I declare that there is no other Human Being
Except the One who fights Hatred relentlessly
In him and around him
The one who just as he opens his eyes in the morning
Raises the question:
What I will do today to preserve
my quality and my pride
as a Human?
(I declare)
L’espoir à l’arranché (“On the thread of hope”) 2018, is Francophone Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi’s latest poetry collection to be recently translated into Italian, with the title Sul filo della speranza by Carolina Paolicchi and published by Astarte edizioni in 2021. Divided into five harmonious sections, in this collection, the author’s maturity as a poet is revealed by verse that is highly textured, constantly renewed and open to human, universal questions. All sections of the collection show his active participation in contemporary society and the gaze of the militant intellectual who embraces a keen interest for current affairs. The gaze is that of an observer, but rather than a passive one, it is that of a poet who trembles in the face of injustice and in a calm tone, almost a whisper, refuses to give up exposing evil and denouncing it. The gaze is directed towards contemporaneity and towards the era in which we live. The Syrian tragedy, for example, is present in many poems, such as “Aleppo”:
not a word about Aleppo
you can not
you are but a spectator
helpless
embarrassed to death
trapped in this sordid brothel
that language has become
Witnessing
Denouncing
Will we keep filling our mouths?
I tell you
not a word about Aleppo
You can not
or again, “Aylan of Syria”:
I didn’t write anything
when it was necessary
on Aylan
I confess that even today
This omission
Haunts me
As if I were Cain
The collection does not lack for challenges to fanaticism and manipulated religious ideologies. Just as there is no lack of condemnation against intellectual oppression and freedom of thought.
In the lines cited above (“I declare”) we perceive immediately the poet’s need to define himself within the scope of the human and to proudly proclaim his belonging to the human race. Abdellatif Laabi declares and certifies that he identifies with humans and their tragedies, and this is a deeply felt theme in all his socially committed work.
This universal dimension is harmoniously intertwined with a second level that allows for the emergence of the individual experience of the poet, whose ego is very present throughout the work. In fact, some of the poems evoke the poet’s own history and his experience of imprisonment. Laabi was arrested in 1972 with the charge of subversion and plotting against the regime and in 1973 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was then released after 8 and a half years thanks to an international campaign on his behalf. This painful experience did not make him lose his concern for humanity and his continuous raising of existential questions. For him prison becomes a lesson in transparency and awareness of one’s abilities and limitations. The jailkeeper will never be able to humiliate him or extinguish his capacity for revolt and freedom, as he writes in the poem “I remember”, speaking of his torturer:
and despite the madness of pain
into which he had sunk me
I kept reading
in his wide open eyes
the same astonishment
that said
never
at no time
did he humiliate me
the role of poetry is also central to the collection. Poetry acts as witness, it becomes the spokesperson for the phenomena that surround us. Poetry lends words to things that have no voice, evokes the details of everyday life and petty affairs. Poetry is totality, is the only thing that counts, as the poet declares in the following lines of “I belong to her”:
And now
Only poetry matters
…
I belong to her
And to her
return
Thus making On the thread of hope a hymn to poetry as well.
Cover image: Photo of Gaza beach at sunset taken by Ahmed Masoud in April 2021.
