"'Whenever I say it's time I went the songs I thought would never return, arrive.' That's one of my favorite lines in the whole book, actually," said Fady Joudah, smiling slightly to himself.
On Thursday, which was, fittingly, National Poetry Day, a small group of Brandeis students and faculty assembled in the Mandel Center for the Humanities' reading room for the privilege of hearing the poetry of Ghassan Zaqtan, a prominent Palestinian poet. His poetry, originally written in Arabic, was translated to English and recited at the event by Fady Joudah.
The reading, the School of Night's first event of the semester, was sponsored by the Creative Writing department, the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence department and the International Poets In Conversation, part of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute's consortium tour.
Zaqtan is an accomplished poet currently living in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank. He recently released his 10th collection of poetry in April 2012-as part of the Yale University Press' Cecile and Theodore Margellos World Republic of Letters series. In 1998 he became cofounder and director of Ramallah's House of Poetry.
Outside the poetry sphere, Zaqtan has worked as the editor of various literary magazines and has authored a number of novels, but his main passion is poetry. "Internally, writing has different domains," said Zaqtan. "For me, my domain is poetry."
Fady Joudah is an award-winning translator and a poet in his own right. His English translation of Mahmoud Darwish's Arabic poem "If I Were Another," won him the PEN USA literary award for translation. He also won the Yale Younger Poets prize in 2007 for his collection of original work entitled The Earth in the Attic.
Joudah, a child of Palestinian refugees, reflected on how his parentage influenced his literary tastes. When asked by an audience member why he chose to translate Zaqtan's poetry, he said, "I have a not-so-secret desire, out of my bias, a deep-set belief in Palestinian poetry. I am always searching for folks who have offered something to Palestinian literature and narrative literature in the same breath."
The poems read at the event were from Zaqtan's most recent collection of poetry, Like a Straw Bird it Follows Me. Joudah and Zaqtan took turns reading: Joudah read his English translation and provided a brief explanation about the piece when he thought it necessary, followed by a reading of the poetry in its original tongue from Zaqtan.
Both men had an understated but commanding stage presence, particularly Zaqtan who conversed very little with the audience directly throughout the reading because of the language barrier. "We are both very mellow," Joudah said, and then he emphasized, "well, he is very mellow."
The two men appeared completely at ease around each other, an impression that was solidified when a small bit of their personal dynamic was shared. "I would call him up and maybe ask him a question of a word and spend an hour and a half talking about everything else other than his poems," said Joudah.
The most poignant moment of the reading came after Joudah read the poem "Like a Dream at Noon." The last lines, "And he didn't think, not for a moment, to open the window where, without waiting, where without waiting, like a dream at noon, the astonished flowers where above the apple trees" were met with audible gasps from multiple members of the audience.
But the resonance of the poetry at times seemed to transcend the words. Nikk Wasserman '15 noted the benefit of having both the English translation and the Arabic read at the event.
"I think what struck me even more than the words was how resonant their voices were, particularly the Arabic speaker. The timbre of his voice was actually so low that I don't think it can be reached in English. I found that absolutely fascinating."
Following the reading, there was a short question-and-answer session, in which Joudah touched upon, among other things, the intricacies of translating Zaqtan's poems into English.
In regard to how he retains the music of the poetry, Joudah described it as having an "echo petrified in my mind [and from there] decided that this is syntax in English that would come closest to that breath."
Despite the careful attempts to translate as precisely as possible, the frustration that some members of the audience felt at the inevitable loss of certain subtleties across the language divide was noted by Jessica Huang '15. "There was a different meaning hearing it in Arabic. I really wish I understood Arabic so I could fully understand his original work."
Their U.S. visit was delayed due to political complications with Zaqtan's visa, forcing Joudah to do book launch events by himself while the author's passport issues were being handled. These complications made the anticipation to hear his poetry that much more exciting.