[Updated below]
As the double unilateral ceasefires start to take hold in Palestine, the world’s attention can now fully turn without guilt to Barack Obama’s inauguration. (Coincidental timing? Hmm… Get in your destruction before Bush leaves.) I suppose I’ll do my part to add to the media/blogosphere frenzy by offering up two choice Obama tidbits from this corner of the world. Enjoy.
The Syrian newspaper Al-Watan (the homeland) has been flamboyantly counting down until January 20th. On each of the five days a week that they publish, they give more space on their front page to the countdown than they do to the name of their newspaper; they’ve been at it at least since my arrival here a week after the election in November. One exception was when Gaza earned a full-page color picture spread. Is this countdown an example for the world’s excitement about the arrival of the transformational candidate, Barack Obama? Well, not quite…
My on-and-off collection of Al-Watan since mid-December
"12 days until Bush's departure from the White House - Humanity has an appointment with a new dawn."
[Don’t forget to notice the picture below of the dead child in Gaza, who chances are you didn’t see if you were watching or reading American news.]
At one level the text and picture are pretty hilarious, like many things relating to our almost-former president, but at another level it is a pretty good measure of people’s sentiment here. The focus is on Bush: everyone is very, very glad to see him on the way out and there’s a feeling that no one could have been any worse for, for Arabs, for Islam, for the region, for the world, etc. I interpret the part about the new dawn as a negative statement about Bush rather than a positive statement about Obama. Some people I’ve spoken to are optimistic, to different degrees, about Obama, but usually that optimism comes back to Bush: It’s easy to be optimistic when you’re starting from far below zero.
Combined with that optimism is usually some kind of caution: لسّا ما بيّن “He still hasn’t shown himself.” Sometimes people mention fondly the Clinton years, hoping that Obama could be like Clinton. I’m always surprised at the degree to which Clinton is popular among Arabs – apparently his charisma translates – because in terms of Palestine, he was always vehemently pro-Israel, just as his wife and Obama are today. The people who are not so optimistic about Obama are interested enough in the Palestinian issue to know that fact full well. But Clinton did visit Syria, which probably made him irrevocably beloved here. An Obama visit here could potentially seal the deal, but we can acknowledge that making some Syrians like him is not at the very top of his list.
Speaking of Obama’s priorities, last month I received an email forward of a poem by Egyptian poet Ahmad Matar about that very issue, narrated in Obama’s voice no less. Below is the poem and my translation – the translation is of course missing the rhymes and sounds which make the original especially hilarious:
للشاعر أحمد مطر
مِن أوباما
لِجَميعِ الأعرابِ شُعوباً أو حُكّاما
قَرْعُ طَناجِرِكُمْ في بابي
أرهَقَني وَأطارَ صَوابي..
(افعَل هذا يا أوباما
اترُك هذا يا أوباما
أمطِرْنا بَرْداً وسَلاما
يا أوباما.
وَفِّرْ للِعُريانِ حِزاما!
يا أوباما.
خَصِّصْ للِطّاسَةِ حَمّاما!
يا أوباما.
فَصِّلْ للِنَملَةِ بيجاما !
يا أوباما)
قَرقَعَة تَعلِكُ أحلاماً
وَتَقيء صَداها أوهَامَا
وَسُعارُ الضَّجّةِ مِن حَوْلي
لا يَخبو حتّى يتنامى.
وَأنا رَجْلُ عِندي شُغْلٌ
أكثَرُ مِن وَقتِ بَطالَتكُمْ
أطوَلُ مِن حُكْمِ جَلالَتِكُمْ
فَدَعوني أُنذركُمْ بَدءاً
كَي أحظى بالعُذْر ختاما:
لَستُ بِخادمِ مَن خَلَّفَكُمْ
لأُسِاطَ قُعوداً وَقياما.
لَستُ أخاكُمْ حَتّى أُهْجى
إن أنَا لَمْ أصِلِ الأرحاما.
لَستُ أباكُمْ حَتّى أُرجى
لأكِونَ عَلَيْكُمْ قَوّاما.
وَعُروبَتُكُمْ لَمْ تَختَرْني
وَأنا ما اختَرتُ الإسلاما!
فَدَعوا غَيري يَتَبَنّاكُمْ
أو ظَلُّوا أبَداً أيتاما!
أنَا أُمثولَةُ شَعْبٍ يأبى
أن يَحكُمَهُ أحَدٌ غَصبْا
و نِظامٍ يَحتَرِمُ الشَّعبا.
