Tuesday 29 December 2015

كل شاى بخير ولا بخير.... أو رهيب جداً

 كل شاى بخير ولا بخير.... أو رهيب جداً

أحب القيادة على الطريق السريع لان لي زمن التفكير. ورائي المدينة أين يكون والداي وأمامي ولدان في بيتنا. أنا لم  أريد أن أتركهم مع ذلك ثانية.

إبن صديقتي وها في مستشفى منذ يوم عيد الميلاد. أنا أرسال معهم رسائل أن  يهتف لهم. 


Sunday 27 December 2015

بلاكوالس - ٤/٤

A
بلاكوالس

امس, يوم الاربعاء, اطلاق الكتاب الشعر الجديد في المكتبة بلاكوالس في اكسفورد. نشرته من قبل مجموعة في اكسفورد "حرية من التعذيب". وقابلت أصدقائي بعد القراءة وتكلمنا عن الصمت.  ان كلاير كراوثر يفعل الصمت كبير متى تقراء اشعارها. وصديقتي الممرضة المميتة, ثم سالتها ان قراءت شعرها من المجموعة لنا.     فقراءنا بالنبرة اللطيفة. وانه مرة اولة قراءته بصوت, ولانه هي تقريبا باكيا. وهذا الشعر عن الاكد الموت الرجل وحيدا ليلا في المستشفى.

B

بلاكوالس

أمس, يوم الأربعاء, كان إطلاق كتاب الشعر الجديد في مكتبة بلاكوالس في أكسفورد. نشرته من قبل مجموعة في أكسفورد "حرية من التعذيب". وقابلت أصدقائي بعد القراءة وتكلمنا عن الصمت. إن كلاير كراوثر تشعرك بالصمت الكبير متى تقراء أشعارها. وسألت صديقتي الممرضة أن تقراءت شعر مجموعتها. فقرأتها بنبرة لطيفة. وأنه مرة أولى قراءته بصوت عال, وكانت هي تقريباً تبكي. وهذا الشعر عن موت الرجل وحيدا  في المستشفى في إحدى الليالي.

C


أمس, يوم الأربعاء, كان إطلاق كتاب الشعر الجديد في مكتبة بلاكوالس في أكسفورد. نشرته مجموعة "حرية من التعذيب" في أكسفورد.

قالت أصدقائي بعد قراءة الشعر وتكلمنا عن موضوع الصمت, لأن شعر كلاير كراوثر يشعرك بالسكون والصمت في كلً مرًة تقرأه فيها. طلبت من صديقتي الممرضة أن تقرأ شعراً من مجموعتنا, فيقأته بنبرة لطفة وبصوت  عال رغم أنها تقراه للمرًة الأولى. لقد كانت تبكي وهي تقراه.  ذلك الشعر كان عن موت رجل وحيداً في أحد ليالي عملها في مستشفى.

Saturday 26 December 2015

النص ٣/٤ - شقتي الجديدة

A

شقتي جديدة

على الشقة الرجال العمال مشغولون نهارا, ثم كل شايء هادئ ليلا.    هناك القمر والمطر والحيوانات الصغيرة فقط. مواد بناء على الارضية الشقة, وانا سعيدة عن ذلك. 

B

شقتي الجديدة

في الشقة العمال الرجال مشغولون نهاراً. ثم كل شائ هادئ ليلاً. هناك القمر والمطر والحيوانات الصغيرة فقط. مواد بناء على الارضية الشقة, وأنا سعيدة عن ذلك.

C

شقتي الجديدة

في شقتي العمال منهمكون بالعمل طوال نهار وفي الليل يغادرون تاركين ورائهم مواد البناء مبعثرة على أرضها ليعم الهدوء والسكون أرجاء المكان. لايوجد سوى القمر وصوت قطرات المطر وبعد الحيوانات الصغيرة في الحديقة. كم أنا سعيدة بذلك!

النص ٢/٤ - عملي في مدينة أكسفورد

A

عملي في اكسفورد

يعرف الزميل الجديد العمل اللغة العربية. وهو فوجئ كثيرا التي اريد ان اقرا الفاتحة! سالت ان يساعدني الاسبوع المقبل, ان شاء الله. نتحدث عن الحياة وحياتنا ايضا.

B

عملي في أكسفورد

تعريفت على زميل جديد في العمل يتقن اللغة العربية. وهو فوجئ كثيراً أنني أريد أن أقرأ الفاتحة! سألته أن يساعدني الأسبوع المقبل, إن شاء الله. سنتحدث عن الحياة بشكل عام وحياتنا أيضاً.

C

عملي في مدينة أكسفورد

لقد تعرفت على زميل جديد لي في العمل. وهو يتقن اللغة العربية بطلاقة. فوجئ كثيراً أنني أريف أتعلم قرائة الفاتحة. طلبت منه أن يساعدني في تعلم اللغة العربية ولقد أتفقنا أن نبدأ جسلة حوارية الأسبوع المقبل إن شاء الله. سنتكلم فيها عن الحياة بشكل عام وعن تفاصيل حياتنا اليومية بشكل خاص.



Thursday 24 December 2015

أبقى على تواصل

A

غالباً أفكر ليلاً ...قبل أيام سألت نفسي: ما يهمني أكثر في العالم؟ ثم هناك صمت طويل.   وبعد ذلك أجابتي: أريد أن أكتب وأتكلم مع  أصدقاءي وأقاربي قبل موتهم. 

B/C

.غالبا ما أفكر ليلاً.... قبل أيام سألت نفسي ما هو أكثر ما يهمني في هذا العالم؟ بعد صمت طويل تبعه إجابتي بأنني أريد أن أبقى على تواصل مع أصداقئي (أصدقائي) وأقاربي قبل موتهم

Tuesday 22 December 2015

النص الأول - ١/٤ - دراساتي

A - My best writing:

دراساتي 

انا فخورة دراساتي باللغة العربية ولكن انا لا اشعر بالفخوار التي ادرس اللغة العبرية. ان اشعر بالسعادة التي اعلم  الابجدية كاملة الان. في الحقيقة لا انا يهودية رغم اسمي <سارة>. اسمي باللغة الفرنسية تماما مثل باللغة العبرية! رغما هذه المشاكل اريد ان اقرا الادب الجديد الترجمة. الان اقرا الاسماء القصاءد والاسماء الشعراء واكتب بايتوكي مع الانترنت. 


B - Now with all grammatical errors corrected by my language exchange partner:

أنا فخورة بدراستي للغة العربية ولكن أنا لا أشعر بالفخر ذاته عندما أدرس اللغة العبرية. أنا أشعر بالسعادة لأنّني أتعلم الأبجدية كاملة الأن. في الحقيقة أنا لست يهودية رغم أن اِسمي سارة. اِسمي باللغة الفرنسية تماماً مثل باللغة العبرية! رغم هذه المشاكل, أريد أن أقرأ الأدب الجديد والترجمة. الآن أنا أقرأ أسماء القصائد وأسماء الشعراء وأكتب بايتوكي على الإنترنت.

