A brief critical review on your poetry -By: Sherif Okasha

A brief critical review on your poetry
Written by: Sherif Okasha - Egypt

May I send a honey-dewed morrow greeting to the one who wrote the most marvelous poem I’ve ever read. Actually I read your poem "The glittering of the shiver" in English and Arabic several times and each time a sweet ,unique, elevated ,indescribable shivering glitter creeps into my soul. Your poetry is glamorous both aesthetically and technically. If you don’t mind, I allow myself here to make a brief critical review of your poetic talent. First of all, I appreciate the fact that you write your poetry in Arabic and back translate it into English. All research in cognitive psychology asserts that our imagery is most profoundly formed in our native language because as you of course are aware our feelings, imagination..Etc are affected by our culture of which language is a subpart. So the back translation, once done effortful and accurately, as yours was, will definitely convey the original "tangle" of thoughts that got enmeshed in the native linguistic mind of the poet (this is not! of course to say that one cannot write original poetry in his/her second language).

Second, your imagery proves my theory about the ideal image: The best imagery is formed by establishing a direct link between the inner world and the real, concrete world without the mediating agent of language. So fertile imagination will be the product of establishing a link ,not between the traditional "figurative" level and our perceptions ,but between our perceptions and the real world. Your vivid images clearly demonstrate this faculty of yours.

I hope I have not bored you with this rather academic discussion of your extremely promising poetic flair. As for me, I’m a linguist by vocation, literary translator and writer by avocation! Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. Did you really find my translation of Nizar interesting?. It is my own translation. I did it about 12 years ago in my last university year. It was my habit since that time to translate great Arabic lyrics into English, but due to a general lack of interest among Arab readers and publishers thereof, I gave up the whole thing. Really your comment encouraged me to resume again, if a poetic connoisseur like you will care to read such translations. Sorry for the long email, I’ll follow closely your poetic creations and I hope y always notify me thereof. I have some shy attempts at writing English poetry, which you will find at: Egyptianbloggers.blogspot.com

I'll be happy for further exchanges and comments in the future
Best Luck
Sherif Okasha – Egypt