Nizar Qabbani

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Nizar Tawfik Qabbani

Nizar Qabbani
Born 21 March 1923
Damascus, Syria
Died 30 April 1998
London, England
Occupation diplomat, poet, writer, publisher
Nationality Syrian
Official website

Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani (Arabic: نزار توفيق قباني‎, transliteration: Nizār Tawfīq Qabbānī) (21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) was a Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, and Arab nationalism. He is one of the most revered contemporary poets in the Arab world.[1]

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[edit] Early life

Nizar Qabbani was born in the Syrian capital of Damascus to a middle class merchant family.[1] Qabbani was raised in Mi'thnah Al-Shahm, one of the neighborhoods of Old Damascus. Qabbani studied at the national Scientific College School in Damascus between 1930 and 1941.[2] The school was owned and run by his father's friend, Ahmad Munif al-Aidi. He later studied law at the Damascus University, which was called Syrian University until 1958. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in law in 1945.[2]

While a student in college he wrote his first collection of poems entitled The Brunette Told Me. It was a collection of romantic verses that made several startling references to a woman's body, sending shock waves throughout the conservative society in Damascus.[2] To make it more acceptable, Nizar showed it to Munir al-Ajlani, the minister of education who was also a friend of his father and a leading nationalist leader in Syria. Ajlani liked the poems and endorsed them by writing the preface for Nizar's first book.

[edit] Diplomatic career

After graduating from law school, Nizar worked for the Syrian Foreign Ministry, serving as consult or cultural attaché in several capital cities, including Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Madrid, and London. In 1959, when the United Arab Republic was formed, Qabbani was appointed Vice-Secretary of the UAR for its embassies in China. He wrote extensively during these years and his poems from China were some of his finest. He continued to work in the diplomatic field until he tendered his resignation in 1966. By that time, he had established a publishing house in Beirut, which carried his name.

[edit] Poetic influences

When Qabbani was 15, his sister, who was 25 at the time, committed suicide because she could not marry the man she loved. [3] During her funeral he decided to fight the social conditions he saw as causing her death. When asked whether he was a revolutionary, the poet answered: “Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set (it) free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.” He is known as one of the most feminist and progressive intellectuals of his time.[3]

The city of Damascus remained a powerful muse in his poetry, most notably in the Jasmine Scent of Damascus.[3] The 1967 Arab defeat also influenced his poetry and his lament for the Arab cause.[3][4] The defeat marked a qualitative shift in Qabbani's work - from erotic love poems to poems with overt political themes of rejectionism and resistance.[3] For instance, his poem Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat, a stinging self-criticism of Arab inferiority, drew anger from both the right and left sides of the Arab political dialogue.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Family

Nizar with his family, his parents and brothers
Nizar with his family, his parents and brothers

Nizar Qabbani had one sister, Haifa; he also had three brothers: Mu'taz, Rashid, and Sabah. The latter, Sabah Qabbani, was the most famous after Nizar, becoming director of Syrian radio and TV in 1960 and Syria's ambassador to the United States in the 1980s.

Nizar Qabbani's father, Tawfiq Qabbani, was Syrian while his mother was of Turkish descent. His father had a chocolate factory; he also helped support fighters resisting the French mandate of Syria and was imprisoned many times for his views, greatly affecting the upbringing of Nizar into a revolutionary in his own right. Nizar's great uncle, Abu Khalil Qabbani, was one of the leading innovators in Arab dramatic literature.

[edit] Marriages

Nizar Qabbani was married twice in his life. His first wife was his cousin Zahra; together they had a daughter, Hadba, and a son, Tawfiq. Tawfiq died due to a heart attack when he was 17 years old when he was a medical student in Cairo. Qabbani eulogized his son in the famous poem To the Legendary Damascene, Prince Tawfiq Qabbani. His daughter Hadba is divorced and is currently living in London.

