Arabic poetry night

The French Culturel Centre and the Educational Bookshop arranged an evening for Arabic poetry. Three poets were supposed to come, but only one made it - and he read aloud from some of his poems in FusHa, The Most Eloquent Arabic. I didn't understand much, except the main theme of each poem, but I enjoyed the sound of the language. And was amused when he switched to Palestinian dialect to introduce the next poem or talk with the audience.

The poet reciting one of his poems.

After a short break came a man with his 3oud and played and sang for us. He played the 3oud differently from what I have come to know as Arabic style with lots of ornamentations, rather he used harmony (though the transarent, thin kind) and few, pure notes. The audience wished for some songs, and sang along on the refrain, a very sweet habit I also experienced in Cairo.


The exit was through the Educational Bookshop, and of course we had to stop and look at all the tempting books. We managed to only bring one home, on Naji al-Ali and his cartoon character Hanthala. (Take a look here to read about al-Ali and Hanthala.)