C - Finally, a version rewritten in flowing, elegant contemporary Arabic by the same person:

أنا فخورة بنفسي لأنني أجتهد لأتقن اللغة العربية, بينما يغيب هذا الشعور عند درساتي للغة العبرية. في الحقيقة أنا لست يهودية رغم أن اِسمي هو سارة, وهو اِسم يهودي موجود بكلا اللغتين العبرية والفرنسية. رغم  ذلك , أنا مهتمة بالأدب العبري الجديد وشرحه. أنا الآن أستطيع أن أقرأ أسماء القصائد وأنشر بايتكي شعرية على الإنترنت.


Wednesday 16 December 2015

:) أنا أبتسم

اليوم أنا أقود إلى لندن للزيارة المتحف البريطاني ووالدي ووالدتي.

قبل ٣ أيام

مقال عن الحية

كاتب وأم الذي تعمل مع التعليم المنزلي. أحب أن أقرأ موقعها الكتروني وهناك مقال عن الحية:

Thursday 10 December 2015

فيلم صغير عن مدينة طهران

 جدتي فرنسية سافيرت إلى مدينت طهران متى أنا كنت بنت. إنها حبت السفر إلى الشرق الأوسط. أحبه بسبب الهدوء ولأنه يذكرني لها


آخراج بيتر مورتح

Tuesday 8 December 2015

اريد ان اسافر الى مدن بيروت, بغداد, دمشق...

 اريد ان اسافر الى مدن بيروت, بغداد, دمشق...

Sunday 22 November 2015

عيد الميلاد فيرز يوم الامس

وجدت هذا الفيديو واريد ان اتقاسمه.

Saturday 21 November 2015

ترايسي موريس

بالأمس سألت ترايسي موريس سؤال على الانترنت

فانا سعيدة.

سضيقتي كتبتني في النقاش بالانترنت.

في الصيف تكلمنا عن هذه هي شاعرة كثيرا.

ترايسي موريس حبت ان يكون في نقاش مع الطلاب.

Tuesday 17 November 2015

انا اتعلم الابجدية العبرية.

أقول ذلك في سيارتي عندما اقود إلى المدرسة

  الحروف في الهواء بيدي
..

אבגדה : וזחטי

כךלמם : נןסעפ

ףצץק : רששת
..


הבית שלי הוא יפה

بيتي جميل

Albion Beatnik - مختارات من قصائد جديدة

Rough version

Uhibb herdha alshair: Apple Quarters - Claire Crowthorne.

Umm laa bibayt walakin filhaqiqa laylan. Laa lnur, wa laalqamar. Fabihiya lalaamal. Hiya baada anahum.

waladanha Fi baytahum. Alan yatakallumun wayalaabun.

Limaada alumm filhaqiqa?

Amut alumm?

Alshaair halwa wahajaza.

Alwaladan fibayt da'iman walumm filzalaam da'iman.

No font or GT on my phone, so I'm making myself do this anyway.

..



Neat version - big difference

احب هذه القصيدة : أرباع التفاح - كلاير كراوثر

الام لا فبيتها ولكن في حديقتها ليلا.

ليس هنك نور القمر.

لها لا الامل.

              وهي بعيد عن عائلتها

اولادها في بيتها

الان يتكلمون ويلعبون بدونها.

ولماذا الام في الحديقة؟

هل هي ميتة؟

  ....هذه القصيدة هلوة وحزنة.

بسبب الاولاد في البيت دائما والام دائما خارج في الظلام....

mpt . modern poetry in translation . Palestine issue . free time in Oxford 2 weeks ago

I got a Darwish poem for the first time. He's talking to himself and getting at ideas. It's more of a conversation than a precise tight set of words. I need clarity. Mixed up hidden meanings annoy me. Just tell me what you are thinking, even if the thoughts are contradictory and confusing. Just spit them out, then toy with them and analyse them to get to what you really deeply mean. It's ok to need more time, to sit in silence until the words come out, even if they are all upside down. They are something to work with. Poems are made like that, a rush of all sorts of words which are then rearranged and organised. Phrases made and taken apart again, like me running my hands through my hair and turning it all round to make a new clipped bundle?? On the back of my head. That's an odd description. Just go forward into new discussions, each fresh interaction with the one you can sit open-eyed in front of.

...

I got a Darwish poem for the first time. He's talking to himself and getting at ideas. It's more of a conversation than a precise tight set of words.

I need clarity. Mixed up hidden meanings annoy me. Just tell me what you are thinking, even if the thoughts are contradictory and confusing. Just spit them out, then toy with them and analyse them to get to what you really deeply mean.

It's ok to need more time, to sit in silence until the words come out, even if they are all upside down. They are something to work with.

Poems are made like that, a rush of all sorts of words which are then rearranged and organised. Phrases made and taken apart again, like me running my hands through my hair and turning it all round to make a new clipped bundle?? On the back of my head. That's an odd description.

Just go forward into new discussions, each fresh interaction with the one you can sit open-eyed in front of.

...

I read it
in a cafe
slowly, then quicker.

Then I understood
that it was
a musing session.

I haven't gone
back to it,
prefer to remember

an imperfect approximate
getting at something.
What has stayed?

Just an impression,
not something I
could defend rigorously.

Stuff all that
rigorous, analytical truth;
objective dead nonsense.

It shuts out
a more fleeting
shadow of thought -

a breath of
wind is neither
right nor wrong.

So a reaction
is what it
is - just then.

...

I like these
3 by 3
patterns of words

they need not
be going to
a set destination

they are a
version of the
clouds passing over

something I made
up back last
year with Rose

we were playing
with words together
and this began.

...

I apologise to
the writers of
neat, accurate analyses.

That is an
entirely different project,
perfect in itself.


Sunday 15 November 2015

Translating one line of poetry a week on Facebook

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. It is occupying too many comment boxes. There is so much to explain that it takes ages. I want to mention the invisible vowels and the endings. I don't want to miss out anything crucial. I want to explain all the things that I didn't have explained to me, clearly, simply and slowly.

Originally I wanted to spend an afternoon a week with someone friendly at a cafe doing this. My imagination said surely at least 10 people would jump at the chance!

What's worse, I have decided to not post short films again until December. This allows space for the tribute to Khalid Al Asaad of Palmyra links all November. It means that the group has gone all wordy. Will my new members be put off and get fed up?

Once in a while I need to write in English.

Wednesday 11 November 2015

محادثان قصيرة!

.

تدرس اللغة العرية؟

لا, انا اتاذة باللغة العرية!

..

تكتب بلوج؟

لا, وانت؟

نعم, الان اكتب بلوجي باللغة العربية!

...

Sunday 8 November 2015

الرياضيات القواعد اللغة العربية

الرياضيات القواعد اللغة العربية

المبتدا + الخبر = الجملة

الاسم + الصف = الجملة اسمية

الفعل + الصف = الجملة فعلية

.....

فيديو درس الرياضيات باللغة العربية - اردت ان اشاهد عنه قبل سنوات

ارى هؤلاء الكلمات : عند      اولا     ثانيا       التماس

انا سعيدة جدا!

Thursday 5 November 2015

... المطر - صورة من ٢٠١٠ ...

...


...

