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| The late Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut and the Arabic title of his theatrical work "Toast to the homeland" |
Muhammad al-Maghut (1934-2006)
was a Syrian poet, essayist and playwright. The influence of his innovative and
lyrical Arabic prose poetry on generations of Arab poets has been phenomenal.
He wrote for theater, television and cinema and published three
poetry collections, two plays, a novel and two collections of satirical essays.
Encyclopedia Britannica says al-Maghut “was considered to be one of the greatest and most original
writers of modern Arabic literature and was known for the darkly comic and
satiric nature of his writing.”
His most popular and regionally acclaimed theatrical work was
probably “كاسك يا وطن”, Arabic
for “Toast to the homeland.”
And one of his famous quotes declares, “Policemen, Interpol men
everywhere. You search for the perfect crime… There’s only one perfect crime –
to be born an Arab.”
In his think piece today, pan-Arab
al-Hayat’s editor-in-chief Ghassan Charbel recalls a Syrian abroad telling him recently
he feared for Syria’s future, wondering, “Is Syria fated to move from oppression
to darkness?”
The question,
Charbel writes, reminded me of what Syrian poet Muhammad al-Maghut said during
our meeting a few years back at a mutual friend’s (Fakhri Karim’s) home in
Damascus.
Al-Maghut told
me at the time:
“Don’t drown
in hope. Don’t deceive yourself. There’s nothing for us to look forward to –
not when we are made to choose between the man with the badge (meaning the military
officer) and the man with the beard (meaning the hardliner). The former will
pull out your nails; the latter will grab your freedom and neck.
“We are on
the sidelines of history and irrelevant to the future. We are effectively an
endangered species despite our reproduction prowess. A sample of our soil needs
to be analyzed at the world’s highly sophisticated laboratories. The problem
could be in the type of soil as to whether you beget an officer or a Taliban.
The night is long.”
Charbel
wonders, “What if al-Maghut were alive today? What would he write or say? How
would he describe what is left of the villages, of the cities, of Syria and of
the families? Or about what is left of Homs, of Aleppo and of Damascus or about
the wreckage of the old souks, of coexistence, of history and of jasmines?
“Like the
Syrian I chanced to meet overseas at a library, al-Maghut dreaded the toxic
choice between oppression and darkness… For once, he was perhaps fortunate to
miss the horrors of oppression and the horrors of darkness.
“I hope al-Maghut
was wrong. I also hope the young Syrian I chanced to meet was exaggerating. The
toxic choice is not fated. There must be a window to freedom, to democracy, to
dignity and to mutual recognition among the components and affiliations. Syria
deserves surviving in the realm of a state that is not built on oppression and does
not embrace darkness.”
