Research Article

Salīm Barakāt as Arbiter between Good and Evil: According to His Long Poem al-Mu‘jam (The Obscure)

Volume: 6 Number: 1 January 25, 2020

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-Shiriyyah Salīm Barakāt (The Poetry Works of Salīm Barakāt), pp. 559-592. Barakat wrote his poem al-Mujam (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

  1. 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).
  2. Adonis (2005). Sufism and Surrealism. (trans. Judith Cumberbach). London: Saqi. First published as Adūnīs (1995), al-Sufiyya wal Surriyaliyya (Beirut: Dar al-Saqi).
  3. Adūnīs (1998). Fihris Li-A‘māl al-Rīh [Index to the Acts of the Wind]. Beirut: Dar al-Nihar lil-Nashr.
  4. Avesta. http://www.avesta.org/
  5. 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).
  6. Blanchot, Maurice (1955), trans. Ann Smock. (1982). The Space of Literature. University of Nebraska Press.
  7. 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
  8. 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

APA
Butt, A. (2020). Salīm Barakāt as Arbiter between Good and Evil: According to His Long Poem al-Mu‘jam (The Obscure). International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 6(1), 52-69. https://doi.org/10.21600/ijoks.641719

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