Mahdi Salman: The struggle of poetry with ideas and feelings is one of the most important features of playwriting Bahraini poet Mahdi Salman has manag
Mahdi Salman: The struggle of poetry with ideas and feelings is one of the most important features of playwriting
Bahraini poet Mahdi Salman has managed to leave a prominent mark on the poetry map in his country through a number of his poetry collections that are distinguished by bold visual compositions and a language charged with new visions. His first collection, “Here is a Homeland Ember, an Archipelago,” was published in 2007, followed by a series of works that drew attention to his great talent; such as “The Sky Cleans Its Orange Handkerchief,” “I Will Not Say Anything This Time,” and “Nothing Happens, Not Even the Poem.”
From poetry, his creative experience extends strongly to the theater, where he participated as an actor in about 20 plays, including “The Game,” “The Swamp,” and “The Illusion.” He also directed the plays “Somewhere” and “The Estate,” and won prestigious awards at specialized art festivals. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on his experience and literary concerns.
<p}* Let us begin with the duality of poetry and theatre in your experience. The poem, at least in the public’s perception, is a static, mental art, while the play is a visual, kinetic art… Is there a contradiction between the two types?
– There are certainly differences between writing a poem and writing a play, but this difference does not amount to a contradiction. Today’s literary genres draw from each other and coexist quietly. Poetry takes the dramatic state from theater, theater takes the contemplative visionary state from poetry, and the novel and story draw from the manifestations of both. In general, poetry has never been a static art, despite being mental. Poetry has always contained a violent struggle between ideas and feelings, and this struggle is the most important feature of the play. Likewise, the play was not always a kinetic art. Playwrights have used in many of their experiments the methods and techniques of poetic contemplation to produce the event. This was done by writers of the Theater of the Absurd, such as Ionesco and Beckett, as well as Tawfiq al-Hakim’s mental theatrical experiments. Before them, classical playwrights exploited internal dialogue and monologue in order to approach the spirit of poetry in the theater.
– I don’t remember exactly which form took precedence over the other. The two forms grew together in my experience, exchanging importance and influence, and also drawing on understanding from different experiences. Poetry has always been close to theatre and theatre to poetry, from Sophocles to Shakespeare. Writing for one of them has always drawn from the techniques of the other form, its tools and capabilities, not only at the level of practice in writing, but also in the mechanism of analyzing, interpreting and turning over ideas, emotions and issues. The writer cannot say where this influence lies, and how, but I believe that it is present in writing for both forms, and in acting and recitation alike.
* Let’s talk a little about the idea of the “audience”. It is strongly present before you as an actor going up on stage, but how do you represent it as a poet?
– If you asked any actor on stage how he sees the audience, he would tell you that he does not see them. The presence of the audience on stage is the presence of an idea. When the hall is dark and the actor goes up on stage, he sees nothing in front of him but the darkness in it and through it he enters and exits to and from the character. I think the idea of the audience in writing is similar to this, a darkness that you do not see, but it is in front of you. You enter into it as a person, and as soon as you step into it, you become another person.
* What about the theme of “purification” as an ancient function in Greek tragedy… Can the prose poem currently create a similar situation and release the repressed emotions within the reader, especially fear and pity?
– As much as there is disagreement over a specific meaning for the concept of purification or catharsis, it is not possible to be certain of the possibility of a poetic form or other to possess the product of this concept, as it exists in all forms – poetic and otherwise – as in theatre, in different proportions. It is part of making art, as long as art is a part of it that addresses the mind, heart, feelings and human thoughts, it is an act of purification or cleansing, and in contrast it is an act of pollution as well, or let us say it is the opening of various wounds, but in all of that, it is the product of the doer, not the act itself, the poet, not the form of the poem, the playwright, not the type of play.
* For more than half a century, you have not won any award or been honored as a poet, but on the other hand, you have won a number of awards and honors as a theater actor… How do you see this paradox?
– This is due to the concept of the award between the two forms, and the major flaw in the form of literary awards in our Arab world. Awards should not be requested, but rather given as a result of an action or effort. This happens in theater, which is a collective work. The institution responsible for the play is the one that applies to a festival or an award. Then, an actor, writer, or director wins an award for his effort in this particular work, while the writer himself must apply for an award or honor for a collection of poems. This is a clear flaw in defining the term award, honor, or even competition. It would be better for there to be institutions, either publishing houses or literary agencies, that scrutinize the works of writers and select from them what is presented for the award or competition, in order to control the process of creating standards in the literary arena. However, since we are in an environment devoid of standards, applying for literary awards is often accompanied by a distortion of the role of the writer or poet, where he begins and where he ends.
