تويت
The Sparrows' homeland
(Watan Al-Asafir)
By :
Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah
Translated by:
Hassan Hegazy
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Text reading
((If you over passed a letter , you will be rightly in the vision - Alnfri))
By:
Dr. Mohammed Khalil
The writer does not aim or look forward to change the present actuality , but he aims radically to change the human being by calling for absolute renunciation of war, aggression and violence totally , as a step in the right direction towards the embodiment of the encounter between the ego and the other to the possibility of achieving peace and harmony between the opposing parties which confirms the writer's desire and his true intent to build a new world , whether it is virtual or imagined .
1
Once again, the writer Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah comes again and presents us his new masterpiece , " The Sparrows' homeland "( (Watan Al-Asafir) (1), which is added to a long list of his unique creative works . This new creative experience may gain special significance and double value as it aspires to achieve the dream of humanity as whole since eternity, namely peace and coexistence desired, especially among the people of this country, and the contribution that can result in the interaction of the two cultures: Arabic and Hebrew. This can be done through translation Which is considered as a bridge linking human cultures to each other and it is a very effective tool in the cultural exchange, through the promotion of rapprochement, and technical communication between them.
From here we can say : Art, in all its forms and manifestations, is one of the most modern means which is available to bring together the "I" and "the other" among the peoples, and among the people of our two countries specifically . Our author has made clear and sincere efforts that can be highly referred to in this regard .
" The Sparrows' homeland"
( Watan Al-Asafir )
It is an advanced artistic experience refers clearly and tells us openly about a creative writer, sensitive and conscience of fertile imagination and the extent of the extremes , can not emancipate himself from the obsession of writing that is still chasing him, which imposes his presence on the recipient or make him a prisoner walking with the text where he wants him to arrive. He does not let him even accompany him in his space or swim in his water , in search of added value and wanted pleasure. Honestly , praise and vaunted rhetoric remain one of the slips of literary criticism, which calls for us to be as cautious, objective and impartial as possible to protect our approach to this text .
2
The aspiration of reading the following , what the effort can do , to provide a reading beyond the apparent meaning of language with the story of " The Sparrows' homeland" to the inside of the meaning , because if we only read the apparent without going to the depths, the story would be nothing more than a simple ordinary story or familiar that does not offer something new or valuable . So what we need is an inductive reading and innovative call is required in-depth, trying to reproduce the text again. And we thought that the gems do not float on the surface but in the depths! Al-Nafri says: If you over passed the letter , you will be rightly on the vision - Alnfri ( 2) .And this what we inspire and try to do.
In our discussion of the text, the first thing we face the language , it is the ordinary language. If we are satisfied with it or what is known as the apparent language , we can not find anything of much value, or as Al-Ghathami says, "but it is the [the language] that does not stand as something of value, this happens only when it overpasses the appearance of the language and extracts its secrets and discover its hidden constructs and its beauty .
If you are confined on what is in the language only as it is , you would be like someone who is explaining water after effort with water "(3)!
It has been idiomatically agreed for long to call such reading with the reading of the explanation that is adhering to the text , but it only takes the visible meaning and gives the apparent meaning an immunity that makes it rise high above the words. So the explanation of the text in it , will be done by placing alternative words for the same meanings, or it is a shallow repetition by using the same words.( 4)! And this is not what is required and needed from the outcome reading or the illuminating one . The productive reading or the aesthetic acquisition of the reception is the real reading , as it is a creative act and a cultural aspect , completely like the act of the creative writing .
On the other hand, there is the so-called reading beyond language, which is the language of the language, which is what Gergany means " the meaning " and " the sense of meaning " where he says " the meaning and the sense of meaning , means in the sense of the apparent meaning of the word that you can reach it without a means . And the meaning of the meaning is that you can reach and realize it from the apparent word a meaning then that meaning leads you to another meaning "(5)
It is idiomatically agreed on calling such reading with the poetic reading and it is " reading the text through its code , based on the aspects of its artistic context. The text here is a living cell moving from within , driven by a force that does not respond to break all the barriers between the texts. Therefore, the poetic reading seeks to reveal what is hidden inside the text , and read in it beyond what is in the present word "(6).)