وَأنا لَهُما لا غَيرِهِما
سأُقَطِّرُ قَلبي أنغاما
حَتّى لَو نَزَلَتْ أنغامي
فَوقَ مَسامِعِكُمْ.. ألغاما!
فامتَثِلوا.. نُظُماً وَشُعوباً
وَاتَّخِذوا مَثَلي إلهاما.
أمّا إن شِئتُمْ أن تَبقوا
في هذي الدُّنيا أنعاما
تَتَسوَّلُ أمْنَاً وَطَعاما
فَأُصارِحُكُمْ.. أنّي رَجُلُ
في كُلِّ مَحَطّاتِ حَياتي
لَمْ أُدخِلْ ضِمْنَ حِساباتي
أن أرعى، يوماً، أغناما!
From Obama
To all the Arabs, common folk or rulers:Your banging of pots at my door
Has worn me out and dispelled my peace of mind…“Do this, Obama!
Leave that, Obama!
Shower us with alleviation and peace, Obama!
To the naked man, give a belt, Obama!
For the water-cup, fix a bath, Obama!
For the ant, cut out a pair of pajamas, Obama!”A ruckus like this chews up dreams
And vomits up their echo as illusions;
The frenzy of this hubbub around me
Does not die out until it starts to grow again.I am a man who has more work to do
Than you have idle time to spend,
Work that is longer than your rulers’ reigns,
So let me warn you from the start
In order that by the end I may be forgiven:I am not your daddy’s servant
To be whipped, sitting and standing.
I am not your brother to be mocked
If I don’t look out for the relatives.
I am not your father to be implored
That I be guardian over you.
Your Arabness did not choose me
And I did not choose Islam,
So ask someone else to adopt you
Or else stay forever orphans!I am an exemplar of a people that refuses
To let anyone rule them against their will,
An exemplar of a system that respects the people;
I will, for them and for no others,
Make my heart drip as melodies,
Even if my melodies sound
To your ears like bombs!So take note, regimes and peoples,
And take my example as inspiration.
But if you wish to remain
In this world as cattle
Who beg for safety and food,
Then I will be honest with you: I am a man
Who, in all the stages of my life,
Have never once put into my consideration
That I would, one day, herd sheep.
The poem ends up taking a rather harsh stance about Arabs (for whom the poem is intended), and paints the new president in a certain kind of favorable light, without passing judgment on him too decisively. Yet I think the poet has captured well Mr. Obama’s tone: his calmness and coolness in the face of the whole world banging their pots at his door.
One point that I’m afraid the translation didn’t quite get across: the phrase “idle time” could also mean “unemployment time,” meaning that Arabs have a lot of unemployment, just as their leaders rule for a long time – but Obama has more to do than even those very big, long things.
A line that expresses a fear of mine is the bit about chewed up dreams coming out as illusions. Despite having my doubts about him from the beginning and all along the way, I supported Obama in his campaign, voted for him, and was truly moved and inspired the night that he was elected. I know that many of my wishes for his presidency will not come true, I’m just hoping they don’t all end up as illusions.
My favorite section is this:
I will, for them and for no others,
Make my heart drip as melodies,
Even if my melodies sound
To your ears like bombs!
First of all, I love the image of Obama’s oratory skills as “making his heart drip as melodies,” since that’s just how it is to my ears: I am a sucker for that man’s melodious words. Secondly, the Arabic original is very clever: the words “melodies” (anghama) and “landmines” (alghama) – which I translated as “bombs” – have such similar sounds, in addition to their rhyming with Obama’s name, just like most lines of the poem.
When I first translated this, I thought that maybe “bombs” was a little too harsh of a word, and I was looking for alternative ways of phrasing it. But then Gaza happened, and I left it as is – the harshness is real, is necessary. Obama’s lack of response to what was happening, excepting his few carefully phrased but meaningless statements, was pretty heartbreaking to me, if not surprising. Indeed, his crafted words were sounding very much like bombs.
So I will watch the inauguration and chances are I will be seduced by whatever Obama says. Yet in the back of my mind, I’ll be thinking of Gaza, of the ongoing occupation in Iraq, of the expanding occupation in Afghanistan, and of readiness to attack Pakistan at will. I am afraid that there will be plenty of bombs in the next four years as in the past four years, yet this time well-disguised as sweet, sweet melodies.
1/19 update: They’ve changed their format for today’s paper, the day before:
"Tomorrow: Obama to the White House and Bush to the garbage can of history - the world has an appointment with a new dawn"
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