لا اريد ان اكتب اليوم

...

Monday 2 November 2015

ثي ورلد يز اي روم يحودا اميجاي

قرات هذا كتب قبل اسابيع وشعرت او شاهدت الوحدة فيه.

  لا شاهدت اسرة او حار.

بارد فقط.

Sunday 1 November 2015

كنوز نفوسنا

اقود سيارتي مع ابني مساء في ظلام.

نتكلم عن التكلم .. 

ما هو الاحسن شخص عن  كنوز نفوسنا؟

قاد / يقود / القيادة 

Friday 30 October 2015

اللعب مع قصيدة

اخيانا  لا عمل قصيدة.

So try this: http://www.happenstancepress.org/index.php/blog/entry/32-ways-of-reviving-a-rejected-poem

Thursday 29 October 2015

alaan ureed an aktub maa laysa huruf alarabyya

harf...huruf

ism

jumla ismiyya

jumla faala??

jumlaat jamiila!


Sunday 25 October 2015

زوج وزوجته

 انا اشاهد هذا الفيلم واشاهد وجوه الرجل والامراة.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06f146k/storyville-20142015-28-a-syrian-love-story

Saturday 24 October 2015

لا اكتب الكلمات.

اشعر ولكن لا اكتب الكلمات.

لا اعرف الكلمات التي اريد.

أنا أبحث عنهم ولكن لا اجدهم.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Actual guidance on how to help the refugees ..

..in this link:

http://mashable.com/2015/09/03/refugee-crisis-how-to-help/#1egwEZ_KdOqR

Sometimes there are only so many shares of photos on Facebook you can make.

It's odd to see English letters on here - back to the squiggles in my next post.

Wednesday 21 October 2015

The Lost Eden ٣/٥ - فيلم يمني - راوف اكلان


احب الاغنية في النهاية هذا فيلم.

Tuesday 20 October 2015

انا سندبد!

لا انا سندبد!

انا مشغولة بايتوكي!

لي رسائل كثيرة جدا...

Monday 19 October 2015

بلوج جديد


شكرا ان التتكلم عن الابوة والامومة.

:  ) : )

Monday 12 October 2015

أبجدية والدي - ا

ان شاء الله  ...   قال هذه الكلمات

القاهرة .... سافر إلى المدينة للعمل

أبي ... انه يحب الريف في اسكتلندا



Sunday 11 October 2015

20. شارع تاجبروك


أنظر إلى السقف



امي قريبة
السوت جريدتها



ابني مع ابي

19. فيلم من اليمن ـ ٢/٥ ـ ولادة موتي


اخراج: حنان الصومي

لماذا لها خاتم؟

الذي الشاب؟

 اخها؟ صديقها؟ زوجها؟

Wednesday 7 October 2015

18.مهرجان الشعر في سويندون

مهرجان الشعر


كنتاكت امبروفيزاشن رقص جديد حر بسيط

...


...


...

الإفطار في مطبخ كبير

الغداء في الحديقة

الحديث مع الناس

يضحك مع الناس

...

 ساعدت شاب مع سيارته مساء في قريتي.

كان حزين في المطر.

يعمل في مزرعة قريبة.

Tuesday 6 October 2015

17. ٢٠٠٩ - ٢٠١٤ - الماضي - المستقبل

الماضي







المستقبل 

لا اعرف.

اريد ان اتكلم مع اخي غدا.


Thursday 1 October 2015

16. افلام يمني ١/٥

هذا شهر: افلام من بلاد اليمن

لماذا؟

بسبب الناس يريد الامل.
بسبب صديقي في صنعاء.
بسبب ندرس الشعر الامريكي مع الالاف.

Tuesday 29 September 2015

15. راج بوش - سفس

اللغة الكوردية

اهلا = راج  بوش 

 سفوس  = معسلامة

...

الرجل في المطعم صغرية امام المتحف الاشموايان مدرسي جديد.

 هو من الكورديستان. ويتكلم العربية ايضا.

 احب قهوته وطعامه.

 اشرب واكل تحت الاشجار في ضوء الشمس.

انه جميل جدا.

Monday 28 September 2015

14. معجزة على باكر ستريت

مكتبة جديدة على باكر ستريت في لندن, ممتاز!

Sunday 27 September 2015

13. أحب مربى - اسماء قصائد - القمر - سنان أنطون


أحب مربى المشمش

اليوم  في  مقهى  اطلب عن  خبز الحار مع مربى المشمش

...

الآن القمر كبير جدا

هناك كسوف، والقمر أحمر

...

نشيد لوروك

قصيدة طويلة

احب ان اقرا اسماء قصائد

...

يومان مع هذا كتاب

 وحدها شجرة الرمان

سنان أنطون 


Friday 25 September 2015

12. جاين كلارك في واليجفورد

جاين كلارك قالت معنا عن ابن عرابي

ان تحب ابن عراب

تعمل مع المخطوطات القديمة في مكتبة في اكسفود

وهي سعيدة  ومتحمسة لعملها

اريد ان اسمعها ثانية في المستقبل

Wednesday 23 September 2015

MSA Arabic Level 3 Oxford Oxfordshire Classes Lessons #learnarabic

 

Level 3 Arabic, roughly chapter 5 in Atakallum Alarabiya Book 1, go ASAP to Oxford Dept of Cont Ed: 

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/results.php?Category=400#/Modern%20Middle-Eastern%20Language%20studies

Share share share

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/results.php?Category=400#/Modern%20Middle-Eastern%20Language%20studies

Tuesday 22 September 2015

نزاع مع ابني 11

أمس

نزاع مع ابني لانني متعبة جدا

اليوم

الشمس ... الرياح ... الحقول ... سرعة



غدا

لا أعرف

...

من قبل ايام

Sunday 20 September 2015

10. في مكتبنا - سارة هاو

وعندما ان ارى صديقتي في مكتبنا اقول:

اهلا يا حبيبي!

وثم تقول:

اهلا يا حبيبي!

...

التكلم عن الشعر, القراءة عن الشعر

...


  راى / يرى / الرؤية


قال / يقول / القول

Friday 18 September 2015

9. افلام الموجزة من لبنان


 افلام الموجزة من لبنان, الذي على مجموعتي بفيس بيك.


1/4 - BASITA - إخراج ليلة حتوة


2/4 - The Last Five Minutes - إخراج رواد أبو عكر


3/4  - Beirut, I love you - إخراج عقل منية وأريس سيريل


الآن عشرة أشخاص في مجموعة الدراسة

:)

Monday 14 September 2015

صورتي مكسورة 8

 صورتي مكسورة

صورة لابني في عيد ميلاده في عام ١٩٩٥
                            
الان صورة مكسورة


صورتي مكسورة لان المطر دخل الى شباك

احبت هذه الصورة جدا

Sunday 13 September 2015

7. اسطنبول - ٢٠١٥ و ١٩٨٨

٢٠١٥

ابني الى حلاق صغير

ذهب ابني إلى الحلاق صغير جديد في مدينتنا

 هذا الحلاق اسمه اسطنبول باربرس

١٩٨٨

الزفاف

بعد حفل الزفاف ذهبنا الى اسطنبول



 المسجد ايا صوفيا - Ἁγία Σοφία


....