The literary text is a form of a linguistic expression that is revealing on what it does not say and conceal more than it shows! So, depending on the context and code , which are the two most important characteristics of the text and they are the spirit of its excellence , the literary text is supposed to be a reference text, not a phrasal text , and the role of the reader is to interpret those references. It conceals inside in its innermost several loads more than it reveals in its appearance , which means it has several meanings and faces . This depends on the language of the text or the so-called the code of text, which is formed from the content, the form and the knowledge culture of the author of the text, on one hand, and on the reader's skill and his ability to receive , where the literary text derives its value from the cultural , intellectual , cognitive background and the imaginary energy of the reader, who is interacting with it and in his taste of the language and aesthetics , when he is talking to the text or redrafting it again .
3
The story is based on a narrator who knows well the events and transmits the story's events and its images according to the vision of the author himself, who, in his story, " The Sparrows' homeland," pleads not only a description of a forest full of life, where everything is going on well, or as he says " The forest was getting up on the sounds of the birds' songs .. very happy , active and full of life "(P. 37). In the evening , the forest "sleeps on the farewell songs" (p. 37) and the birds play and fly happily in their " country which is sunken in the beauty " (p. 37).
There is the "old Woodman who lives on his banks [the river] most of the seasons" (p. 37). But this reality did not last long, and overnight things turn , in the forest, upside down, and life in it turned to be bad and filled with evil , For what was is not present now and what is , changed now ! Forcing the birds to escape and leave their homeland, after having been safe and happy , but the forest has almost become a deserted place and impact after an eye. The birds are no longer heard as they used to do. That beautiful reality has changed from a happy past to a painful and miserable present .
The next day, the woodman wakes up to a new reality, which drives him and is surprised to say : " In the morning the woodman wakes up alone without the singing of the Sparrows .. wondered .. where did they go ? … where have they migrated? .. How and why did they leave the forest .. these beautiful singing creatures? (P. 40)?
It was not so long for him to wonder and the answer came as quickly as "Now he realizes it .. discovered the mystery of images and shadows .. Knows the truth of what he heard last night .. Seeing the elephants shaking the trees and falling the nests of the birds above the dirt and trampling them .. And other animals eating .. devouring everything that comes across from the sparrows .. "(p. 40)!
Even the river was polluted and the bodies of the dead sparrows floated on its surface, turning it into dirty water, while crocodiles and sharks came on to swallow up all the beautiful colored fish and devoured them. In short, the forest was dominated by elephants, predatory mammals and crocodiles (p. 44), and they were wreaking it havoc, killing and destruction ! When the governor of the neighboring town arrived to inspect what had happened to the sparrows and what had happened in the forest , some snakes came out of the logs of the woodman which were filled with packed coal and made their way to bite the governor to die at once . The woodman was accused to be the murderer! During the investigation, he was asked whether some one has planned or assisted him? But he denied the charge, and managed to convince the investigator that there must be a search for a solution to the problem to satisfy all parties, and indeed so it was .
The scene was so frightening that it was unbearable ! why not , as such elephants, predatory animals and crocodiles, trampled the peaceful forest with its legs until it became , from the last hours of the night to the sunrise, a desolation and an abomination of death, killing and destruction? "(Pp. 40-41)!
The narrator, watching the events closely, did not like what his eyes saw and heard from the forest, and what happened to the sparrows who were terrifying of terror, murder, destruction and displacement. So the man under investigation says that he knows for certain that "the forest is only for of birds "(P. 63)! And no one has the right to own it but them , and these elephants and crocodiles are mere strangers came on to the forest, and then adds: It is necessary to "return the forest as it was" (p. 63)!
What is strange, however, is that the reader did not notice, at least even a try , or any possibility of resisting and repelling these strange animals or any other possibility of self-defense by the sparrows in the face of injustice and aggression. As it is known that each bird or creature has its own means of innate defense ! But the sparrows just chose to escape away terrified to keep themselves alive and preserve their own spirits.
The narrator and every observer, who saw that scene which happened to the forest homeland when it was destroyed and the sparrows were abandoned , forced to emigrate and became homeless , so he began sometimes by photography and another by expression, to translate from that scene in all its dimensions and projections on the living reality of those " sparrows " victim!
As it is known, that the field of literature and its origin is the human experience and the reality of man himself. So " The Sparrows' homeland has come to " express an integrated literary expression of anxiety, sorrow and fragmentation within the dreamy and the romantic writer, Where "The Romantics sing passionately to the beauty of the souls, whether they are great or humble .
