(A Letter to a Man)
(1)
My dear Master,
This is a letter from a stupid woman
Has a stupid woman before me, written to you?
My name? Lets put names aside
Rania, or Zaynab
or Hind or Hayfa
The silliest thing we carry, my Master - are names
(2)
My Master:
I am frightened to tell you my thoughts
I am frightened - if I did -
that the heavens would burn
For your East, my dear Master,
confiscate blue letters
confiscate dreams from the treasure chests of women
Practices suppression, upon the emotions of women
It uses knives…
and cleavers…
to speak to women
and butchers spring and passions
and black plaits
And your East, dear Master,
Manufactures the delicate crown of the East
from the skulls of women
(3)
Don't criticize me, Master
If my writing is poor
For I write and the sword is behind my door
And beyond the room is the sound of wind and howling dogs
My master!
'Antar al Abys is behind my door!
He will butcher me
If he saw my letter
He will cut my head off
If I spoke of my torture
He will cut my head off
If he saw the sheerness of my clothes
For your East, my dear Master,
Surrounds women with spears
And your East, my dear Master
elects the men to become Prophets,
and buries the women in the dust.
(4)
Don't become annoyed!
My dear Master, from these lines
Don't become annoyed!
If I smash the complaints blocked for centuries
If I unsealed my consciousness
If I ran away…
From the domes of the Harem in the castles
If I rebelled, against my death…
against my grave, against my roots…
and the giant slaughter house….
Don't become annoyed, my dear Master,
If I revealed to you my feelings
For the Eastern man
Is not concerned with poetry or feelings
The Eastern man - and forgive my insolence - does not understand women
but over the sheets.
(5)
I am sorry my master -If I have insolently attacked the kingdom of Men
for the great literature of course -
is the literature of men
And love has always been
the allotment of men…
And sex has always been
a drug sold to men
A senile fairytale, the freedom of women in our countries
For there is no freedom
Other than, the freedom of men…
My Master
Say all you wish of me. It does not matter to me:
Shallow.. Stupid.. Crazy.. Simple minded.
It does not concern me anymore..
For whoever writes about her concerns…
in the logic of Men is called
a stupid woman
and didn't I tell you in the beginning
that I am a stupid woman?
Leave a guest comment (subject to review)
Comments
1 - 15 of 15
-
Bravo!
From guest Le-Ann (contact)
Written from beautiful true emotion, evidently it is a male writer writing the emotions of an eastern woman...Bravo! Mr. Qabbani you did an amazing and moving writing and I feel myself feeling the exact voice of her hopelessness, of her strength and resilience and of her resolution to let her words be heard though it is inevitably unheard in the world of man,...yet in the hope that one day these rantings of a "stupid" woman would indeed be heard!
Bravo!!!
-
i think
though i have never rerad a poem of nizar i think he is a professional writer. -
amazing
-
ok
-
Qabbani's message is, thankfully, becoming a little outdated and sex equality is indeed becoming more widespread than in the past.
However in the context of the time and place that it was written and the sex of the writer this is indeed a great poem and a strong plea. -
From guest Udit Kumar (contact)
I dont understand why in each of the post Eastern man are blamed and please dont generalize. I am from India and my Dad is an Eastern man. He never inflicted his opinion / his ideas / his restriction on my mother. My mother decided her own job her own career as any independent women would do. And I am sure there are millions of household like that in the East esp India....but not sure about Middle East. But why rounding up every eastern man into one domain. -
Neat
I can say, that it's right about Eastern man. I would like to differ an Eastern man from a MOSLEM man. It's quite different. Coz what was said by the profet and what is prescribed to do by ISlamic religion is a bit (and quite) different fromo what is done. I'm married to and Egyptian and live in Egypt, and I see this all around me. The way Arabic men are with Arabic wives, and the way they are with European wives. There's a big difference. I don't know why, but they are more respectful with us, more attentive, more listening to our opinion. And I see, that they are not so nice if they have Arabic wives. And the point is in their mind, or maybe in WOMEN THEMSELVES who admit such a way with them. -
from guest Ramzi Alaya
From guest Ramzi Alaya (contact)
who doesn't get moved by Nizar Qabbani's words, will never get moved by any poet's words. -
What a twist
You start with calling yourself a stupic wo-man, but by far you are the most intelegent woman here. To be under such abuse and be able to reconise it and write about it in such a time of national cover-up. Amasing. Freedom comes at a price. And we are not free until the least of us is free. Love this poems, brings to the awarness of the suffering of woman in other cultrals. -
sorry for you
From guest james (contact)
you speak of eastern men treating women, but in fact I believe Qabani speaks of all men maltreating woman. He speals even of the women in TV, he speaks even for the women in Afghanistan. But he also speaks of the woman who understands everything! -
-
You got it!
-
-
I studied this poem in its original form, in Arabic in my arabic litterature class and I have to say it's one of the most amazing writes I've ever read.. To study this might seem a bit hard at first but it is 100% true.. Nizar uses horrifiying terms to indicate the atrocity and stupidity men treat women with, that is in the eastern tradtions.. To men, a woman is just a tool for pleasure.. she has not right of expressing herself or even thinking about anything that might lead her to emancipation.. Qabbani uses 'A woman' and refuses to name her for it is a call from one woman to all of the women in the world to emancipate their selves from the slavery of men, which is why he adresses the poem in arabic from A woman to A man..
-
thought-provoking
this is a poem that is hard to ignore. I think the poet wants the world to understand that the "stupid woman" is quite aware of issues related to her gender,and that feels frustrated that her virtues seem to have so little place. I do believe that progress has been made with women's rights, but the media also presents conflicting images. Extremist want their women fully veiled--yet some of these women hide western garb underneath.
What this poem does for me is make me aware that there are issues that still need to be addressed, and only this can be done within the culture. Change can not come from the outside, but from within. -
This poem is magnificent! I adore nizar qabbani's poetry, it is so deep and so well written, it touches on the truth that most arab countries prefer to ignore. This poem is bold and clear it illustrates exactly what life for the eastern woman WAS like during his time...we have moved on though, and women have more freedom in certain arab countries, not all. I wish i could read this poem in arabic but arabic english for example: ana ismee sara (thats how i would want it to be written so i get the jist and rythm of the poem as well as the meaning)
-
salam... je cherche un june famme eime la vie
-
The 20th, I'd imagine.
-
What century is he talking about?
-
I am wondering about the expression Eastern Man. Is this a common reference?
-
A very honest remark on the condition of women not only in the East but pretty much everywher. I loved it.
-
Not an accurate portrayl of the Eastern Man, tends to generalize somewhat.
This poetry is about suppression of women in the "Eastern" man's world.These lines reflect this: "A senile fairytale, the freedom of women in our countries For there is no freedom
Other than, the freedom of men" and then again:"If I revealed to you my feelings For the Eastern man Is not concerned with poetry or feelings The Eastern man - and forgive my insolence - does not understand women but over the sheets."This last line refers that woman are only sexual objects and little else. He was a champion for all women, he adored them. However, there are many Eastern men (Arabic origins) who have written intense and beutiful love poems for women and about them, not all Eastern men see women as sexual objects, some of the greatest Arab poets reflect this in their poetry and other writings. Nizar is Syrian (Arab origins)who was deeply in love with his wife and others after her tragic death. There are many Eastern men that Love their women as Nizar wirtes about love, then there are some who do not, I think it highly incorrect to generalize the Eastern man this way, when you can find the same sort of bad apples in all countries, but it seems to be politically popular in these times to adopt this kind of thinking.
Adding your comment:
1 - 15 of 15
