It was a pleasure to participate on a panel of Libyan writers to speak about Libyan literature, especially fiction, the event was part of the London Book Fair 2011 cultural activities, and with the efforts of Samuel Shimon, and Margret Obank from Banipal magazine, the leading magazine of Arab literature. I joined my fellow Libyan writers Hisham Matar, Giuma Bukleb and Mohamed Mesrati and chaired by Iraqi writer Samuel Shimon to talk about the origins of Libyan fiction and the situation of Libyan writers and literature under the Gaddafi regime and also discussed why Libyan literature continue to be unknown […]
English
Afflictions (By: Jelani Trebshan)
The late Libyan poet Jelani Trebshan (1944 – 2001), embodied in his works the suffering of many Libyan writers and intellectuals under the Gaddafi regime, he was considered in the early 1970’s one of the most distinguished new voices of a new generation of Libyan poets, but as the Libyan regime persecuted and imprisoned many writers in the late 1970’s, he found himself living as bohemian homeless writer on the streets of Britain and Ireland, Morocco, and Iraq, running away from the shadows of death and longing for his homeland, until he came back to Libya in 1988 full of frustrations […]
Libya and the international moral question
Five weeks ago many Libyans, knew that if the ‘The Arab Spring’ revolution reached its cities and towns, the response of the Libyan regime won’t be peaceful, they anticipated ferocious crack down, but no one predicted the horrors we witnessed when the Gaddafi regime unleashed its brutal forces to kill peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Libyan cities from east to west. Libya has a long history of suffering, and strife, and in the darkest hours of despair during its past, Libyans felt always that they are like orphans, being abandoned by all, and left to suffer in silence. Half […]
Voice of Freedom
To Mohamed ‘Mo’ Nabbous A voice echoed in dawn Struggling for truth Calling for fear to retreat A face from the screen Promising us the dream I hear you I see your smile in our eyes Reach to your pain Hold to a thread of light An image of the child to be Sitting on edges of heaven Free forever, never to fade Recite his hymn “I am not afraid…!” Never will we lose the battle Rise my friend My comrade My brother Rise and roar the voice of freedom You will never die Will never lose the battle
BBC The Strand on Libya and Libyan Writers 25/02/2011
BBC The Strand Ghazi Gheblawi and Giuma Bukleb, who’ve contributed to a new collection of short stories from Libya, discuss the role of writers in their culture and the role that contemporary short stories and literature might have during the current uprisings.
A Card
By: Mohamed Shaltami* Say what you like. And write with the font of the crown what misery has carved in us, And say, we are traitors, cowards With hearts full of men’s dead endeavors I fled, And left my shoes behind me, And left behind the bridge the voice of the killed east Say what you like, I am an infiltrator, A traitor, barefoot, dragging behind him a new disgrace Say what you want But I will not die, ever So you can mount my corpse to victory No, I will not die… ________ * Mohamed Shaltami (1945- 2010) Benghazi-Libya: A renowned Libyan […]
Ode for Libya
The blood cries for a land where the sun walks the sands Playful with joys of freedom.. The chants rise to the heavens of the free I kiss your faces, Full of life never to die, I cuddle your dreams of love stories, Children to be, I write your names on the face of time And nothing will be spared A drop of rain, Water in the stream, Dust from the south And a sacred sadness in the night of the free I reach a finger into his wound, I will never doubt, I will never know fear, A smile […]
Leaflet
By: Mohamed Shaltami* My friends… Before the shadows of the mirage Foliates as a magic oasis in each door in my heart And the love for truth sealed its locks before me Don’t pass by And steadfast It is he that breathes life into the graves Turning darkness into light And chants to millions of paupers To revolt And his letters destroyed the cave and tyrants of the age. My friends… A thousand years might pass upon us Without a field, a house or spring We might be unable In the ages of death and humiliation for all to step […]
2010 a year in pictures عام في صور
The Rowdy
By: Ramez Enwesri* The kid living deeply The smiling despite his hunger The ever dreamer Despite the drought surprises us with novelties And he can stun us with the naval scene The apprehension of words at his lips His trundling to the reach His hand fiddling in us without fear The cry of discovery The finger of caves The imperfect verbs Conjugation of the regular and irregular The loving kid We load him with the unbearable The very close to God The transparent The capable of reaching her house, and entering Making love to her The standing firmly at her, […]