And they take pity on the whole human race. Their eyes filled with tears for the victims of the society calling to be just and fair to them , attacking what is settled down from rules ….The Romantics may dream of an ideal society in which rights are given without efforts to perform duties ... The Romantics in their literature do not seek the truth that the humankind has been set and accepted by the prevailing logic ... because they live in a world where there is only the heart and the emotion " 7"! What is known is that "in order for the literary work to be successful, it must have the sincerity of the expression of the reality of life, and the accuracy of photography of the problems of society" (8).
And this what the writer has done and successfully achieved it . The writer and every other artist is the son of his entire human environment and his entire world community, so he sees, hears , understands and feels, as it is assumed, all what is going on around him in this human society, the small cosmic village, let alone what is going on around him in his smaller community, especially the local ?!
In this context we can refer the reader to a press interview with the late poet Mahmoud Darwish, who says: "I consider that the first source of poetry in my personal experience is the reality, and create my symbols out of this reality. My symbols are my own, where the critic or the reader can not transmit them to any reference to the former, that is, I turn the daily into symbolic, reality is a major source of my poetry "(9). This confirms the extent to which the creator, in the depths of his soul, is associated with both the individual and the collective dream, and his unbridled desire to fly high in search of his lost paradise, in his virtual or imagined world. The creator of his dreams is like a bird who never stops flying, exploring new horizons, taking pictures and turning them into expressive and artistic paintings. [10]
This is what called recruitment of modulation and painting in narrative writing. The paintings created by Sabiha Hassan's brush are beautiful, expressive and highly consistent with the content of the story. Thus, the language of the story came closest to the language of images and forms " because the language of dreams does not use the abstract language in the terms that people used, but use images and shapes" (11)!
For example, saying: "And suddenly he saw a bird trying to leave the place and can not .. The wing was broken and her comrades left the place .. Another time he heard her song that was sadly crying .. As if saying goodbye, my dear home " (p. 41)! The picture is truly expressive, and the picture is really better than thousand words!
4
It is difficult to bear the horror of the scene. It is a shocking and painful reality, physically and morally, that has destroyed the "sparrows' homeland " from killing, destroying, and forcibly displacing sparrows, especially by every human being, regardless of energy or endurance. He was afraid to see the principles of freedom and justice collapse before his eyes, as well as the values of right , goodness and beauty, and replaced by vanity, injustice, evil and oppression, which forced him to declare his grievance and rejection and protest in defense of the right and justice and the rejection of falsehood and injustice, and declares that the right must be achieved and return it to its owners, no matter how time changes and transformations of the place, says: "We have to save the city and return the forest as it was" (p. 63)! Thus, we see that the word as a declaration of position, at the very least, can free us all from that painful reality , therefore the magic of speech is only when it relates to feeling and conscience !
The event, which was brought by the forest and overwhelmed it , is evoked by an editorial with an actual sentence bearing the connotations of the last act. He says "The forest was awakened by the sounds of birds' songs" (p. 37)! With a tone ,filled with a lot of agony and sorrow. However, the times are often intertwined, as an evolution of story events or as an important element of narrative art.
Since past actions have many functions related to the meanings that they contain in context, the reader observes that the most prominent of these meanings: movement, change, moving description, fear, and anxiety. It plays a prominent role in the story narrative mobile, which is frequent use of the last shape of verb to be ( was ) , and this is what the reader sees in the story board. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the narrator was seen and heard and it is used , in the great majority of the events of the story, the language of the past tense of words and vocabulary, and so longs for the past time with all its details and colorful songs and beautiful memories, the days of serenity of that beautiful time that the forest enjoyed and its birds, quite the opposite of the present time and the accompanying of the beast , misery and tragedy! The present time has many moral functions, for example: kinetics, vitality, description, and life acquisition of the event and its permanence
The author has been able to reach the reader's conscience in his own style, his poetic language, based on simple, easy narrative language, and close to the reader's understanding , to match the story's events. The language which is closest to the language of the modern story, which depends on the language code that is loaded with the connotations of reality, including the coding which is easy and simple, does not require much effort and through his own technical vision, to combine the familiar and strange in the forest, between the past and present, between Peace and War, and other contradictory contradictions . It should be noted that the use of the symbol as a method of expression does not correspond to meaning and truth face to face, but from behind the mask.
