One of the top Iraqi poets, Abdel Wahab al-Bayati, died in Damascus in 1999. He is credited with modernizing Arabic poetry, departing from the older classical forms.
Born in Baghdad in 1926, Iraqi poet Abdel Wahab al-Bayati died in Syria August 3, 1999. He had traveled widely and spent time in the former Soviet Union. He considered himself a communist, but one of his most noted poems, “The Dragon,” describes communist dictators like Stalin, Mao, and Castro in terms that are anything but flattering, for example:
- A dictator, hiding behind a nihilist's mask,
- has killed and killed and killed,
- pillaged and wasted,
- but is afraid, he claims,
- to kill a sparrow.
Al-Bayati had lived in Damascus since 1996. In 1995, Saddam Hussein had deprived the poet of his Iraqi citizenship after the poet had participated in a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia. The head of the Syrian Arab Writers Federation, Ali Oqala Orsan, described al-Bayati as "a pioneer of Arab modern poetry." Orsan told the Associated Press, "His body has gone but his soul will remain among us and his innovation will continue to shine in our lives."
Al-Bayati was one of the first Arab poets to use free verse. In 1950, his first collection of poems titled Angels and Devils was published in Beirut. Soon thereafter, his Broken Jugs was credited with beginning the Arabic modernist movement in literature.
After graduating from Baghdad University in 1950, the poet taught school for four years and then lost his job because of his political leanings. In 1954, he relocated to Syria, then moved to the Soviet Union, and then to Egypt. After returning briefly to Iraq in 1958 after a coup against the monarchy, his disagreements with the government soon had him fleeing his native country again.
Once again, he returned to Iraq in 1968 but fled again when the regime turned deadly for leftists. In 1980, he returned and Saddam Hussein sent the poet to Madrid as a diplomat.
Of his experiences in exile, al-Bayati has remarked that they were "tormenting experience" and that "I always dream at night that I am in Iraq and hear its heart beating and smell its fragrance carried by the wind, especially after midnight when it's quiet."
According to family members, al-Bayati spent his last few years in Syrian cafés with fellow Iraqi exiles like himself, reminiscing about Iraqi in peaceful days when poets and artists were making literary history.
Although al-Bayati’s poetry focused much on politics, his later poetry was influenced by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. Although he bristled at the tight government control of artists, he did not complain about government control of the media. His books are sold in many Baghdad bookshops.
About writing, the poet has explained, “Writing is a difficult art. It not only requires talent, but also thought and linguistic ability. Without these the human being could never become a writer. At the beginning, in the early stages of youth, the writer -- or the person who wants to become a writer -- must perfect his instruments. Perfecting one's instruments is accomplished through reading the literary heritage and following the school curricula. We sometimes underrate the latter, but they are essential to the initial formative stages. If people possess various feelings and sensations, even commendable ones, but have not mastered the art of writing, they cannot write a text or an article. When one writes one is not fooling around or simply inventing things. Rather one is capturing things. Capturing the atoms that make up the universe. Capturing and crystallising thoughts, moulding them into literary form. Writing is also a mental exercise, which starts with a very simple thing, and gradually, day after day, turns into something complex."
For an interview with this fascinating Iraqi poet, please visit An Interview with Al-Bayyati.
