Si hay un país árabe que lleva años sufriendo el dolor y los
traumas de la guerra, ese es Iraq. La sinrazón de tres décadas de conflictos
armados, bloqueos, invasiones y destrucción ha dejado su huella en la
literatura de un país que fue la cuna de la civilización mundial. Ya que
estamos repasando la lista de novelas que optarán al Premio Internacional de
Narrativa Árabe 2013, vamos a fijarnos hoy en los dos autores iraquíes que
figuran en la lista: Sinan Antoon y Muhsin Al-Ramli.
Al repasar las biografías de los dos autores, sorprende
descubrir que comparten varios puntos en común. Ambos son de la misma quinta
(nacidos en 1967) y forman parte de la diáspora iraquí (Sinan Antoon reside en
Nueva York desde los años noventa, mientras que Muhsin Al-Ramli lleva años
afincado entre nosotros, en Madrid). Ambos combinan el cultivo de la narrativa
con el de la poesía. Y, por si fuera poco, los dos son reconocidos traductores.
Antoon ha traducido al inglés a grandes poetas como Mahmoud Darwish y Saadi
Youssef, mientras que Al-Ramli ha vertido al árabe a clásicos españoles como
Cervantes o Lope de Vega.
Los dos autores optan a la sexta edición del IPAF con dos
novelas que reflejan el drama y el caos de la existencia cotidiana en Iraq.
Sinan Antoon presenta Ave María( يا مريم ), publicada por Al-Jamal,
editorial germano-libanesa con sede en Beirut. La novela transcurre durante un
solo día y muestra dos visiones opuestas de la vida, encarnadas por dos
miembros de una familiairaquí cristiana
a los que la situación del país termina reuniendo en Bagdad bajo un mismo
techo. Youssef es un anciano solitario que se niega a emirar y abandonar la
casa que levantó y en la que lleva viviendo medio siglo. Se aferra a la
esperanza y a los recuerdos de un pasado feliz. Maha es una joven cuya vida se
ve desgarrada por la violencia sectaria. Su familia ha perdido su hogar y se ha
convertido en refugiada en su propio país, buscando asilo en la casa de
Youssef. Junto a su marido, espera la posibilidad de emigrar y abandonar un
país que siente que no la quiere. La esperanza se choca con el destino cuando
sucede un evento que cambiará la vida de los dos personajes para siempre. La
novela plantea cuestiones difíciles y ásperas sobre la situación de las
minorías en Iraq.
Por su parte, Muhsin Al-Ramli ha sido seleccionado por Los
jardines del presidente ( حدائق الرئيس ), publicada conjuntamente por las editoriales Thaqafa en Abu
Dhabi y al-Arabiya lil-Ulum Nashirun en Beirut. La obra repasa los últimos
cincuenta años de la historia de Iraq a través del relato de la vida de tres
amigos. El autor explora el efecto que tuvieron las guerras, el bloqueo o la
invasión de Kuwait en la existencia de personas corrientes. Al-Ramli analiza
también la separación existente entre quienes ostentan el poder y los
ciudadanos de a pie. Durante el caos de la ocupación, uno de los personajes
pierde la vida, al igual que muchos iraquíes que se vieron atrapados entre el
fuego cruzado de los leales al antiguo régimen de Sadam y los partidarios del
nuevo orden. La novela ayuda al lector a comprender las complejidades de las
sucesivas tragedias que han asolado Iraq. Se trata de una historia desgarradora
pero narrada con humanidad, en la que la vida termina venciendo a pesar de
todos los obstáculos. En la revista electrónica ILA encontramos una
reseña de la novela en castellano.
*When did you begin
writing The President's Gardens and where did the inspiration for it come from?