As such, the conflict between mind and imagination, between existing reality and the desired dream, has been eased, for what the forest has turned to . The reader can also notice that the symbol in the story has come to a whole unit and complete the atmosphere of the story and its events, because it increases the dynamics of events and its vitality.
As well as being very harmonious with the reality, which imposed its presence with all intensity and strength , the forest, it seems, symbolizes the homeland, and the sparrows symbolize humans, sparrows and birds, all small or grown, they symbolize humans. Thus, the use of the symbol has become an urgent need at varying levels in modern literary writing, poetry or prose, to transform it into wonderful art that can enrich texts and deepen them intellectually and aesthetically, so that they appear vivid and responsive, and may be attractive and influential in the context of their narration . The "Brotherhood of Safa and Khulan Al-Wafa" , (known in the fourth century AH ) as the most prominent of using the birds as a symbol .
And this leads us in the end or refers to the understanding of the symbol as it is, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its social, intellectual and political connotations, which to this day has been reaping human lives and material losses from both sides for a long time. Or any other dispute, at any time and place, such specifications may apply. Hence, when analyzing creative writing of any kind, it is necessary to turn it into questions related to reality and turn it to the present living through the movement of fusion and interaction with contemporary reality, as well as to the exciting and influential energy in the thought and culture of the individual and society alike, which invites the reader and urges him to meditate , reflect and reconsider all that surrounds him from the reality of living, in order to search for answers or appropriate solutions.
Also, the reader can see the employment of the question frequently in the story, as it has become a major component of writing the modern fiction. In an attempt by the writer to penetrate the painful reality, and dispel the atmosphere of bitterness and dark darkness around him, which is touched by the reader in the story of " The Sparrows' homeland ," for example, saying "how they came and where they were? And did they really come from the forest? ... Where did the snakes hide? Have they parted and left the neighborhood ? Dozens of questions that pierced the investigator's skull without complete or partial answers? "(P. 60). "Who now settles there? We all know strangers , elephants and hungry crocodiles, so the sparrows no longer have a homeland" (p. 61)!
It may be interesting to emphasize that the writer aims not only to change the current reality, but also to radically change the human being by calling for the absolute renunciation of war, aggression and violence as a step in the right direction towards the embodiment of the encounter between the ego and the other, To achieve Peace and harmony between the conflicting parties. Which confirms the writer's desire to build a new world, whether virtual or imagined. "War means hostility," says the man (the woodman).( 12) Here , in that context, "war means enmity. The hostility that breeds resentment and retribution is the retry in every war we lost or won. The war is inevitably death, among us and them ... I suggest peace ... nothing lasts on the ground like peace .. Peace is the song of life and the banner of freedom. The more we increase our culture, the more awareness we are and to be closer to peace "(p. 65) .)
The words of the woodman gives an idea worthy of attention and calls to think, which is the realization of the mind and activate it does not disable it even surpass the mind to force the power and overcome it . It is necessary to open a new page, because the wheel of history can not go back but always going to the front .
In the ninth scene, which is the last scene, the idea of woodman has the interest of the investigator and it is accepted , so the woodman is suggesting that after the new change in the reality of the forest, and as a logical realistic exit, sharing the forest equally between animals and sparrows . "We will leave half the forest for animals and the other half for the sparrows, and then peace will prevail and good will be upon us "(p. 75)!
The idea of sharing the disputed place and accepting a compromise is not new, but perhaps it is time to accept it and call for it, which means our right to stop shedding blood, saving lives and preserving property. Indeed, this is what happened, and the story ends in the most perfect possible way . The two parties are satisfied after a long period of conflict, hatred and enmity that prevailed between them.
He says "The birds are coming back, the forest is rising again, the animals are training and tamed . For weeks the forest became a hotbed of sparrows and animals, and the ropes were removed and the borders were ended . The lake became pure and clear , returned as it was ; its water shone and glowed in the light of the sun "(p. 77).
A bright painting , there is no hatred , no hostility, no restrictions and no limits, after today. The end will better , peace and harmony prevail in the forest instead of conflict , war and hostility, as peace is the best solution and the best outlet in such circumstances , provided that it provides everyone with a free life, a decent life, and preserves the rights of their owners, says the woodman , "I suggest peace.. Nothing lasts over the earth like peace. Peace is the song of life and the banner of freedom" (p. 65!)
