{"id":9615,"date":"2011-07-24T15:46:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-24T11:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=9615"},"modified":"2011-07-24T17:48:10","modified_gmt":"2011-07-24T13:48:10","slug":"lets-hear-it-for-the-poet-with-the-weird-accent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/lets-hear-it-for-the-poet-with-the-weird-accent\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Hear It for the Poet with the Weird Accent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As I\u2019m sure many of you have already heard, Egypt\u2019s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces<\/a> (SCAF)\u2014which has found itself spinning the wheel of the nation since February\u2013-now has literary opinions, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I probably missed the communique where they listed the attributes of their favorite poets. But it came through loud and clear that General Hassan al-Roweiny doesn\u2019t like poets with \u201ca weird accent and non-Egyptian features,\u201d especially poets who might be (mon Dieu!) part Palestinian. Far be it for anyone with Palestinian ancestry to lecture Egypt on national security, because<\/a>:<\/p>\n

With its population of 86 million, Egypt isn\u2019t waiting for a Palestinian to develop state policies. It\u2019s Egypt that has been working on the reconciliation between Palestinian factions. (Trans. <\/em>Al Masry Al Youm<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Never mind that this particular poet, Tamim al-Barghouti, has a PhD in political science and has published a book on political theory.<\/p>\n

And never mind that Tamim al-Barghouti is the era\u2019s crown Prince of Poets. Although he did not officially win the \u201cPrince of Poets\u201d contest (commentary on why that might have been<\/a>), he is in any case a powerful poet and the son of an acclaimed literary duo: Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour<\/a> and Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The three of them don\u2019t just form the most talented Arabic-writing literary family around: They are thoughtful social and political commentators, too.<\/p>\n

For a glimpse at their sensitive, incisive commentary\u2014which can be read aloud! with a weird accent!\u2014I suggest you pick up Radwa Ashour\u2019s novel Specters<\/em> and Mourid Barghouti\u2019s memoir I Saw Ramallah<\/em> this summer, and then Barghouti\u2019s I Was Born Here, I Was Born There<\/em> (trans. Humphrey Davies) when it comes out in English this fall.<\/p>\n

No need to mention that Egypt needs insightful, talented, weird-accented people now more than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. LYNX-QUALEY: Son of an acclaimed literary family, Tamim al-Barghouti’s ‘weird accent and non-Egyptian features’ seem to be a problem for some in Egypt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":9616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,154,124,80,235,482,5],"tags":[3130,1981,18300,7945,6284,18291,4706,1959,5262,2160,5244],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}