- I began writing
it in 2006 after receiving the news of the murder of nine of my relatives, who
were fasting on the third day of Ramadan. The people of the village found only
their heads in boxes of bananas, with their identity cards. So I dedicated the
novel to their souls. That was a huge shock to me. It horrified me and made me
weep and to start with, writing the novel was a reaction [to this event]
undertaken without planning or a clear vision. So I put it aside in the hope of
achieving an old ambition, that of writing a novel encompassing what ordinary
people have suffered through the violent tragedies of Iraq in its modern
history, a novel like The Bridge on the Drina by the Yugoslav novelist
Ivo Andric, which relates the history of his country over generations and in
which the bridge is the focal point unifying the different events and periods
of the book. Another motivation for writing is that when I have taken part in
cultural activities and events in many countries, I have seen the difficulty
people have in understanding the complexity of the Iraqi situation and I have
felt extremely sad and angry when the world press reports Iraqi victims as though
they were merely numbers, so I went and gathered information systematically. I
travelled to Syria to meet my brother and his son there to ask them for more
details. I did not go back and begin writing again until the end of 2008, after
reading an old, short piece of news about someone who used to work burying
anonymous executed people in Iraq and who secretly kept something belonging to
them, whether it was a card, bill, watch or ring. He would record some of their
personal characteristics and information about where they were buried. After
the fall of the regime, he helped many families to find the remains of corpses
of their lost ones.
*Did the novel take long to write and where
were you when you completed it?
- Yes, about four
years, but that was not continuous writing. I would write and then stop to
write other things, then return to the novel, search for more information and
go back to it, asking advice from friends, and so on. It was written in four
places: I began in Madrid and carried on in Granada and Iraq where I went for a
short time and did more research. I finished the first draft in Asturias in
northern Spain. After that, I did various revisions in Madrid, so it was begun
and finished there, where I live.
*How have readers
and critics received the novel?
- The novel has
been received far better than I expected. The critical views expressed
reassured me that it was technically solid. Readers' views, which are the most
important, made me feel that this novel had conveyed the message I intended. I
received calls and letters from readers who follow my writings, who said that
'this is the novel we have been waiting for you to write'. Others said: 'We now
understand what was going on in Iraq and the reasons for what is happening
now'. Some confessed that their view had completely changed, after they had
previously been sympathetic towards the ousted dictator of Iraq and supported
him against his enemies. Some on social networks wrote about their hope that
rulers and ruled would read it so that the whirlpool of violence in this Arab
world of ours would become calmer, after we experience something of humanity.
Amongst other calls, there was someone from Iraq thanking me because I had
managed to express their pain.
*Do you have a
literary project planned for the future?
- To write a new
novel, of course. I have started preparing for it now. I would like it to be
about love this time and to be different in language, style and technique from
The President's Gardens, since the subject is different, although Iraqi pain
will also be present in some form. But I want it to be a deep exploration of
love and beauty within this destruction.
-----------------------------------
*Published in (The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF)),
2 January 2013.
Novel: The President's Gardens: Set during the last
fifty years of Iraqi history, this novel tells the story of three friends,
exploring how ordinary people have been affected by historic events such as
wars, the blockade of Iraq and the invasion of Kuwait. It examines the gap
between the lifestyle of those in power and ordinary citizens. During the chaos
of occupation, one of them loses his life, like so many caught between
loyalists of the old and new regimes. The President's Gardens helps the reader
understand the complexities of the successive tragedies besetting the ‘land
between two rivers’. The gripping story is told with humanity, and life is
somehow the victor despite all the obstacles.
Author: Muhsin Al-Ramli, is an Iraqi academic and
translator, born in the village of Sudera in northern Iraq in 1967. He has
lived in Madrid since 1995 and received his doctorate in literature and
philosophy there from Madrid University. He writes in both Arabic and Spanish
and published his first work in 1983. Over the years he has worked as a writer,
correspondent and cultural editor and has translated a number of Spanish
literary works into Arabic (including Cervantes), as well as translating Arabic
works into Spanish. He is the founder, publisher and co-publisher of the
cultural review Alwah (the only Arabic cultural magazine in Spain) and
currently works at Saint Louis University, the American university in Madrid.
About authors’
Favorites of 2012: Fiction, and finally, acclaimed Arab writers’ favorite
novels of 2012. Some can be found on the “Arabic Booker” longlist.
AboutMuhsin Al-Ramli
*Ali Bader,( Iraqi novelist) :
“I have recently
finished reading three ambitious Iraqi novels, The President’s Gardens (2012)
by Muhsin Al-Ramli.
The President’s
Gardens is a novel about three friends living in northern Iraqi village.