الحلاق / الحلاقين

زفاف




6. اهلا وسهلا - بلغراد - السياسة والصداقة

اهلا وسهلا

اهلا وسهلا الى مدينة اكسفورد و مدينة ديدكوت

فيديو في وسط مدينة اكسفورد الاحد الماضي


 بلغراد

الناس في بلغراد يساعد السوريين



السياسة والصداقة

مراسل الجريدة ثي جارديان فعل هذا فلم عن اللاجئين قبل الايام



http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/sep/10/we-walk-together-a-syrian-familys-journey-to-the-heart-of-europe-video?CMP=share_btn_fb

.....

اجئين    /   اللاجئين

يوم / أيام

مراسل / مراسلين


Friday 11 September 2015

5. انا سعيدة - لماذا؟

 انا سعيدة 

انا سعيدة, انا لا سعيدة, انا سعيدة

الطقس بارد, الطقس معتدل مع الشمس, الطقس بارد

لماذا؟

لان منذ ٢٠١١ اريد ان اقراء تووتر

لان اريد ان افهم نبيل رجب في الفيديو عندما يتكلم عن الحقوق الانسان



Tuesday 8 September 2015

4. البيوت والشقق

البيت مع قطة على سرير وحديقة مع عشب الطويل


الشقة مع الرطوبة والسمك


الشقة مع كرسي المستدير وحمام الجديد


البيت مع سلال !... سلام !...  مع سلالم ضيق وكتب كثيرة في غرفة جلوس.

Saturday 5 September 2015

3. صباحا

.صباحا  لا اريد ان افتح العيون، ولكن التفكير عن أمي، أبي، أخي،

افعل الجمل في رأسي مع كلماتي

احب الدافئة والصمت

 أشعر قلبي والجهاز التنفسي

Thursday 3 September 2015

2. مساء

انا سعيدة لان ساذهب الى مظاهرة الاحد 

مساء مشيت مع ابني بجانب الحقل

انا احب  النظر الى اشجار  

اليوم ساعدت ام زوجي مع بنكها

Wednesday 2 September 2015

1.

اليوم اسمع الى الموسيقى واكتب في كتابي صغيرة.

ولا ساكتب باللغة  الانجليزية لان اريد ان ادرس.

اقرا قصص صغيرة باللغة العربية كل يوم.

 صديقتي بفايسبوك مدرستي جديدة وانا مدرستها ايضا.

Sunday 30 August 2015

nuit blanche, almost / pretty much / as near as makes no difference

Nuit blanche

Going onto Twitter gave me some photos I had never wanted to see. 5 year old children in clear water, over smooth looking sand, a foot deep.

This morning I sat with an acquaintance and we said 'Palmyra' to each other.

Things aren't all bad - I introduced my younger son to his little cousin in Oxford today. She had made ice cream mice for us. The little ears were pine nuts and the beady eyes were chopped up bits of raisin.

She read out the first page and a half of The Railway Children to us. She has the advantage of speaking English fluently. Some wonderful guesses at pronunciation. I hope I can make someone giggle with my Arabic one day.

We compared the sizes of our feet after I said hallo to her with my left one while she was lurking behind her mother :) It's so, so lovely to be able to relax totally with my beautiful family.

Friday was a wonderful day too, T and I spent hours talking in and around the small room he has and the furniture in it. Eventually he had a brain wave while we walked to get food and we had further strokes of luck in a furniture shop and in a mini industrial estate when I needed a delivery driver.

To top it off we made an unplanned family visit and were welcomed so warmly, taking a photo to celebrate. So that was my Friday Evening for this week :)

Julie Whiting - Hitting this wall - Other walls - Names

Hitting this wall

It has taken weeks to realise what caused me to hit this particular wall. It was reading a poem by my friend Julie Whiting. It is one of a series, not yet published.

I had thought I'd be drinking my Lebanese coffee with lots of sugar in the sunshine and generally feeling at peace.

Instead I was doing two things.

Looking across the street, gazing through the lamp posts and cars, holding thoughts in my head.

Then I would be looking at the words, perhaps two at a time as I read across the lines. The moment I'd start doing this I would sense the air touching my arm, face, neck. At the same time I would have in my mind the images or facts from a few lines further back in my head.

After that I would shift to looking across the street again and would stop perceiving the air moving over me, why?

This happened every time I looked down then looked up again.

I don't want to give the game away by talking about the poem. You might get to read it one day. Read it fresh, without expecting it.

Other walls

Not wanting time to move forward. Stay still, move slowly, don't disappear. If I have to wait for things, then that's how it is.

Names 

The Waterstone's in the centre of Oxford has the best poetry section. I read the names on the spines. All these names I know. I can't read the collections or even one poem, but I can read the names.

Friday 28 August 2015

Anthony Wilson - Lifesaving Poems

This is the last book I read before stopping for a while. Since I cannot take in poetry at all at the moment, I just read his prose comments on each writer.

Anthony Wilson set himself a task of writing out one poem from each writer who meant the most to him. He then explained why he made those choices on his blog several years ago.

Really the book is about Poetry Exhaustion. He knows of several varieties of it. Arriving for no reason. Arriving after being 'too ready to follow every whim', ie reading too much, sheer greediness. There must be others.

'all we really have as poets is the process' page 122

The book is stuffed with names of poets and collections, so it would be helpful for anyone at a loss to know what to read next.

My problem is that even a few words are too dense, I don't want them. The night sky and the full moon is enough. Music in the car and the Proms on Radio 3. All my ill friends.

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Reading out loud - Curses and Blessings - Sewing - Just reading Arabic

Reading out loud in Arabic

So much for reading out loud to my son H. He said I sounded like a little child counting to 10. Starting out strongly for 1, 2, 3 but then trailing off and getting uncertain. Thanks a bunch! True though it is.

Curses and blessings

A thread on the Hall Forum has shifted to thinking and writing about the archaeologist murdered in Palmyra less than a week ago.

Sewing

I feel so much more myself when I have a needle and wool in my hands. I am at the sewing together stage of a huge project. Making a wintry coloured door hanging for some future home. To keep out the -12c temperatures at night.

Just reading Arabic

I have finally given up reading both English poetry and prose. So now I am left with just Arabic prose. Simplified and with the translation on the facing page. Sometimes I read several words before I look to check the translation. That's a wonderful feeling.

Why do words which normally end in ية end in يا instead in my book? This is a new quirk.

Sunday 23 August 2015

Still poetried-out

but getting interesting flashes or revelations. Not in a religious cave type way, but in a connecting my dots helpful way.

so

... continue with doing pairs of poems while half ignoring the Proms

... go on more rainy walks, as long as I have one pair of dry shoes/boots I can go out there

... try doing a series on my most touchy and difficult subject. Well, which one? I must have half a dozen 'don't go there' subjects

... continue with my Friday Evenings, I have wanted to do this for absolute years, I needed a certain question a while back to help me realise this

... live in the now, ie replace light bulbs and go to Sainsburys to buy more light bulbs and bleach

... raise my eyes in astonishment at the fact that I am able to read the second piece in an Arabic text book from the 80's a neighbour has lent me for 2 years so far!, it has all sorts of combinations of letters which have foxed me in my other books, but this one has explanations :)

I was about to return it to her unread, but decided to give it one last chance. Since I couldn't follow the first piece, I tried the second one and it was so much clearer. Never be surprised by anything when learning/forgeting a language. There is more forgetting than remembering, that's my tip to everyone. How many rivulets of rain are needed to create a dip and then a tiny river? Lots.


