Arabishtic Africa gave us one NobelLaureate for Literature in the name of Egyptian writer NaguibMahfouz. Few of Naguib’s translated work are found in ourlibraries. However, majority of his books remain unavailable to thelarger Kenyan readership. This is because the Kenyan book industrydoes not have an elaborate and aggressive translation policy.
Secondly, we seem to have insulatedourselves from Lusophone or Francophone Africa or the Maghreb. Wehardly invite writers from these regions whenever we haveinternational literary festivals in Nairobi. Why the obsession withWestern literature? Have we compartmentalised literature from NorthAfrica, for example, as Oriental and writers from say Senegal, Togo,Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Congo, as French writers, andthose from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde, as Portuguese writers?We shall revisit this matter when discussing literature and theAfrican identity.
Well, I first read the Arabian Nightsin Kiswahili as Alf Lela Ulela (a thousand and one nights) in primaryschool before stumbling on the English version much later. TheArabian Nights are tales of Princess Scheherazade which she tellsevery night for a thousand and one nights to an enraged andunforgiving king to save a whole generation of young women from theking’s sexual abuse and blood stained sword. For centuries, thesepopular tales have been the entry point into Oriental literature. Theappeal and value of these stories lie in their treatment of love,adultery, betrayal, succession, the place of the girl child vis-à-visthe boy child, etc, issues still common in modern societies.
But let us return to Egypt where wehave seen modern writers such as Nawal El Sadawi, Iqbal Baraka, HalaEl Badry (all female), and pick a book by the bilingual Egyptianacademic and prolific writer Prof Arif Khudairi. Prof Khudairi writesin Arabic and English. He has published 47 books of essays, shortstories, folk tales, translations, and has 14 volumes of poetry tohis name. His novella, The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad is a book thatmust interest literary scholars and students of Arabic literature.Prof Khudairi teaches research methodology, theories of translationand comparative literature.
His latest book, Love Poems of ArifKhudairi (2011), is a collection of 40 lyrical poems addressed toa mythical woman: “At sunrise/Your eyes/Are two streams/Of amber/Atsunset/Your eyes/Are two islands/Of oranges/Of rainbow/Of tulips/Forwhom/For whom/Do they shed/Their smiles/When the sun/Goes down/Atnight/Your eyes/Are two stars/Full of rapture/Of charm/Of wine/MayI/May I/Spend the night/In the shed/Of your long/Eyelashes.” Thepersona in these poems is enthralled and fascinated particularly withthe woman’s lips which he says are like red tulips.
Arif Khudairi excels as a poet of thenocturne. His style is distinct; short lines, simple metaphor, anduncontrived similes. The poems are melodious, serenading, with acadence that is exhilarating. The poet uses the love phenomenon tounderscore the inadequacy of words to express human experience: “Itis love/When you cannot/Express/What you feel/For someone/When yourwords/Make no sense.”
In the poet’s metaphorical world,eyes are streams of amber. Sunrise sends forth light to announcedaybreak. When the persona tells his sweetheart “do not cry when Idie” but to “wear the smile” when she goes to his tomb and“recite a love poem” which will make him “delightful,satisfied, contented,” we are transported into the metaphysical,where the “living” commune with the “living dead.” Pakistani scholar Prof SR Siddiquisays Khudairi writes with the grasp of Oriental metaphysical poetswho believed that the universe and everything therein is a reflectionof its creator’s magnanimity.
Khainga O’Okwemba is the authorof the poetry book, Smiles in Pathos and Other Poems.