His second marriage was to an Iraqi woman named Balqis al-Rawi; she was killed in a bomb attack by guerrillas on the Iraqi embassy in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war on 15 December 1982.[3][2] Her death had a severe psychological effect on Qabbani; he expressed his grief in his famous poem Balqis, blaming the entire Arab world for her death. Together they had a son, Omar, and a daughter, Zainab. After the death of Balqis, Qabbani did not marry again.

[edit] Late life and death

After the death of Balqis, Qabbani left Beirut. He was moving between Geneve and Paris, eventually settling in London, where he spent the last 15 years of his life.[3] Qabbani continued to write poems and raise controversies and arguments. Notable controversial poems from this period in his life include When Will They Announce the Death of Arabs? and Runners.

In 1997, Nizar Qabbani suffered from poor health and briefly recovered from his sickness in late 1997.[5] A few months later, at the age of 75, Nizar Qabbani died in London on April 30, 1998 of a heart attack.[1][4] In his will, which he wrote in his hospital bed in London, Nizar Qabbani wrote that he wished to be buried in Damascus, which he described in his will as the "the womb that taught me poetry, taught me creativity and granted me the alphabet of Jasmine."[6] Nizar Qabbani was buried in Damascus four days later in Bab al-Saghir.[6] Qabbani was mourned by Arabs all over the world, with news broadcasts highlighting his illustrious literary career.[6]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Poetry

Qabbani began writing poetry when he was 16 years old; at his own expense, Qabbani published his first book of poems, entitled The Brunette Told Me (قالت لي السمراء), while he was a law student at the University of Syria in 1944.

Over the course of a half-century, Qabbani wrote 34 other books of poetry, including:

  • Childhood of a Breast (1948 )
  • Samba (1949)
  • You Are Mine (1950)
  • Poems (1956)
  • My Beloved (1961)
  • Drawing with Words (1966)
  • Diary of an Indifferent Woman (1968)
  • Savage Poems (1970)
  • Book of Love (1970)
  • 100 Love Letters (1970)
  • Poems Against The Law (1972)
  • I Love You, and the Rest is to Come (1978)
  • To Beirut the Feminine, With My Love (1978)
  • May You Be My Love For Another Year (1978)
  • I Testify That There Is No Woman But You (1979)
  • I Write the History of Woman Like So (1981)
  • The Lover's Dictionary (1981)
  • A Poem For Balqis (1982)
  • Love Does Not Stop at Red Lights (1985)
  • Insane Poems (1985)
  • Poems Inciting Anger (1986)
  • Love shall Remain, Sir (1987)
  • Three Stone-throwing Children (1988)
  • Secret Papers of a Karmathian Lover (1988)
  • Biography of an Arab Executioner (1988)
  • A Match in My Hand (1989)
  • Petty Paper Nations (1989)
  • No Victor Other Than Love (1989)
  • Do You Hear the Cry of My Sadness? (1991)
  • Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat (1991)

[edit] Other works

He also composed many works of prose, such as My Story with Poetry, What Poetry Is, and Words Know Anger, On Poetry, Sex, and Revolution, and The Woman in My Poetry and My Life, as well as lyrics of many famous songs of celebrated Arab singers, among them Abdel Halim Hafez, Fairuz, Asalah, Kazem al-Saher and Latifa.[6]

Many of Qabbani's poems have also been translated into the English language, both individually and in collections of selected works.[2] Some of these collections include:

  • On Entering the Sea (1998)
  • Arabian Love Poems (1998) translated by Bassam Frangieh and Clementina R. Brown
  • Republic of Love (2002) translated by Nayef al-Kalali

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Qabbani, Nizar. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  2. ^ a b c d e Biographical notes on Nizar Qabbani. American University of Beirut. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nizar Qabbani. PoemHunter.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  4. ^ a b Nizar Qabbani, Major Arab Literary Figure, Dies. CNN.com (1998-04-30). Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  5. ^ Qabbani Recovered from Sickness, Gratitude Message to Syrians. Arabic News (1997-12-15). Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
  6. ^ a b c d Nizar Qabbani: Pioneer of Modern Arab Poetry. Arabic News (1998-05-04). Retrieved on 2007-06-23.

[edit] External links