Friday 21 August 2015

The Drone Eats With Me - Atef Abu Saif

I feel suspended in mid air, watching a father and a mother make up explanations for the explosions, and the older brothers understanding the need to hide the truth from their tiny sister.

That age, 18 months old, is one I remember as being the one with more night time wake ups than ever before. A surge in brain development and awareness leading to 2 hour wake up times in the night, with the little person crawling around on top of the duvet saying the new word learnt in the day.

The book doesn't mention bedtime stories or rituals beyond watching the children fall asleep. So I have to imagine and of course I can't. My own children are all I know, all I will ever really know.

I keep on writing 'why?' on the pages, because the book doesn't tell me what I want to know.

What is it that enables wonderful, wise and compassionate politicians to do their work? Where does the ability to make a calm assessment come from?

At the recent election here I saw representatives from all the parties standing around trying to sway us in the fruit/vegetable market near my parents' house in London. I went to the UKIP man and told him I wouldn't ever be voting for him, but thanked him for being part of the political system, told him it was so important to be part of it.

When I give my reactions to any book like this in a blog post, I am demonstrating the possibility of not trying to do everything in a review.

This is simply one reaction. Other people can react to different sections in different ways. There are no marks to be gained, just the opening up of the possibility of sharing our own thoughts.

This is what using a timer and passing it around the circle means. Only that ritual includes privacy and the much more personal thoughts which I don't put here.

...


I need to add to this: All I can think about is the image of families coming close for a meal, then boom, gone.  And the step-mother with the tears running from her eyes after each day of funeral gatherings. All these family relationships.

First time and 'Give it a go'

Ages ago I decided to do a political action for Libya. Here are the draft posts from the day before and the day afterwards. What I didn't realise until a few weeks later was that fasting means no drinking either! I had been spending the day feeling terrified of not eating for hours and hours, but at the same time sipping all sorts of herbal teas while resting on the sofa!!! Not a full fast at all. Never mind, I meant well.

...

First time

I feel a bit of a twit, but I'll try to fast for as much of tomorrow as I can. I have never been asked to take part in a fast before. It's in support of Libya, so I have a tray of goodies to eat at crack of dawn! Then I'll go back to sleep with indigestion. All in a very good cause, so we'll see. Apparently staying in bed and taking it very easy is best.

Luckily I have some dates in the house and even humous for the evening.


'Give it a go'

That's what one tweeter said about doing a one day, dawn to dusk fast. The writer had no idea of the sheer level of fear even attempting such a thing gave me.

Even though it was on Thursday I still haven't completely digested (!) the process and am still mentally out of synch with my normal life. I couldn't sleep last night until after 6am, now that is a level of insomnia I haven't experienced for ages and can normally be blamed on a strong coffee. My heart started beating intensely and my thoughts were racing.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Being shouted at - Listening - Virtual grandmother

Once I was shouted at so intensely that all I saw was the rectangular box of the mouth and the two eyes. I took in none of the words, apart from the fact that there was no swearing. My reply was full of swearing.

In contrast I sat in a friend's kitchen today, holding a mug of coffee, waiting for her to say more, for her face to keep on shifting, for her thoughts to come. I asked some questions and listened to the words she used.

A new game has come along, Fall Out Shelter. It involves many things, but all I care about is the babies! H announced he'd got 3 on the way! I kept on asking if the mothers had gone into labour yet. Eventually he rushed into the kitchen and showed me that the first one had been born. I was so thrilled :) Over the next 15 mins the others arrived.

My mother in law came in, so we told her about one virtual baby. We didn't let on about the other two, she was shocked enough by just one :)

Where is this small patch of grass with its own tiny pond and willow herb?

The view from a peaceful place to rest, read about war, have bare feet, ignore the loud punting noises and eat an apple thinking about a friend's poem.



Latest first: Some of us have uploaded our Soundcloud recordings for the Ashmolean, soon to be put out on their Twitter feed.

I need a minder: In London I told a man in a shop 'Your Arabic is really nice.' As if I can judge.

Brian Eno: I still love these 3 songs, for driving between here and there, just being while in the fast lane, Silver Morning, Deep Blue Day ,Weightless

A great watch: Mehdi Hasan interviewing Russell Brand 

Khubz al-mawz: banana cake really

A poetry book shop in London: coming soon

Human Rights Watch, Chatham House, Redress, PEN and others continue to meet to keep up the pressure on Bahrain: 373 views so far, increase that if possible.

August's Prisoner of Conscience: ifex is focusing on one a month

What have I done for the Syrian refugees recently? Exactly.

I wrote an effusive greeting on the noticeboard at work. Today there was another comment in Arabic. So I wrote a question under it. What will happen next?

Wednesday 12 August 2015

12th Aug 2014 to 12th Aug 2015

That reading and dinner was the start of an era and the results are in today: print publication in Obsessed with Pipework 71 and selection for reading at Ekphrasis at the Ashmolean on 22nd Aug.

Many thanks to the lively souls who make up and stir up my world.

I need some outdoor medicine over the next few weeks, so I am prescribing myself many hours of being outdoors, as little reading as possible and much gazing at clouds and leaves.



Tuesday 11 August 2015

Endless Questions

I have found 2 different plurals, plus one dual for the word for bathroom. I'm ok with the dual, but why is there one masculine and one feminine plural? This is all on one page of my text book. I can live without the answer, but am curious.

حمام

حمامان

حمامين
حمامات

Please comment below if you know the answer.

Sunday 9 August 2015

قبل اسبوعين حضرت محاضرة

Article from Al Monitor com on the destruction and illegal trade of artefacts in the Middle East. The RCSS held a meeting in Yemen, UNESCO released a report and another meeting was held in Paris by the Experts Meeting on the Safeguarding of Yemen's Cultural Heritage.

3 lectures in a row on this topic at the Ashmolean Museum on Saturday 25th July.

قبل اسبوعين حضرت  محاضرة عن الدمار على مدينتان الموصل والنمرود, في المتحف اشموليان في اكسفورد

Vocab:

حضرت - I attended

محاضرة - a lecture

الدمار - the destruction


Thursday 6 August 2015

Nour Bishouty - Shubbak 2015

http://www.nourbishouty.com/INSTEAD-OF-A-RESOLUTION

Take a look at this photo. I really like the long line of red rectangles. No, I haven't the faintest idea what I am meant to think. By the way, don't tell me what to think. I need that freedom. The no-words-i-ness of it all. My head is too filled with words already.

What do I like about this?

I think, hmm, that is a straight line, but I enjoy this one.

The reds are all the same, I like that regularity, why is that?

