We Are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War

19. Lyrical Resistance: The Example of Saadi Youssef

216 19 Lyrical Resistance The Example of Saadi Youssef Ferial J. Ghazoul O land between two rivers, O land between two swords, On you, O land of peace, On you, O land, peace. —sa a di youssef For almost a century now, Iraq has been undergoing political and cultural upheavals, the last of which was its occupation by American and Allied forces that destroyed the fabric of Iraqi society and its cultural patrimony. But, before that there were the sanctions, wars, and dictatorship that depleted the country. One of the wealthiest countries in human and natural resources has become one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in the world. In such a bleak setting, despair and depression become the order of the day. However, in this unrelenting tunnel there are always figures that provide what I call a “pilot light.” They give us hope not so much in the future but in our ability to overcome adversities. One of these figures is Saadi Youssef, who has been undaunted by detention and exile, never giving up or giving in. His personal trajectory and his poetry provide a road map of cultural resistance expressed in aesthetic mode and confirmed by unwavering principles and lifestyle. He has won the admiration of his peers, the poets Adonis and Mahmoud Darwish, among others, and left his mark on innumerable younger poets. In an autobiographical Lyrical Resistance  217 essay, Khalid al-Maaly, a poet from Samawa in southern Iraq, depicts the significance of Saadi on him from his childhood when they presumably crossed paths on Saadi’s way to prison in 1963 to his first collection of poetry dedicated to Saadi, adding “his [Saadi’s] poems were for me and my generation a coded password that confirmed and attested to what was cultural, political, and social” (Al-Maaly 2009, 18). Saadi Youssef, a major Arab poet and arguably the best living contemporary Iraqi poet, is a prolific writer, a public intellectual, and a steadfast defender of the dispossessed. He has paid dearly for his positions and tasted imprisonment and homelessness, but yet he remained faithful to his principles. He has received innumerable honors and awards1 and has impacted poets all over the Arab world, yet he remains a modest person2 despite his renowned status through literary studies3 and translations into several languages.4 Saadi was born in Hamdan, a village in the Abu al-Khasib district in the Governorate of Basra in 1934. Scenes from his rural upbringing continue to haunt his poetry. His father died when he was a child, and his grandfather took care of him until his older brother became a schoolteacher and could support the family. He had his secondary schooling in Basra and higher education in Baghdad. Saadi received a B.A. (with honors) in Arabic literature from the College of Education in Baghdad in 1954, after which he taught in secondary 1. For an extensive résumé of Saadi Youssef, see Al-Mawludi 2005, 393–97. 2. Fatma Al-Muhsin refers to Saadi as “remaining distant from snobbish rituals . . . embodying with dignity and distinction the character of a vagabond” (AlMuhsin , “Al-Shi‘r,” 17). 3. See for books dedicated entirely to Saadi in Arabic: Ghazoul (1989), AlMuhsin (2000), Al-Samadi (2001), Abdallah (2005), Al-Mawludi (2005); and in English: Huri (2006). 4. See the two book-length English translations of Saadi’s poetry: Troubled Waters (1995b) and Without an Alphabet (2002). For book-length translation in French, see Loin du premier ciel (1999), in German, Fern vom ersten Himmel (2004), and in Italian, I giardini dell’oblio (2004). 218  Ferial J. Ghazoul schools in Basra. After he participated in left-wing conferences outside Iraq, he was blacklisted and could not return to the country. He traveled to Damascus, Cairo, and Kuwait where he ended up a teacher. Only in 1958, after the change of the regime following a bloody coup d’état, did Saadi come back to Iraq to resume teaching. In the early 1960s he was accused of various leftist activities and was detained in prisons in Basra and Naqrat al-Salman in 1963. Once he was released, he left for Algeria where he taught for eight years. He came back to Baghdad in 1971 and worked as managing editor of a journal that specialized in folklore, Al-Turath al-Sha‘abi. In the late 1970s, once again Saadi found the Iraqi...