Al-Ramli’s novel has strong political themes drawn from Iraqi social history,
and gives a hard critical examination of the power held by the Saddam Hussein
regime, and after, during the epoch of American occupation: the civil strife,
unlawful killing, torture and ill treatment, kidnapping and hostages. It sheds
some specific reflection, albeit in fictional guise, on the nature of the authoritism,
and also analyzes the economics, politics, and rule of the régime as a history
book might.”
*Hassan Blasim, (Iraqi short-story writer) :
“I would choose the
novel by Muhsin Al-Ramli Fingers of Dates (2008).This novel is free from
the exaggerated poetic language sometimes found in Arab narratives. And it’s an
Iraqi novel that doesn’t use the language of melancholy and melodrama, as
happens in Iraqi novels. It’s a clever novel — it explores with a sense of fun
the depths of tragicomedy in Iraq during the dictatorship.”
*Ahmad Yamani, (Egyptian poet) :
“Al-Ramli now (with The President’s Gardens) returns with this
new novel on war and dictatorship in Iraq. In spite of the brutality, in
certain scenes, and the naked language, this novel presents Iraq’s pain in beautiful
art.”
Muhsin Al-Ramli is one of two Iraqis on this year’s
International Prize for Arabic Fiction longlist. Many of you will already know
his work, but: Al-Ramli was born in 1967 in northern Iraq, into a family of
nine children.
He initially dreamed of becoming an actor, but his
conservative father forbade it. So instead, Al-Ramli chose journalism. A friend
told him that journalism required a second language. And — in part because he
couldn’t bear English and in part to read authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez
andMario Vargas Llosa in the
original–he chose Spanish.
Al-Ramli’s
brother, Hassan Mutlak, was also a prominent writer. But Mutlak was
assassinated while still a young man, in 1990. Al-Ramli said in an Al Jazeera
profile: “I have always been influenced by him, I am a student of Hassan Mutlak
and I feel that I owe him everything I know, for when the Iraqi regime decided
to take away his life, they deprived the world of a great voice, and I feel its
my responsibility to bring out this voice again.”
Al-Ramli moved
to Spain in 1995, where he did his PhD and continues to make his home. As well
as being a novelist, he is also a translator, and has brought Don Quixote,
among other texts, from Spanish into Arabic.
Al-Ramli has written three novels, in addition to
writing poetry and short stories. His first novel, Scattered Crumbs
(2000), was translated into English by Yasmeen al-Hanoosh, and won the Arkansas
Translation Award. (Read an excerpt on Al-Ramli’s blog.) His second novel, Fingers
of Dates (2008) met with wide acclaim and was longlisted for the 2009
International Prize for Arabic Fiction. It was also released in Spanish as Dedos
de Datiles.
Author with the Spanish edition, Dedos de Datiles
About Al-Ramli’s
Fingers of Dates, fellow Iraqi writer Hassan Blasim said: “This novel is free
from the exaggerated poetic language sometimes found in Arab narratives. And
it’s an Iraqi novel that doesn’t use the language of melancholy and melodrama,
as happens in Iraqi novels. It’s a clever novel — it explores with a sense of
fun the depths of tragicomedy in Iraq during the dictatorship.”
Al-Ramli’s third novel, The President’s Gardens
(2012), was again longlisted for the 2013 IPAF. It also traces the impact of
Iraqi history — war, embargo, dictatorship, occupation — on the lives of
ordinary people.
Iraqi novelist
Ali Badr, who chose the book as one of his favorites of 2012, said that The
President’s Gardens “has strong political themes drawn from Iraqi social
history, and gives a hard critical examination of the power held by the Saddam
Hussein, and after, the epoch of American occupation: the civil strife,
unlawful killing, torture and ill-treatment, kidnapping and hostages…and sheds
some specific reflection, albeit in fictional guise, on the nature of the
authoritarianism. It also analyzes the economics, politics, and rule of the
régime as a history book might.”
In the
Al-Jazeera profile, Al-Ramli also spoke about the importance of translation:
With respect to
the translations I have written, apart from my books, I would not be
exaggerating if I said that I have translated hundreds, if not thousands of
other short texts, and all of them were of the literary genre. Translation from
one language to another for me is a second mission. I find it necessary, and at
times I also find myself obliged to translate, because although my main mission
and dream is to dedicate myself exclusively to creative writing and literature,
I understand that part of my duty is to translate from Spanish to Arabic and vice
versa because I am fluent in both, and I find it important for me to complete
this service between the two languages and the two cultures.