Some are bigger than others, but they are all of a similar type. They fit together.

It is tidy, that makes me happy too.

I have a thing about gallery walls, all that calm space, letting the little rectangles be cherished.

What bothers me about this? 

The table of things all jumbled up to the side.

Nowhere to sit and think, standing gives me backache and a jiggly feeling, I'd rather settle somewhere and gaze at this equivalent of a beach.

Where are the people?

Where is the short video of the artist chatting about what scissors she uses to cut out the cloth?

That's the best bit for me, similar to seeing a poet deal with a loud lorry blotting out some of their words, or seeing them smile as they talk to us and reach down to drink from their water. It is the real part of the objects and colours stuck on a wall in a public building.

Anything else?

Nour Bishouty is hoping to take part in this Kickstarter Project. 4 artists will travel on separate cargo ships for the 23 day trip from Vancouver to Shanghai. They will be artists in residence.

Saturday 1 August 2015

The whine of the engines

From my father's desk, the place with internet!, I can hear the planes flying down the Thames to Heathrow. At home I hear birds and strange hoots or howls in the night, here it is always the planes, night and day.

How long before the next one comes over? Ah, here it is. One goes then the next one arrives. 12.28. 12.29, now silence... 12.30 yes, here comes the next one, a higher pitched whine, I have never listened so carefully to them before, 12.31, at its loudest now, passing over and fading. Mixed up with a second one, also now at its loudest.... there's an echo-y sound as it fades. 12.32.. oh and another is arriving before that one had disappeared.

So, if there is an actual gap between them that is a special pleasure. It's only 12.33. What a busy time of day. That one was a bigger plane, deeper engines. 12.34.. nearly silence, will it happen? No! Hallo next one. Still only 12.34.

Friday 31 July 2015

Looking at words

Last Saturday I had a real treat. My friend had asked her Iraqi engineering professor friend to be our teacher for one afternoon. I didn't know this was going to happen.

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to see and hear all these words being said just there a few feet away from me. Every vowel is slightly different from how I say it and every consonant too. Just that bit more for real.

We sat in a circle and repeated words after him. First he'd say a sentence at the normal speed, for his own pleasure at speaking Arabic obviously, and we'd go blank, then he'd say it word by word and we would copy like baby birds again and again.

I was so happy in the car back home. But it disappears so quickly. I now can't remember what his voice sounded like. I need a constant flow of real people speaking, like in the bookshop in London.

Someone else said Kalila u Dumna to me, then changed it, so I thought, to Kalila wa Dimna. ?? what was going on there?

Then I bumped into a woman who may have been Spanish, but she spoke Arabic and we said hallos, names and welcome to Oxford :)

Tuesday 28 July 2015

Time on my hands means

I put 'Arabic' in the search box on the Free Word Centre website and up popped this list of articles to read.

www.freewordcentre.com

I also found an interview from the US with the non-Arabic speaking translator of Adnan Al-Sayegh. That made me stop and think about translating in a new light. If people are doing it with no Arabic whatsoever, I am shocked. I distinctly remember my finals paper translating from French to English and this was not meant for anyone who couldn't completely understand what was going on. I got a first for that paper, so was extremely proud of myself. Mind you, I knew all the authors and had read their books, so it was a walk in the park. Imagine how bad some of my other papers were if overall I got a 2:2. Apparently apart from the one first I only got 2:1s and no actual 2:2s, the others must have been terrible, my tutor didn't tell me and I didn't ask. She was Dr Ann Moss then.

...

A draft from August last year, but with an updated link. This is all too enticing, I must stop and go and get dressed and give my son breakfast...

Sunday 26 July 2015

My first demo - thinking back

It was way back in 2012. I had the chance to drive over the hills to the A34 and enjoy the sunshine purely because I was on a mission to get to London.

I told myself as I walked along the familiar streets to Belgrave Square that it would be a disaster, no one would be there, they'd be horrible, not welcoming etc, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. I even approach going to the supermarket with an expectation of potentially bumping into someone I know! So this is a necessary precaution for me.

Anyway, I worked out that the women stood together and the men separately. But us London types intermingle, so I did that too.

One woman told me she'd been on many demonstrations before, in Iran and now in the UK. I haven't seen her since, maybe I need to go on more demos :)

Another woman told me she was Shia, clearly expecting me to know what this meant, which I did, very approximately, so I replied that I was Quaker, again expecting her to have heard of this term.

It was great to get hoots from cars as we walked in the very middle of the normally busiest part of London, round Hyde Park Corner and up  Park Lane.

I lurked at the back when we were in front of the Saudi embassy. At the end I turned into my most pretentious and enthusiastic self and even said thank you to the various police officers who had marshalled us.

I took the hand of a woman I was standing with and went over to say thank you to one of the guys with a gun right in front of the Saudi Embassy. She was totally astounded at the concept of going up to him and chatting!!

I said we wouldn't need to protest again, this would do it! He was funny and said that the protesters never give up. I found that surprisingly encouraging. He also told me about the police officers' favourite cafe round the corner. I'll go there on a pilgrimage one day, to celebrate the whole protesting and policing ritual.

Then I knocked on the window of the big police van full of officers. They were a bit surprised to get a collective thank you as well, but I couldn't ever say this was my first demo again :)

...

I was just so glad to get in and out alive, I had had visions of being kettled or being hit on the head by a fire extinguisher (Brian Ferry's son chucked one off the roof of a building) or even being killed like Ian Tomlinson. I hadn't drunk much so I wouldn't get caught short. It's nerve-wracking.

Thursday 23 July 2015

It all started with a Facebook chat in the middle of winter

Where would we be without rhyme
Nonsense needs some sparkle sometime
It lightens the soul
And we all need a goal
To focus on while becoming sublime

Some of us think in limericks, some can't fall asleep for frustrating end rhymes, some of us go away from the thread for a week and come back to find a party underway.

Hall Writers' Forum


Non-conversation during the Proms

I am writing two poems a day, on facing pages of my notebook

Now I don't plan ahead, but think on the spot

Obviously I am hoping for significant insights, miracles

The music is the starting point, the reason for sitting in one place


Wednesday 22 July 2015

I apologise

This email subscribe button has been tricky for me to set up. I think it is now working properly because a post finally arrived in my own email inbox. This must be the third time I have tried to set it all up.

So I am sorry if I have annoyed readers of this blog.

Tuesday 21 July 2015

The exact spot

This afternoon H read out to me from the history section of the life in the UK book. We discussed all sorts of things between each sentence.

We had just moved the table out of the sunshine, so it was in the same place as all those years ago in this post about afternoons burning down old candles.

Summer holidays :)

Syrian Short Films - 4th of 4 - 'General Situation' directed by Nart Alkass

https://vimeo.com/22671306

The title reminds me of Corporal Punishment, General Disorder, Captain Sensible.. some WW2 jokes.

If you haven't learnt the word for 'directed by' yet, you haven't been paying attention. It is:

اخراج - ikhraj

Also: a tiny film on the killing in Syria: https://vimeo.com/53787940 . No blood, so simple.