* You say in your collection “Simple Mistakes”:
“All those whose fingers I have touched on the way
Wax statues are gone
Everyone I slept in their arms faded away
And disappeared.
Where does all this overwhelming sense of nihilism and emptiness come from, as if intimacy were a cursed spell cast by the poetic self on others?
– Poetic verses cannot be extracted to form a general meaning in an experience. Certainly, there is nihilism that sometimes appears in a text, but in contrast to it there are other meanings that may contradict it. Poetry is an ongoing act, a permanent analysis, and a flow of feelings that may be contradictory according to the difference in the times of writing or the times of experiences. However, if we are discussing this particular experience, this section of this text in particular, only then can we ask, surely there are moments in our lives during which we feel defeated, nihilistic, and lonely, and we express those moments, including that moment in the text. This feeling certainly comes from loss, from a feeling of immersion in loneliness, and the loss of the ability to communicate with others. These are moments that afflict us all. They are not permanent, but expressing them shapes them, so that we are able to question them and test them. This is the role of poetry, not to search for the prevailing, but to put the finger and pass it in search of the protrusions or holes, to describe them, to understand how they happen, and what they cause.
* The title of your collection of poems, “I Fell Asleep in the Peace of the Defeated,” contains a sad paradox. Has defeat become a reason for peace of mind?
– Defeat in its general meaning is not always a negative act, it is also a retreat, or let us say elevation, seeing the scene in a different way, from above as I see it, contrary to the one who is engrossed in it and inside it. Therefore, the reassurance that accompanies such a defeat is the reassurance of the contemplative, to go out of yourself or be defeated by it, to try to find the reassurance of noticing it, searching in it, and understanding it. To be defeated by an experience and retreat from it, to find answers to its questions, and for this search to be accompanied by the reassurance of exiting and departing, even if this departure is temporary and not complete.
* In another collection, “Sleeping Death, Awakening Poem,” has poetry become the actual counterpart of death?
– Not an opposite, but another given, not a contradiction or opposite, but a companion and friend who perform opposite actions for harmony and balance, not for opposition and hostility. The poem awakens, not to cancel death, or end it, because death cannot be ended, or killed, because in the death of death there is also the death of life. But it awakens in the moments when he stands behind, it awakens in order to see, to perceive, to make, and to try to integrate with him for the sake of creation itself, and birth itself.
* How do you view the opinion that the free verse poem written by the majority of your generation has exhausted its aesthetic and intellectual potential, and is no longer able to offer anything new?
– There is currently a decline towards classical poetry. It is quite clear. My generation and the generations that follow are returning to the spirit of classical poetry, even among writers of prose poetry, where writing as an act is not an act of research and discovery but rather an act of astonishment and transcendence. No, it is not the poem that has exhausted its potential, but rather the writers of poetry and its poets who have exhausted their energy on confrontation. Writers are now searching for the (bundle of dinars) that the caliphs used to throw at the poets of praise. This is only a change in the spirit of writers, not the spirit of writing itself.
* Finally, how do you view what is being said about the decline in the influence of poetry on the cultural scene recently and publishers’ reluctance to print more collections of poetry?
– This is a fact, and it is part of the same crisis, the shift towards the vertical form on the one hand, and the regression towards the cloned subjectivity on the other. A shift in understanding the spirit of the age, despair of the act of writing as a factor of interpretation, analysis, deconstruction and change, subjugating poetry to return to its previous roles, so that it becomes the voice of the dominant that is applauded. Poetry now, in any of its forms, is a reflection of the similar faces that have undergone cosmetic surgeries that we see around us. This is the age, and you do not want to change it, or try to change it, you only want to submit to it. This is what is happening.
Conclusion
Mahdi Salman’s thoughts on the duality of poetry and theater, as well as his own experiences as a writer, offer a unique perspective on the role of literature in society. His insights on the current state of poetry and its potential future directions are thought-provoking and challenging.
FAQs
What is the relationship between poetry and theater according to Mahdi Salman?
According to Mahdi Salman, poetry and theater are two forms that have always been close to each other, drawing inspiration from each other’s techniques and methods.
Why has Mahdi Salman not won any literary awards as a poet?
Mahdi Salman believes that the concept of literary awards is flawed and that they often prioritize quantity over quality. He thinks that awards should be given based on the merit of the work, rather than requested by the writer.
What is the message behind the title of his collection "I Fell Asleep in the Peace of the Defeated"?
Mahdi Salman believes that defeat is not always a negative concept, but rather a moment of retreat or elevation, allowing the writer to see the world in a different light and find reassurance in the contemplative process.
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