Hadi Rasool.. a poet whose writings are not devoid of deep gestures and remarkable critical writings. Poetry is defined as a distant and unseen answer, and he differs with poets in that talent alone is not sufficient unless the poet reads and is educated, because the educated poet creates his own vision away from the eyes of the crowds. .
Hadi Rasool is considering writing an article entitled “A Critic for Sale,” similar to an article he had previously titled “A Poet for Sale,” due to what he notes of crises in the Arab scene.
You will find many things we discussed with the Saudi poet Hadi Rasool in this dialogue:
• Let us start with you from poetry, what is your definition of it?
•• I will use a tweet I wrote years ago, which represents my answer to this question:
Poetry.. what is poetry?
It is the most difficult question, the question open to the possibilities of interpretation, the far and distant answer that is not seen, the condensed material for the cravings of expression that the language does not reach.
All educational definitions of poetry are naive in front of a text that opens up to man with the fires of formation, the sound of eternity, and the radiance of eternity.
Poetry is more comprehensive than being a linguistic and written activity, and as Martin Heidegger says, "Every creativity that contains the truth of existence is poetry in its essence."
• Are the educated poets different from other people?
•• This is a mined question.. This is how it seems to me.
Depending on our understanding of culture, the answer will vary, narrow or widen.
I said earlier: The intellectual in the midst of the crowd loses his identity.
Of course, I do not mean to be superior to the masses, but the collective mind robs the ability of diagnosing opinion and situation, and the individual is led from where he does not feel the loudest voice, even if it is contrary to his conviction.
Therefore, in the midst of the crowds, I believe that the intellectual should give up the role of the masses, and cling to the role of observer and scrutinizer of opinions and voices.
Returning to the question about the educated poets, poetry is a talent and its development is a culture, and one of the most important means of developing this culture is reading, reading and reading… until the breath runs out.
The educated poet is able to create his own vision, and is able to theorize and express a deep and visionary critical opinion, which is what Khazal Al-Majidi expresses in his book The Poetic Mind. The deep valleys from which his poems emerge, and perhaps I know their mental and intellectual directions.
• poetic modernism, how do you view it?
•• Poetic modernity, as I understand it briefly: is the poet's awareness of his time.
Poetic awareness of language, its development and growth in its expressive form and suggestive energy.
This awareness varies between every poet and another, so poets will be distinguished in their modernity, and they will also be distinguished even in their classicism.
Poetic modernism, I think, is not a poetic form. Poetic modernity is an awareness of the language and its capabilities, and the ability of the poet to detonate these possibilities in a special, developed, developing and different vision capable of crossing the walls of time and transcending its stages.
• How do you see criticism? •• I wrote an article a few years ago entitled "A Poet for Sale", and now the idea of an article under the title "A Critic for Sale" constantly appears to me.
Criticism is a necessary condition that must be associated with any human activity, as well as literary and cultural activities.
However, just as poetry is experiencing its crises, criticism is also experiencing its crises.
Criticism in our societies is not devoid of moods, whims and ideologies.
As for why the idea of the article “A Critic for Sale” appears to me, it is because of what I observe of the crises in our Arab literary scene, and not just the local one.
Just as poetry lives in the state of consumerism, criticism lives in this state, theorizes it, and glorifies it as well.
The consumer critic lives on this scene and stands out in it remarkably.
Rather, it leads to the drift of some of those interested in critical writing into writing critical studies of literary achievements on demand in return for money, and perhaps among these achievements is what is in the process of formation and maturity that does not amount to being devoted to a comprehensive study, except that it is a threshold in which the writer presents his talent, hoping that he is able to create a mature experience. In the future, she deserves to be written about later with a critical awareness that matches her poetic and literary awareness.
Criticism in our scene falls under the power of consumption, and is subject to paralysis, geographical influence, small affiliations, and influential institutions.
• What about your critical interests? •• I dedicate a part of my literary reading to criticism, as my library includes many Arab critical achievements of many important names in contemporary criticism, such as Ali Jaafar Al-Alaq, Abd al-Salam al-Masdi, Fawzi Karim, Salah Fadl, in addition to Adonis studies and authors Theorization of Qasim Haddad, and other critical works of many Arab names.
I do not hide my knowledge of Western critical theories that mixed poetry and philosophy, such as the theories of Gaston Bachelard and Martin Heidegger, and what was written about them and their vision of poetry and language.
In addition to some translations by Roland Barthes, Max Picard, Terry Eagleton and others.
• You think that poetry competitions stripped the poet of his authority and his rebellion.. Why? •• I wrote this opinion on my Facebook and Twitter pages, and I appreciated the intervention of our poet friend, Professor Shafiq Al-Abadi, as he refers to the poet's freedom instead of expressing the poet's authority.
I wrote about the competitions in more than one Facebook post and tweet on Twitter, and these posts often formed a debate, some positive and some negative, as a result of negative reception and misunderstanding.
I would like to clarify that I am not against competitions as a kind of cultural movement, and I participated in some of them and won their prizes, but I am against the ideologicalization of competitions and imposing their vision and conditions on the poet, and against the poet mortgaging his experience to the competitions in order to embroider his biography or the pursuit of a media aura by winning the competitions, which creates A false awareness among the new generations that the award is the achievement and the literary ambition without a deep work on the experience.