Monday 20 July 2015

Experiment with cutting right back, not poems as such, just ideas

Cutting too much leaves a heap of sawdust. An online friend and I are choppers, we laughed that my poem would be a haiku by lunchtime during one morning of editing. It's happened here.

F ..  Just 3 lines

1986 - print was made
1987 - I bought it
1988 - year of marriage

E .. Now 3 words per line

playing with blutac
suddenly tearful again
feeling my heartbeat

needing to understand
how our complexity
arose back then
...

Now go further, what would have never emerged without this pressure, D:

D ..

If I stand and look from the side I see the indentation of the printing process

This is all physical, transitory: the print, vases, knowledge of eras could all go

The knowledge would be rediscovered; new vases created; new museums built

All this knowledge is to comfort us, carriers of one combination of dna

My dna is merely a collection of many fragments, they are all out there in others

I think culture is a quirk which seems to help transmission of the dna

...

The piece A below is very long. Regard it as preparation. What did I really get from thinking about this picture of mine? First I got to B, then left that behind and got to C.

C .. I reacted to the even colours by thinking of the shadows left of the people incinerated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then I thought of a phrase in a book I was reading at the JR this afternoon, about the ghosts of knowledge left behind when someone dies. The book was 'Al Mutannabi Street Starts Here'.

B .. Calm, stillness, peace, contentment. Differences of design, but a permanent acceptance of each other. A space between them which is also beautiful, allowing each to breathe. A symbolic representation of a relationship.

...

A .. I spent a weekend at a family house after some weekends at hotels. The difference was that all the items in the house would have had a story behind them, even the strip of decorative edging along the top of the wall in the downstairs bathroom! Each of these stories would have involved people and particular events. What a thing, a household of stories.

I could take photos of things which have a story behind them, then tell the story.

(Imagine the photo)

This picture is of 2 vases or ewers - print by Betty Schlesinger

I bought it already framed for about £50, which was a bargain considering its size

I was the first person outside her family to buy a picture from her, so this was a significant sale

I knew her because I was renting a room in her parents' house in Durham

I had the money to buy a picture direct from the artist because I didn't drink, smoke, eat out, buy clothes...

I clearly wanted to spend what small amount I had on art and books even then and not on anything transitory

One day I happened to be in the V and A Museum and saw them in a cabinet in exactly the same relationship to each other as in my picture, so I realised that Betty must have stood there, just like me, and appreciated them enough to make such a large version of the cabinet. The cabinet was in the centre of that dark room.

The picture used to hang above our bed in the house in Hackney

I took a lovely photo of S sitting on the bed under it

It was above our bed in the house in Shillingford too, so T would have rolled on the bed as a baby under it

There is a lot of glass in a picture that big, now I wouldn't want so much glass anywhere near my head

Strangely my side of the bed was under the right hand side of the picture in both houses, even though the window was on opposite sides. Given that I prefer to be beside the open window at night I don't understand that, perhaps I needed to be by the door so I could get up and go to see to T in the night as a baby and toddler. We moved before he got any older. That overrides any need for fresh air doesn't it?

For many years the vases were not on display at the V and A. All I had was the print and the memory of them

Then the picture spent some years not being loved until I decided to rehang the hall way and up it went again

I happened to go to the V and A in London recently and spotted the 2 small ewers in exactly the same formation, but by the back wall of the Islamic Room this time around. Someone must have remembered how they were set out before and decided to recreate it. Or perhaps it is an instinctively correct and beautiful arrangement. Maybe they only have those 2 vases, so are not likely to do anything else with them.

Apparently they come from the 2 main empires, Ummayad and Abbasid. The U came first, then the A. Mind you, which vase came from which? More of my endless questions.

Since I have visited various places since then I now know they might be water jugs for the loo. That didn't get mentioned in the captions in the museum. I viewed a flat and saw exactly the same jug there on the floor in their bathroom :)

An example of how my mind strays (long)

- 'mounds of wheat and corn, and olives and oranges from the hill orchards, and complaining oxen and fat-tailed sheep.' 

We have wheat and corn here, but have to import olives and oranges. In fact so much is imported, our native grown diet would be entirely different from the one we usually have. Nettle omelettes, leek and broccoli soup, lamb with new potatoes, carrot, kohlrabi and bean salad, Scottish cheeses, Welsh something delicious, raspberry jam, wholemeal bread, oatcakes...so I am now wondering if I could eat UK for a while to explore what comes along from around here, all in season. Edible flowers like nasturtium and borage. 

- '..February 1982, the time of the Muslim Brothers' uprising and of the government's response..' (Hama in Syria, 20,000-30,000 killed.)

So, can I remember anything of that at all? No, I was thinking of other things entirely, plus my first round of A levels. All completely natural. Always this parallel set of lives, my own and whichever one is presented in a book. 

When will North Korea come out of its misery? All my life that has been going on. I have one book by a man who escaped, but I haven't been brave enough to read beyond the introduction. 

I wonder about the many Uprisings and how fated they are to fail. Why not plan carefully from inside the system, be canny, wait, succeed slowly, develop processes which work reliably? Why be so foolhardy and wasteful of lives?

- 'They'd sent him a bearded, turbaned Egyptian to offer stale words and verses.' 

When my Grandfather was ill he had wanted communion in hospital, but had specifically requested a male priest. That deliberate dismissal of women priests shocked me after a lifetime of kindness from him. I guess it was because I hadn't ever challenged the male place in the current set up. 

If I had challenged the male succession for our family title, things might have become ugly. As it is I decided to marry into a non-titled family to avoid it altogether, and I do not use my title at all. Even mentioning it here is counter-productive because I wish to bury and ignore its very existence, an honour imposed on the descendants with no get out.

- 'the past that would outlive him.'

English will live on, the shape of this country, the road network and names of villages, the illnesses we get, the ways that children play, the processes of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, all I have painstakingly learned will have to be re-learned by each person in turn, no short cuts. 

The Iraq + 100 years project concept was about asking people to write about their towns in 100 years' time. I considered life here in this village. All that would remain would be the old things, plus one or two modern elements. I found that a big surprise, but it made sense. 

Fashions would be recorded and the census information. The way the snow falls and melts, the catkins and daffodils, noises of the animals, smells of the animals and cut grass. Thunder, rain, dawn...Maths, languages, literature, the culture of music all around us, older people's ways, how wood burns, the winds.

How can I imagine the future children in my wider family? It is so extended already, I don't have a good way of keeping in touch with each one. I will put in a wish for the internet to come up with an extended family app which is just right :) Each person has a different version of family.

Too many words. The phrases are taken from 2 pages of a book I am reading. This straying is why I read, to remind me of my own life.

Saturday 18 July 2015

Owen Lowery on poetry, marriage, life

Imagine writing a poem to your husband or wife every single day, what a conversation that would be.

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=50162

I surf until I find the thing which stops me in my tracks, this is it.

Jo Bell on admitting that poetry matters to you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hojs12e1yRE

Friday 17 July 2015

The Interpreter's House - Newspaper/Passive/2

Launch of issue 59 of The Interpreter's House

These names jumped out at me:

Andrey Ardern-Jones - (poem about plucking at the buttercups on the sheets)

Nancy Campbell - (poems about Greenland)

James Caruth - (poem about his grandfather, including the OT quotation)

Anas Hassan - The Front Row

Michelle D. Lauder - Lances

Mostly I looked carefully, but sometimes I looked at the floor to listen better.

