha Baqir.

Sami Al-Badri