Note: I had
heard late last year that Fingers of Dates was being translated into English,
although I’m not sure I was ever told who was doing it or for which publisher.
Part 1 of a
2009 profile of Al-Ramli that ran on Al-Jazeera:
Selections of Al-Ramli’s poetry in English, trans. Samantha
Lewis:
Acaba de salir a la luz una nueva novela
del escritor iraquí que vive en Madrid, Muhsin Al-Ramli, ha sido publicada, en
árabe, por la editorial Dar Thaqafa en Abu Dhabi en colaboración con The Arab
Scientific Publishers en Beirut.
La novela intitulada Los jardines del presidente
es una narración intrahistórica llena de acontecimientos, fechas, temas y
personajes de los cuales sobresalen Abdullah Kafka, Tarek el asombrado e
Ibrahim Suerte. Los tres nacieron en meses consecutivos, y se convirtieron en
inseparables amigos desde sus primerísimos pasos y jugueteos, desnudos en la
arena, al lado de las madres reunidas en torno a los hornos, o sentadas delante
de las puertas de sus casas por las tardes-noches intercambiando chismes y
noticias que ellas llaman ‘saberes o ciencias’. Juntos contagiaron el sarampión
y juntos se curaron del mismo, juntos aprendieron a caminar, nadar, cazar
pájaros, criar palomas, robar sandías y granadas, a jugar al tiro, al escondite
y al fútbol.
La novela relata sus vidas y, a través de
ellas, gran parte de la historia de Irak en el último medio siglo y el impacto
de sus peripecias en la vida de la gente sencilla: las batallas, el embargo, la
dictadura, las fosas comunes, el caos de una ocupación en la que la culpa de la
muerte sangrienta de Ibrahim, símbolo del derrame de la sangre iraquí, se
dispersa entre los secuaces del régimen anterior y los seguidores del régimen
sucesor.
Se trata de una novela que permite al lector
la comprensión de la complejidad de la historia iraquí y sus sucesivos dramas a
través de una interesante narración dividida en 28 capítulos de cuyos títulos
destacamos: ‘Hijos de la grieta de la tierra’, ‘Viaje con un solo pie’, ‘Kafka vuelve
de su cautiverio’, ‘La espina del mar’, ‘El secreto de un escándalo no revelado’,
‘Infancia en una caja militar’, ‘El presidente asesina al músico’, ‘Cadáveres y
cuadernos’, ‘La boda de Nesma’, ‘Los devoradores de rosas’, ‘Encuentros entre
vivos y muertos’ y ‘Un matrimonio repetido’.
Muhsin Al-Ramli, tras el éxito de sus dos
novelas Añicos esparcidos y Dedos de dátiles y su consiguiente publicación
en inglés y español, había anunciado a sus lectores la próxima aparición de esta
obra en entrevistas de prensa y programas televisivos, donde reiteraba su
rechazo a considerar a las víctimas como meros números como lo suele hacer la
prensa, se trata más bien de personas con historias, familias, sueños y
detalles. Cada ser humano es un mundo en si. Señalarlo es uno de los designios
de la literatura.
-------------------------------------------
*Publicado por la revista (Ila-magazine) en 20 septiembre 2012, Holanda.
La Aljafería en la cultura árabe, pasado y
presente
porDr. Muhsin
Al-Ramli
Se celebró el jueves
13 de junio 2012 a las 19 horas
en el Centro Cívico
Universidad
C / Violante de
Ungría, 4
Zaragoza
--------------------------------
La AHADC realizó el
13 y 14 de junio una visita a Zaragoza con el objetivo de asistir a la
conferencia ‘La Aljafería en la cultura árabe, pasado y presente’, a cargo del
Doctor Muhsin Al-Ramli. Durante la charla se insistió en la necesidad de darle
visibilidad a la Aljafería como símbolo de la conciliación de las dos culturas.
Al-Ramli propuso ideas para fomentar el turismo teniendo como eje la Aljafería
certamen literario con carácter honorífico, por ejemplo
La AHADC recorrió el
Museo Diocesano, las catedrales del Pilar y La Seo, y el Palacio de la
Aljafería.