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Margins:
1- Waheeb Nadeem Wahbah: Watan Al-Asafir (The Sparrows' homeland) , Dar al-Huda Publishing and distribution Karim, Kafr Qara, 2014. The book includes the text in both Arabic and Hebrew. In a related context we can refer to the poet Nizar Qabbani, who says in his poem "Citizens without a homeland", which was thrown for the first time at the fifth Marbud Festival in Iraq in 1985 :
Oh my homeland ..
All the sparrows have houses
Except the sparrows that are infatuated with freedom
They die outside their homelands .
- See also: Mahmoud Darwish, Al-Diwan, 1, I, 14, The Sparrows die in Galilee, 1969, p. 245, Dar Al-Awda, Beirut, 1994.
2- Mohammed bin Abdul-Jabbar bin Hassan bin Ahmed Al-Nafri, was born in the city of Nefr, located on the banks of the Euphrates River east of Iraq and attributed to it. He was one of the greatest Sufis and traveled a lot between Iraq and Egypt, and one of the most famous books of The situations and The Conversations. One of the most famous is that he said : "The wider the vision , narrowed the phrase" ! He died in 375 AH / 965 AD .
3- Al -Ghathami, Abdullah Muhammad: Sin and Atonement , From Structural to Anatomical, p. 21, Cultural Club, Jeddah, 19085.
4- The same source above , P : 76.
5-Abdul Qahir al-Jarjani: Evidence of Miracles, read and commented by Mahmoud Muhammad Shaker, Third Edition , p. 263, Dar Al Madani, Jeddah, 1992 .
6-Al-Gathami, Abdullah Muhammad: Sin and Atonement, From Structural to Anatomical, p. 76 .
7- Mohamed Ghonaimi Helal: Romanticism, p. 18, House of Culture, Cairo, without a date .
8- Abdul Wahid Louloah : The Quest for Meaning, Critical Studies, p. 7, Freedom House for Printing, Baghdad, 1973 .
9- Mahmoud Darwish: A press interview, Al Bayan Gulf Newspaper, Dubai, 20/5/1986 .
10- Michel Foucault in his book «Words and things», Center for National Development, Beirut, 1990 .
Mohamed Ghonaimi Hilal: Romantics, p. 95 ..11-
12 -It is no an accident that the character of the woodsman is constantly repeated as a vital and important element in the story of " The Sparrows' homeland" (Watan Al-Asafir) as a popular figure and simple, one of the basic elements of old, especially in the tales of popular literature for young and old alike. The woodsman, as a technical assignment in the story that is focused on him, may suggest that he has an important role in the development of the story and the escalation of events to the end. To the extent that it can surprise the reader of his role of active and decisive in the story, although it is a popular figure as simple as we have already mentioned, and no wonder His power may be put in the weakest creation .
13-The Cover and internal drawings of the story by : Sobhiya Hassan .
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The Translator :
Hassan Hegazy Hassan, an Egyptian Poet and Translator,
Born in 16-7-1960, Graduated from Zagazig University , 1982, got his BA, in English language, Education and Arts . Member in Egypt's writer union and a member in The Egyptian Translators and Linguists' Association , in Cairo.
In poetry: Published seven collections .
In translation: Published about 12 works , from them :-
1-- A whoop of Scent , a poetry collection for : Asmae’ Saqr Al- Qassimi . U.A .E . Emirate. Into English.
2-- Seven ages For Man , selected poems from English poetry to Arabic language.
3-- Under Warm Sun : Short stories, for the Tunisian Writer: Ibraheem Draghouthy . Into English .
4- Bleeding Under Sand : Very Short Stories . Hassan Ali Al- Battran/ Saudi Arabia . Into English .
5- Songs along The River Nile .
6- Whispers from the other side of the world : A poetry collection for 15 Arab poets from different parts of the Arab world, Into English .
7- Bee- Flu : Alkessah Al-sha'erah . Mohamed Elshahat Mohamed. Egypt . Into English .
8-The Conquerors , very Short Stories by : Mohammed Ibn Rabea al-Ghamedy ,Saudi Arabia . Into English .
9- Paradise in my chest , Tahani Al- Douihm , , very short stories , Saudi Arabia . Into English .
10-The Signal is Still Red ,Very short stories , Ibtessam Al-Bakhmey , Saudi Arabia . Into English .
11 –Innovations from the east and the west . a poetry collection. Asmae’ Saqr Al- Qassimi . U.A .E . Emirate. Into English.
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