A noted Kuwaiti poet sends preface of her anthology to be published in Korea

*Editor’s note: I am glad to inform you that The AsiaN will publish the anthology titled “A Woman from Kuwait” of Kuwaiti poet Dr. Souad Al Sabah around the end of this month (January). Some of her poems translated into Korean have already been introduced in The AsiaN’s Korean edition in series under the title of “Poetic Fragrance of Arab.”

The noted Kuwaiti poet who also won the 2012 Manhae Literature Prize, sent us the preface of her anthology to be published here. It will be the first Arabic poems to be published in Korea.

A tear an indecipherable tear.

In a world turned into a small village.

Where homes have no doors and the moon keeps no secrets.

A favorable opportunity for a poet to tuck whispers closely in every heart.

How beautiful it is to be a poet in the time of technological occupation.

How wonderful it is to write feelings at a time where the worlds heart has stopped beating, and the time for nostalgia has passed.

Ah.. How sweet to be a rose in the desert. its fragrance traveling through every language. every lover knowing what it means.

But poetry always needs a bee pollinating its scent from place to place.

A task accomplished by only a skilled translator

With each act of translation. I ask myself: what if the translator eliminates your language, your construction, and carries you to other readers. What does this keep of you? What do they really move?

Certainly What remains is that intimate sense.

Translation is therefore nothing but the transfer of feelings from one language to another.

The receiver realizes full well that a tear spilled on a paper by a poet defies translation. And what the translator has done is nothing more than translating the text and revealing the hidden emotions to the reader. screaming out in more than one language.  And for love to be in every shape and color.

Translation is then a great and wonderful thing. Each interpreter working just like that bee in a garden of poets, establishing a global and cultural cross-pollination.

The translator carries a great burden of trust. In that such an act is a special literary case. in a unique literal context.

A translator is not a pollinator as much as a partner in creativity.
When submerges his senses in to the text. he then takes the first dangerous step into the realm of creativity.

When the translator sails from part to part, wings extended beside that of the artist heading towards unadulterated flight.

Localization is like an act of betrayal. at a time when translation is considered an act of trust just as it is considered an act of creativity. the translator should never localize the context of the text to suit that of another language. thus violating its true meaning and damaging its uniqueness.

The translator is faithful to the migration of senses from one language to another and when some of my work is translated every now and then, I remember that I come from a culture that once penetrated the world of translation many centuries ago.

It once was a fountain of knowledge from which translators from all over the world came to drink from its well that is the purity of the Arabic language which is deep, modern and relevant to every period and event and every science. The Arab womb still brings to birth artistic creators and it remains the soul of the Arab world opening windows to the world.

The Arab artist insisted to sail his heart to the end upon the realization that wisdom is sought by the believer with love faithfulness. A true scholar is one who does not confine knowledge. The Arab scholars were a unique model for an era carrying a living language able to express. Hence translation thrived and stimulated scholars to transfer, create and explore.

The Arab scholars have established over the first 12 centuries a bridge between east and west. In this world, the sun was born ..its light penetrating open minds that believed in exposure to others and uniformly inspiring humanity. Bound to a single goal which is self-expression and the liberation from ignorance.

Out of my belief that creators are the guardians of values and leaders in the liberation of humanity. I chose to be a voice for freedom. In all circumstances and in all places.

I did not write to read myself. Instead I wrote to the world to be read and when the world reads me it inevitably will hear from Souad Al-Sabah the voice of thousands who scream on behalf of women and lovers of nostalgia and express on behalf of their hearts and the cries of the oppressed. Demanding their rights.

And the grief of the oppressed. written in the name of their sorrows and those tyrants, I was never a voice for them. They are the only ones who do not like my voice and I am only detested by tyrants. And no one would fight me other than an enemy of freedom.

Since the start, I would stand forefront among the front lines. When my book of poetry was published (In the beginning was the woman). I was dealing with the word as though it were a woman, and the poem as a woman and the sun as a woman, and as once said by one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language Abu-AlTayeb Al-Mutanabbi “referring to the crescent as male is no pride for it”.

Poetry has specific uniqueness when faced with translation. It stands face-to-face to the test of time, alive and well. In poetry it is not required that the translation conveys the meaning. that is a task for the Applied Sciences.

In poetry there are visible and invisible meanings and because the poet’s fire never extinguishes. there are always live embers under the ashes.

And as much as I am loyal to writing and as much as I am loyal to the book and the person. They are two entities with great similarities. in their formation and biological makeup, they are similar, even in their blood cycle formation, nervous system and respiratory system.

Similarly, as humans hike, climb mountains, swim, water ski, and travel… the book also enjoys the hobby of in sailing into the unknown, and travelling around the world.

The book was a saint that teaches wisdom and spreads knowledge, and enlightens people out of the darkness into the light. It must continue to be so.

It remains to give thanks and gratitude to all those who participated in this translation project. How lucky I am with the outpour of love and how happy am I for their interest and understanding and I feel happiness similar to a happy sea gull flying over the sea. Swooping to pick up a fish. Then flying into space like proud nobles.

Poetry is non other than a sudden lightning that travels from soul to soul. Here I am Kuwaiti sea gull flying over the Korean banks. This wonderful country which has produced sincere and splendid humans of culture that have mastered their work. Accept from me all my love.