Magda Abu-Fadil
Director of Media Unlimited in LebanonIt's the details one often remembers.
Mine is the memory of Fouzi El-Asmar surrounded by piles of newspapers, documents, and books, at his Washington, D.C. office and Maryland home office.
The noted Palestinian journalist, author, poet and activist par excellence devoured words with relish and produced countless words of his own to fill volumes for over half a century.
The focus, the Holy Grail, was Palestine, the land of his birth and in which he was made to feel an outsider.
After the first recovery from the 1948 defeat, the Arabs of Israel were left in a void. They saw that a new situation had emerged....Arab lands were confiscated under many different laws, and many villagers were expelled and turned into refugees inside the country....READ MORE
Dr. Fouzi El-Asmar was a distinguished Palestinian writer, poet,
academic and journalist. He was a publicly recognized authority on the
political and social lives and conditions of the Palestinian citizens of
Israel. He regularly published articles that are syndicated in the
Arabic press throughout the Middle East and in Europe. He wrote numerous
books, including Through the Hebrew Looking Glass and the renowned To Be an Arab in Israel.
The latter has been published in seven languages, including English,
Hebrew and Arabic. Dr. El-Asmar also wrote several collections of
poetry, including Poems from an Israeli Prison and The Wind-driven Reed and Other Poems.
Born in Haifa, Palestine, Dr. El-Asmar grew up in a Palestinian area
of Israel. In 1958, he became a member of the editorial board of the
literary monthly, Al-Fajr, and in 1966 he became editor of the Arabic magazine, Hadha-al-Alam.
He attended Central Connecticut State University (then Central
Connecticut State College) and received his B.A. degree there with
honors in 1975. He subsequently earned a Ph.D. from the University of
Exeter in England.Then in 1979, he became the managing editor of the
London-based international newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat.
Dr. El-Asmar lectured and taught at a number of universities,
including St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and Bradford
University in England, and the American University in Washington, D.C.
He held dual Israeli and U.S. citizenship and resided in Bethesda,
Maryland.
palestinianpoetry
The Wandering Reed
Of what benefit is it, if man were to gain
the whole world
But lose the green almond in his father’s
orchard?
Of what benefit is it,
If man were to drink coffee in Paris
But none in his mother’s house?
Of what benefit is it, if man were to tour
the whole world
But lose the flowers on the hills of his
native land?
He gains nothing but deadly silence
Within the hearts of the living.
You look through the mirror of lands not
your own
And see your exiled face;
You recognize your face
Despite the deadly dust of travel
From Jaffa, to Lydda, to Haifa,
Through the Mediterranean to exile;
You recognize your face
And try to deny that face!
Your worship your own face
Even though exile has obliterated its
features;
The hangman of the twentieth century
assumes the countenance
Of the eternal face!
You close your eyes
To worship your face in the darkness of
this century.
You deny…Your worship,
You deny…Your worship,
And the God of truth cries to your face:
“He who denies his face
Is renounced by all the birds of paradise
in this universe,
And those whom silence has turned mute
Will never be heard by the roses of the
field
He who kills the nightingale of his dreams
Will be buried in the forgotten graveyard
of the living.”
You open your eyes
And see the face of your country in the
mirror of exile.
The deadly silence in the hearts of the
living
Strips away the skin of your face;
It cuts and dries your flesh,
Then hangs what remains on poles
Under the forgotten sun of the West.
Fouzi El –Asmar, The Wandering Reed...
***
on twitter:
IPS remembers Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist, Fouzi El-Asmar via @HuffingtonPost: http://ow.ly/paiL0 #Palestine #Palstudies
Palestine Studies @PalStudies
The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is devoted to
documentation, research, analysis, & publication on Palestinian
affairs.
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