With one poet I had to shut my eyes, to simply listen. Have I done that before? Who was it?

A friend and I took a very long way round to get back to our cars, so we could talk the more.

I needed to sit down on a low wall so I could tell her about the line I loved the best, God is my hiding place and about his gentle accent.

That phrase is from the OT, in translation of course, none of us know Hebrew, but it's that close to us here in English, bathed in the words of the Old Testament in all those different translations.

Newspaper/Passive/2 

Earlier H saw a photo of Princes Diana on the back of my very old Arabic newspaper. Amazingly he listened when I showed him the letters of 'Diana' and spoke the words al-amiira diiana, he and I repeated this again and again, getting the emphasis in the right and wrong places! I don't know how Diana is pronounced in Arabic, so was at sea there.

How exciting, I chanced on a couple of lines about the vowels u and i which make the passive. I had no expectation of actually learning it.  Then I saw a passive in a translated book title in a poetry prize review. Then... I realised that wulidtu uses exactly those vowels (I was born), so I half know it already :)

Taking no chances, I have booked for 2 different Arabic classes this autumn. They can't both fall through. One requires an assessment. Will I have to go and talk to them? I hope so.



Thursday 16 July 2015

July Season of Short Films from Syria - 3rd of 4 - Director Amar Chebib - مشمش

https://vimeo.com/47386428

Made before the civil war started in 2011. Gained Short Drama Awards at 2 film festivals.

Making that decision to leave: when push comes to shove, all the things which keep the situation in balance are outweighed by one small final event or word, the one which encapsulates the central problem.


Monday 13 July 2015

Peaceful --- In the house --- No noise --- It's been so long --- All these months of rushing around --- It feels unreal

No more rushing - We have time to talk to each other


Moving slowly - We can ask just one question at a time


Taking my time - We wait for the kettle to boil


One thing at a time - We went and did some digging in the front garden


Time to take photos - Let my sore feet rest after hours dancing

July Season of Short Films from Syria - 2/4

This one is called 'Case of Rhythm' directed by Dani Shahfeh:

https://vimeo.com/13661041

A drummer I know has joined the facebook group and came out with a whole load of comments I would never have dreamt of.

I wonder whether short films allow you to focus on the details because there isn't a huge sweep of history or long involved story to follow. A viewer only has a limited amount of attention. A short poem allows me to go right into the punctuation and words because I am not being pulled away to the next 10 stanzas. In fact the shorter, the better.

This film took me to the hot aimless summers of being teenage, where the surfaces of things seemed inexplicable and older people were at a vast distance, not explaining anything of any importance or being real in a way I could understand at all.

I also recognised the strangely body-built men of my son's games, a fantasy of sas commandos and blank-eyed warriors. This young man was a lot more human than them, but still had those overtones.

Practice reading the names in the credits. Eventually it will become second nature to recognise that the letters m h m d will always be Mohammad and m h m u d will always be Mahmood, for example.

Saturday 11 July 2015

andi dars attakallam al arabiyya, fi maktabi ma'a sadiqati, kull yaum aljama'a aw assabt, mumtaz! ana sa'ida!

My work colleagues and I have taken weeks to remember eachother's names and to speak clearly enough to each other. All those misunderstandings and apologies have paid off, because I can now chat to her in Arabic.

She doesn't mind being asked her name and how she is again and again.

A bit later she told me that she had heard the language students on the pavement below copying us, but with their own names. So they will be ready for chatting up any Arabic speakers who come their way! We have made a lot of people very happy just by larking around at work.

My other triumph was wandering off for fresh air....to our sister shop round the corner. I asked for their arabic section and was shown something very unusual from behind the counter, an album of photographs of a manuscript in Arabic script, labelled in French as a work on astrology. Since he didn't have a contact I suggested a couple of names at the Oriental Institute. I hope they don't get annoyed by random queries from bookshops. I was going to suggest the Weston Library or the London Library as other starting points.

So there is now a conversation class at work, pitched at exactly our level of forgetting and repetition:)

Thursday 9 July 2015

Small discoveries

I read the word 'imam' in a blog post, then realised that it comes from the same root as 'umm' and 'al-umam''. That's a satisfying feeling.

In order to do all this I needed to know the word to start with, the sound and the meaning. It's a common word here in the UK anyway, but reading it is a different step. Then putting two and two together is another step.

I can't follow the grammar and vocab well enough to follow a sentence, so I should pay more attention to the simpler email I get each day from an angel in the US somewhere: here is the latest one:

Arabic Blog


Posted: 30 Jun 2015 11:37 AM PDT
Marhaba! As you all by know by now, Marcel Khalife is one of the most respected and known musicians from the Arab world. He is actually one of my favorite artists. Today, I am sharing yet another beautiful ballad by this one-of-a-kind artist. This noteworthy masterpiece is called Ya Naseem el Reeh, which roughly translates to ‘Oh Soft Breeze.’ As always, I have added the song in the form of a YouTube video as well as the lyrics in Arabic. Similar to other musical posts, I have added the lyrics in Arabic so that you can follow and sing with Marcel and I have translated them to English so that you can learn what these beautiful lyrics mean.
مارسيل خليفة – يا نسيم الريح
Marcel Khalife – Naseem El Reeh
يا نسيم الريح ، قولي للرشا
Oh soft breeze tell to the drizzle
لم يزدني الورد إلا عطشا
the rose didn’t bloom due to thirst
لي حبيب حبه وسط الحشاI have a lover and his love is in the middle of my body organs
إن يشا يمشي على خدي مشى
If he wants to step on my cheeks, he would
روحه روحي و روحي روحه
His soul is my soul and my soul is his soul
إن يشأ شئت و إن شئت يشاIf he desires, I desire and if I desire, he desires
For now take care and stay tuned for upcoming posts!
Happy Learning!
Have a nice day!!نهاركم سعيد

Tuesday 7 July 2015

I body-languaged a drunken man

How risky!

A man with a very red face was shouting at his woman in the street right outside the bookshop. After a bit he seemed to be showing no sign of stopping or of going somewhere else.

I stormed out, shutting the door behind me to let the reading continue. Without saying a word or making a sound I gave a massively threatening 'get out of it' whole body gesture at him in particular and the two of them in general.

I glared at them and watched him shift some yards to the side of the railings, where the row was still just as annoying to everyone.

I watched furiously for a while longer, still holding onto the door handle, then they went off.

It could have turned into a brawl, but I think he knew I just wanted him to shift his noisy awfulness somewhere else. The woman had a blank look to her face. She did look up at me, but was taking all this yelling as if it were a daily event in Walton Street.

I don't know whether to be shocked at myself for getting so angry or pleased that I sorted it out without any blood or 999 calls. Both. A doctor waiting to read his poetry got up to help me, but my friend said I'd be ok. Nice to know someone with plenty of Saturday nights on A & E was at hand if necessary to sit on the guy.
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