Salīm Barakāt as Arbiter between Good and Evil: According to His Long Poem al-Mu‘jam (The Obscure)
Öz
Salīm Barakāt, Syrian
Kurdish poet, completed his thirty-page poem al-Mu‘jam (The Obscure) in
2004.[1]
The poem deals with the relationship between the poet and Evil, the
relationship of Evil to Good, and the failure of Good to persuade in the face
of Evil’s deceptive ways. We see the poet as a failed arbiter between Evil and
Good. Reason and rationality do not prevail. Consequently, there is a need for
an intercessor on the Day of Judgment. The poet is convinced that remorse will
win an acceptable intercessor, the Mercy of Allah. The poem throughout is a
journey through the Qur’ān from beginning to end. It is also the poet’s journey
towards the Sufi goal.
[1]
Salīm Barakāt. (2007).
al-Aʽmāl al-Shi‘riyyah Salīm Barakāt (The Poetry Works of Salīm Barakāt), pp. 559-592.
Barakat wrote his poem al-Mu‘jam
(The Obscure) between January 2003 and August 2004. I will include my
translation of the entire poem in my forthcoming book Creativity Itself:
According to Salim Barakat and Mahmud Darwish.
Anahtar Kelimeler
References
- Adonis (2003). An Introduction to Arab Poetics. (trans. Catherine Cobham) London: Saqi. First published as Adūnīs (1985), Introduction à la poétique arabe (Beirut: Dar al- Saqi).
- Adonis (2005). Sufism and Surrealism. (trans. Judith Cumberbach). London: Saqi. First published as Adūnīs (1995), al-Sufiyya wal Surriyaliyya (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi).
- Adūnīs (1998). Fihris Li-A‘māl al-Rīh [Index to the Acts of the Wind]. Beirut: Dar al-Nihar lil-Nashr.
- Avesta. http://www.avesta.org/
- Barakāt, Salīm (2007), al-Amāl al-Shi‘riyyah Salīm Barakāt [The Poetry Works of Salīm Barakāt]. Beirut: al-Mu‘assash lil-Dirasat wa-Nashr (The Foundation for Studies and Publishing).
- Blanchot, Maurice (1955), trans. Ann Smock. (1982). The Space of Literature. University of Nebraska Press.
- Butt, Aviva. (2019). Salīm Barakāt’s Intermediary Existence: His Poem Mahmūd Darwīsh. International Journal of Kurdish Studies 5 (1), 328 – 358. http://ijoks.com/ DOI: 10.21600/ ijoks.516511
- Butt, Aviva. (2018). The Unimaginative Symbols of Salīm Barakāt. International Journal of Kurdish Studies 4 (1), 44 – 69 (August 2018). http://ijoks.com/ DOI: 10.21600/ijoks.383376
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
-
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Aviva Butt
*
Australia
Publication Date
January 25, 2020
Submission Date
November 1, 2019
Acceptance Date
December 15, 2019
Published in Issue
Year 2020 Volume: 6 Number: 1
Cited By
Salim Barakat’s First Novel: Sages of Darkness
International Journal of Kurdish Studies
https://doi.org/10.21600/ijoks.1217182