~A Date With A Literary Scholar~

A DATE WITH A LITERARY SCHOLAR

~REFAAT ALAREER~

           Our lecturer, Dr. Haslina has given a chance for us to spend a session with Mr. Refaat Alareer, a poet from Gaza, Palestine. Most of his poems revolve around the issues of war that happens in Palestine.

            In the beginning of the talk, Mr. Refaat showed a geographical map on the disappearance of Palestine. He told us about the difficulties that the citizen of Palestine and Gaza had, to go out from or even move inside their own country where Israel is guarding the whole places. According to him, the only place for people in Gaza to go out from the city is through Egypt.

He said that most poems there were written in Arabic. There were also poems written in English as written by Mr Refaat himself and other poets.

Ø  Famous Palestinian poets writing in Arabic:-
    1)      Mahmoud Darwish
    2)      Tamim Bargouti

Ø  Famous Palestinian poets writing in English:-
     1)      Rafeef Ziadah
     2)      Susan Abdulhawa
     3)      Remi Kanazi

Other than these poets, young people often use blog to express their resistance against war or injustice through poetry, articles, diary and others. He said that those who express themselves through blogs were mostly young females. He also shared with us about how it all started with; him and poetry. To be a poet we must have the passion to write and to explore the world. These are some tips that he gave us:-

·         Read a lot of good and high quality poetry.

·         Believe that you can write good stuff.

·         Have the will to do so.

·         Scribble your thought. Always.

·         Imitate.

·         Be yourself.

Mr. Refaat also encourages his students to create their own blog in order for them to scribble their thoughts. He wanted them to express themselves by making diaries in blog and share with other people in order for him to know how they see things around them. He also said that a poet needs to prepare a small notebook and write everything that comes to mind. We to treasure the ideas while it still last. There is this one sentence that I quote from his speech;

“Noticing is a skill developed by time”

This sentence shows that he is the kind of person that likes to explore the world and treasure it in his mind or notebook. He is also encouraging others to explore the world and noticing every single thing that happens around us. 

Q & A Session:-

1) Who are your favourite poets?
  - John Dunne and other romantic poets.

2) How was poetry before the war?
  - The poetry were more to personal view or experience that were usually wrote by young poets.

3) How do you take other people's experiences and put it in your writing?
  - He was moved by the reality that happen to others and emotionally wrote it in his work. For example, the story of his student's house that was destroyed two times. He also said that "You don't have to be a mom to write about mom".

4) How is the education in Palestine?
  - Education is good and it is compulsary.
  - There are five universities
  - However there are discrimination in male student where most students are female.

5) How does Palestine or Gaza was before the war?
  - Life was simple.
  - Most people were farmers.
  - Education = outside of the country (in Egypt and around the world).

6) What do the pictures (olive) in the blog symbolize?
  - Olive and olive oil are important to Palestinian.
  - It was rooted between men and land.
  - Olive symbolizes Palestine itself.
  - Mr Refaat spent most of his childhood times around the olive trees. It is very meaningful to him as it gives a lot of memories.