Ali Al Jallawi

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Ali Al Jallawi

b. 1975 in Manama) is a contemporary Bahraini poet. Al Jallawi began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. His early work was characterised by revolutionary and political ideas, and he was arrested at the age of seventeen because of a poem in which he criticised the political regime in Bahrain. He was arrested again in 1995 and imprisoned until 1998.

During his time in prison Al Jallawi read widely and educated himself on many subjects. His rigid religious and political stance changed into a passion for ideas and intellectual openness, although he remains committed to achieving a just political system in Bahrain.

More recently his poetry has dealt with philosophical and human-oriented subjects; his best-known work is Dilmuniyat (Dilmun was the name of an ancient Bahraini civilisation). Ali Al Jallawi lives in Manama, and as well as writing poetry runs a research centre dedicated to writing about Bahrain’s minorities and communities ignored by ‘official’ histories.

[edit] Appearances and events

Ali Al Jallawi has attended many international and pan-Arab poetry festivals and gatherings to represent Bahrain, including:

[edit] Publications

  • Wajhan li-mra’atin wahida, Dar Al Kunooz, Beirut.
  • Al ‘Isyan, Dar Al Mada, Syria.
  • Al Madina Al Akhira, Arab Foundation for Studies and Publication, Beirut.
  • Dilmuniyat I, Dar Aalia, Kuwait.
  • Dilmuniyat II, Dar Kan’aan, Syria.
  • Dilmuniyat (both parts, new edition), Ministry of Culture, Yemen, 2004.

[edit] In his own words

My body reached maturity early, on a day in 1975. When I touched the breast’s cherry, I flourished and recognised God’s paradise on earth. My mother channelled springs of fresh water into my heart, covered my body with scented herbs, and poured the water of God into my soul. Silence descended on me and became my companion. I travelled through the first years of my life astonished by all I saw. I often wore my clothes inside out, chased birds, and gathered the neighbours’ peaches in my pockets, unaware of the curse to come. Of my brothers and sisters I was the eighth. When my father descended from the night, fragrant with prayers and rosewater, his desire was to bring into being an imam, so he called me ‘Ali’. I carried this inheritance, and the sacred texts, and I pulled the skies along with me. I was sent to the compulsory university, accused of love, and for the sake of a poem, because I had contemplated the lifelines of my hand at the age of seventeen. Then at the age of twenty I joined it again to complete my higher studies. I graduated, stripped of my certainty about wisdom and revolution. Nevertheless, those thoughts still beat in my heart. Maybe I am a kind of bee, because I have loved, and love, and will love more than one flower, but what a curse this is…

Poet’s site: http://www.jallawi.org/

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