Inför Världsboksdagen vänder Hotade Ord blicken mot Syrien.
Varje dag sedan ett år tillbaka strömmar nyheter om Assadregimens mord och övergrepp mot demonstranter in till oss via medierna. I Sverige finns många verksamma syriska poeter, författare och musiker från regionen. På den syriska nationaldagen är Panoramascenen deras. Det blir en kväll tillägnad frihetskampen och kraften i den syriska litteraturen och musiken.
På scenen bland annat Faraj Bayrakdar med sin poesi som genomlevt och överlevt den värsta av världar inuti ett syriskt fängelse. Ghayath Almadhoun delar med sig av sin omskakande diktsamling "Asylansökan", som kastar läsaren handlöst in i den statslöse poetens tankevärld.
Poeten och livskonstnären Jasim Mohamed leder kvällen.
Kvällen kommer att ackompanjeras av Mousa Elias på luta.
Amanda Ooms läser poesin i översättning.
Språken på scen under kvällen är svenska och arabiska.
Hotade Ord är en debattserie kring yttrandefrihet som Kulturhuset arrangerar tillsammans med svenska PEN.
Ghayath Almadhoun är poet från Palestina och har sökt asyl i Sverige som statslös författare. Han tillhör en minoritet av de palestinska flyktingarna i Syrien vars familjer anlände från Jordanien 1970. Denna grupp har till skillnad från den stora gruppen så kallade syrienpalestinier aldrig fått några medborgerliga rättigheter. De får inte äga hus eller mark, resa eller driva företag. De har inga giltiga pass, inget medborgarskap någonstans. I väntan på att få uppehållstillstånd i Sverige fortsätter han otåligt att skriva. Källa: Röst – I väntan 9 februari 2011
Faraj Bayraqdar: Political Poet of Syria
Faraj Bayraqdar was born in 1951 in the village of Tir near Homs, central Syria. He published two collections of poetry, You Are Not Alone (Beirut, 1979), and Golsorkhi (1981), before his arrest in 1987 for his political affiliations and imprisonment without trial until 1993 when he was sentenced to fifteen years’ hard labour for belonging to an unauthorized political association. He was eventually released in 2000 after an international campaign. In 1997 friends published a small collection of his poetry Dove in Free Flight. Bayraqdar was the winner of the 1998 Hellman-Hammet Award, the 1999 International PEN Award from PEN American Center West, and the 2004 Free Word Award from NOVIB, in the Netherlands. After his release he published Asian Recitals (Damascus 2001). Selected Poems, translated by the New York Translation Collective, and an interview by Muhammad Ali Atassi introduced by Elias Khoury, were published in Los Angeles in 2004 by Beyond Baroque Press.
Source: Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature: http://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/226/faraj_bayraqdar/
Statement by Faraj Bayrakdar made at a press conference on 28 November 2000 after being released from prison
I salute you with open arms and my heart filled with the sound of joyous bells.
The distance between nightmare and dream is equal to that which exists between prison and liberty. And I don’t know how to express my gratitude to you and hundreds of friends who have helped me to pass from the river of nightmare to that of dream.
I well know that repression is across the world and that liberty must be all around. I hope also that you will welcome me into your ranks, now that I have recovered to some extent my freedom, so that we can follow the road together. For, although I am now out of prison, many still remain inside, in my own country and in numerous other places.
My dear friends. Certain detained journalists and myself have benefited from the particular attention of yourselves and that of numerous other organisations and personalities. I must remind you that this has allowed us to escape the grasp of forgetfulness, this symbolic death that so menaces prisoners.
After having written much for death, I would like now to write for her sister, life. Yes... I entered into prison ready to die and here I am, 14 years later, putting my dreams back in order, ready at last to live. As the sand can only unite with the mirage, hence, the dream must unite with freedom.
Once again, my gratitude to you all and all those hundreds of friends who I know or not... and my affection.
Your friend Faraj Bayrakdar
Poems
Groans
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February 1993
Read more: http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/groans1/#ixzz1JEPAAO2z