Merry Christmas from Palestine – I am from there

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:39:02 +0000

I am from There

I come from there and remember,
I was born like everyone is borne, I have a mother and a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends and a prison.
I have a wave that sea-gulls snatched away.
I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
I have a moon past the peak of words.
I have the godsent food of birds and olive tree beyond the ken of time.
I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.
I come from there. I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.
I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.
I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one:
Home

Mahmoud Darwish

Marcel Khalifé named UNESCO Artist for Peace

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:02:21 +0000

My favorite singer/musician:

Marcel Khalifé, the Lebanese musician and writer, was named UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 7 by UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. Born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount Lebanon, Khalife first studied, then taught, the oud, or Arabic lute, at the Beirut National Conservatory. He began his career as a soloist and went on, in 1972, to create “Al Mayadine”, a group in his home village, to preserve the Arabic musical heritage with the oud. At the vanguard of innovative Middle-Eastern music, Khalifé’s original music makes him an ambassador of his culture.

His challenges, however, are not only musical in character. Interpreter of music and oud performer, he is also a composer who is deeply attached to the text on which he relies. In his association with great contemporary Arab poets, particularly Palestinian poet par excellence, Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of the Arabic song, to break its stereotypes, and to advance the culture of the society that surrounds it.

Khalifé joins other UNESCO Artists for Peace, which includes Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev, the Gypsy composer and singer Chico Bouchikhi, Japanese ballet dancer Miyako Yoshida, U.S. writer and painter N. Scott Momaday, Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil and Nigerian painter and sculptor Prince Twins Seven-Seven.

My favorite song of Marcel is "To My Mother:"

I long for My Mother's bread
My mother's coffee
Her touch..
Childhood memories grow up in me
Day after day
I must be worth my life
At the hour of my death,
Worth the tears of my Mother!

And if I come back one day
Take me as a veil to your eyelashes
Cover my bones with the grass Blessed by your footsteps
Bind us together..
With a lock of your hair..
With a thread that trails from the back of your dress..
I might become immortal
Become a god..
If I touch the depths of your heart!
My Mother...

(... by Mahmoud Darwish)

And my favorite poem by Mahmoud Darwish is "State of siege:"

If you are not rainfall, my love... Be a tree
Brimming with fertility, be a tree,
If you are not a tree, my love... Be a stone
Brimming with water, be a stone,
If you are not a stone, my love... Be the moon
In the dream of your loved one, be the moon
(The words of a mother to her son, as she buried him).

Sabbah Report » Mahmoud-Darwish

Merry Christmas from Palestine – I am from there

Marcel Khalifé named UNESCO Artist for Peace