Yes, the poet is free, and poetry is the freedom of language, and as soon as competitions present their conditions, they place restrictions on that freedom.
Many mature poets drifted towards competitions to the extent that they humiliated their ardent experience, and started writing according to conditions and criteria, until they became inquisitive about those encouragement competitions that they were supposed to have surpassed in stages.
In fact, I do not understand this relentless pursuit of competitions that will not add to the poet and will not develop his experience.
This opinion created many sensitivities for me, but I discuss them respectfully and understand them, and I do not hesitate to express my opinion as long as I present this opinion as a review of the phenomena in literary events and not to the institutions sponsoring the competitions as institutions, nor to the people to whom I have a personal and human level of deep affection and respect, and they bring me together. Strong and intimate friendships.
• As a poet, do you plan to write your poem? •• Planning in the sense of setting parameters for the text and begging for momentary writing.. Absolutely not.
Rather, it is planning to create a special, developed poetic vision through extensive reading and access to various poetic, critical, and intellectual experiences.
• The poetic movement, when is it a diseased movement and preoccupied with repeated and abrogated? •• The poetic movement is not an active movement and it is seen only through the eyes of its group or its geographical or tribal affiliation.
Unfortunately, we are living in the moment of the institutionalization of the group. The group, after lacking an official license, has become licensed institutions and platforms. That is why the names, activities, and events are repeated.
Literary activities have become devoid of method and vision. Festivals are held for the sake of festivals without awareness of the stage and without considering the impact resulting from it. Unfortunately, there are no real reviews of the role and impact of these activities, and when some voices dare to provide reviews about these activities and events, their goals and intentions are questioned. Even the few critical reviews of these phenomena are not intended to be effective, because they are scandalous and refer to the pitfalls of these activities honestly and transparently. .
• Writing poetry, does it have conditions? •• Poetry is above conditions.. Every poetic writing that depends on conditions is deficient and helpless writing.
Poetry has spaces, not conditions.
The space of language, the space of imagination, and the space of the intellectual position of the poet, which we call a poetic vision or a poetic experience.
• The poet after his death, what is left for him? •• His time remains for him.. that time through which he can transcend the walls of successive times.
I count on time, as it is the sieve of experiences, which he will transfer at a later time to a conscious recipient who probes the depths of the experience, fuses with it, and reproduces it in endless readings and approaches.
• Creative anxiety, is it a writing condition or an existential vision? •• Both together.. It is a writing condition imposed by the moment of writing and its rugged and thorny paths.
It is an existential vision, and a permanent insight into existence.. It may have entrances, but it has no exits.
It is an existential labyrinth par excellence, and I said in a previous interview, “Anxiety is the poet’s lung.”
• When does the poet mature? •• Maturity is successive stages, or successive leaps, not a single stage.
The first text that the poet writes is the first features to explore the road map that will enlarge and expand with the accompanying successive stations, and each station has its maturity.
Maturity does not stop, and congratulations to those who resist the pitfalls of the paths in which the stages and stations of maturity follow each other.
• How do you look at the ambiguity in poetry? •• What is poetry but that transparent ambiguity, the ambiguity that gives the recipient participation in the text with endless interpretations, not complete and final interpretations.
From the ambiguity of Abi Tammam in “Maa Al-Malam” to the ambiguity of Adonis, Qasim Haddad and others, the tension of the language rises, and poetry is given its eternal moment.
Qassem Haddad says, "Enter your ambiguity, do not clarify, and do not care."
• There are those who believe that our literary arena is very sensitive.. Are you with or against this vision?
A: Yes, she is very sensitive.. This is very normal and I personally understand it.
Sensitivity is part of the formation of writers in general and poets in particular, otherwise they would not be so sensitive.
But the fear is that this sensitivity will blind the eyes to the loopholes, and deafen the ears from the honest reviews of the activities and events they are based on.
Believing in our sensitivity is part of our humanity, and this requires accepting reviews that point to gaps and lapses, and evaluating opinions objectively, away from personal sensitivity.
• “A Call on the Edge of Eternity,” a book or a collection of poetry? •• It is a different adventure, and perhaps it is also a daring one.. An adventure in which I broke into the narrative and surrounded it with poetry.
An experience that I liked on a personal level, and the recipient has the right to an opinion about this experience.
• An unforgettable situation that is still stuck in your memory? •• There are many situations that time cannot erase.
However, the death of my father in April 2020 remains a double bitterness for me.
At the end of 2019, I was finishing my book “A Call on the Edge of Eternity,” which I wrote dedicated to my father, and I was preparing it as a surprise for him in particular. My father was a shadow moving through the book, and I was anxious to see the impact of this surprise on his eyes.
I agreed with Dar Madrak at the beginning of 2020, and the book was scheduled to be published in March 2020, coinciding with the book fair in Riyadh. Indeed, Dar Madrek completed the printing procedures in February, but soon the Corona virus invaded, and a curfew was imposed on the regions of the Kingdom, which were accompanied by paralysis in public life.
The book was published, but it did not reach me. Meanwhile, my father's health deteriorated due to complications from lung cancer, and he fell into a coma for three weeks, after which he passed away – may God have mercy on him – and he did not know about the book.
I do not know how to explain that eternal call that turned from a metaphorical state into a realistic one, in search of that caring spirit, that lush shadow, and that warm voice in “A Call on the Edge of Eternity.”
Interviewer: Ali Faye @alma3e