Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Rashid Hussein ( 1936 - 1977) was a Palestinian poet, preacher, journalist and translator from Hebrew to Arabic. He was born in the village of Musmus, north of Palestine, and died after a fire in his apartment in New York City .
Rashid published his first collection in 1957. The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish called him "the star", who wrote about "human things" such as bread, hunger and anger.
his life
Hussein was born into a Muslim family of farmers in Musmus in 1936, during the British Mandate in Palestine . He attended primary school in Umm al-Fahm , a town near his village. He was educated in the city of Nazareth and graduated from Nazareth Secondary School. Hussein described himself as a "lax Muslim", writing once in 1961: "I neither pray nor go to the mosque knowing that I am disobeying God's will...Thousands of people like me are lax in carrying out the divine commandments. But these thousands are disobedient. They did not remain silent about what our pious judges who pray and fast have remained silent about”
In 1955 he worked as a teacher in Nazareth, a profession described by the Israeli critic Emil Marmorestein as a "storm". Rashid educates the rural poor in dilapidated schoolrooms that lack sufficient textbooks. During his teaching career, he had constant conflicts with the Zionist supervisors of Arab education in Israel and with the Arab section of the National Teachers' Union.
Literary career
In 1952, Hussein began writing poetry. Two years later, he published his first poetry collection. In 1957 he published in Nazareth a small volume called With the Dawn . In a short period of time, he became the first Palestinian poet in the Palestinian interior. In 1958, he became the literary editor of Al- Fajr , an Arabic-language monthly newspaper affiliated with the Histadrut Workers Union , as well as the weekly newspaper Al-Musawwar. At that time, the Iraqi Jewish critic Eliyahu Khuzum Hussein described him as "the most promising Arab poet in Israel", and "the only one interested in studying the Hebrew language" and said that he had surprised the audience of Jewish and Arab writers with his "recitation of his first poem" which He wrote it in Hebrew.” In that year, he published another volume in Arabic, which he called Rockets .
By 1959, he had translated many Arabic poems into Hebrew and vice versa, as well as the works of German poet Bertolt Brecht , Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba and a Persian poet. Hussein was also a member of the left-wing Israeli political party Mapam , and was the editor of its weekly Al Mirsad. In the spring of 1961, Al- Mersad became a daily publication, but shortly after the Knesset elections in August 1961, it returned to publication weekly as it had been previously. Both Al-Fajr and Al- Musawwar were discontinued due to lack of funds in 1962, but the former returned to circulation again in 1964. At this time, Hussein began translating the Hebrew works of the Israeli poet Haim Nachman Bialik into Arabic.
Hussein collaborated with Jewish poet Nathan Zak as co-editor and translator for The Palms and Dates , an anthology of Arabic folk songs. In the Introduction to Palms and Dates , published shortly after the 1967 war, they note the difference between the nostalgic “days of liberalism and sympathy” and the current “days of hate and violence.” Furthermore, they hoped that the anthology would promote "dialogue between societies and an appreciation of the literature of each culture".
Political activism
Hussein wrote that humiliation, discrimination, and exposure to arbitrary decisions were the things that summed up the conditions of Arabs at the hands of Israel. He often criticized David Ben-Gurion , various Israeli governments, those in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, and some Arabs whom he considered to be collaborators with the Israeli authorities. At the same time, he made appeals to "Jewish citizens", especially those who belong to labor parties to adhere to the universal principles of their progressive movements and to fight against the inequality that Arabs in Israel are subjected to.
While much of Hussein's writings were in agreement with Mapam's ideology and program, he differed greatly with the party through his public support for Egypt 's Arab nationalist president , Gamal Abdel Nasser . He accused the Arabic-speaking Voice of Israel Radio of being strongly biased against Nasser, while being positive towards Nasser's Arab opponents, including Abdel Karim Kassem of Iraq, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia and the Saudi royal family . He emphasized that while all of these opposed Zionism, it was only Abdel Nasser who constantly developed his country, fought imperialism and took steps towards Arab unity. It is worth noting that Mapam, as a Zionist party, has opposed all the above-mentioned Arab figures. In the 1959 Knesset elections, the conflict between Nasser and Kassem was a major issue in the Arab community in Israel, leading to a split between Nasser's Arab nationalist supporters and Kassem's communist sympathizers. Hussein's articles at dawn at the time were condemning Qasim's policies and praising Nasser to the point that one of his articles appeared in the Egyptian weekly Akher Sa'a . Hussein entered into an argument with some of his contemporaries (such as Mahmoud Darwish ) due to a dispute with the Israeli Communist Party over the national issue.
Hussein decried the negative morale of those in his generation who simply sought to make a living rather than fight for their rights. However, this capitulation and indifference was blamed not only on the Arab youth themselves, but on the environment in which they grew up, many of whom lived through the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Nakba, and the expulsion of tens of thousands from their homes. According to Hussein, neighboring Arab countries responded to the Palestinian Nakba by replacing their old leadership. However, in the case of the Palestinians who remained in Israel, "the old leadership to control Arab society on behalf of the state was restored."
He co-founded the Land Movement , and in 1962 Hussain was expelled from Mapam, and his application to become a teacher was rejected again. In 1965, Hussein moved to Paris , and two years later, he became a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and worked in its office in New York City , where he worked as a Hebrew-Arabic translator. He moved to Damascus after four years. In 1973, he worked as an announcer in the Hebrew language program of the Syrian Broadcasting Service. In the late 1970s, he returned to New York to work as a correspondent for the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United Nations . His most prominent media activities were in American university circles, where he participated in many seminars and debates on the Palestinian issue. This was apparently his most dangerous activity in the eyes of the authority when his Israeli citizenship was withdrawn and he was prevented from visiting his family. Hussein participated in founding the Institute for Palestine Studies .
His name was awarded the Jerusalem Medal for Culture, Arts and Letters in 1990.
death
On February 2, 1977, Hussain died as a result of a fire in his New York apartment. On February 8, he was buried in his village of Musmus, and his tomb has since become a Palestinian national symbol. Some claim that he was murdered, assassinated, and that his apartment fire was arson.
Many of Hussein's works were published in a volume edited by Kamel Blouta entitled "The World of Rashid Hussein: A Palestinian Poet in Exile" ( Detroit , 1979). A commemorative volume of Hussein's poems and other literary works were published in Shefa Amr in 1980, including " Palestinian Poems" in 1982 . In his 1986 poem, Mahmoud Darwish , who had met Hussein in Cairo , commemorated his death as a sudden loss of a charismatic figure who could have energized the Palestinian people, and wrote:
'On Fifth Street greeted me'
He cried, leaning against the glass wall
Nor willows in New York,
I cry
Return the water to the river
We drank coffee and then parted in seconds
Twenty years ago, I knew him at forty
And long as a coastal and sad anthem
He was throwing his hair in Hristo's restaurant
All of Acre wakes up from sleep and walks in the water
And for my mother to say now ah.” - Mahmoud Darwish , On Fifth Street Hayani (1986)
In 2006, Palestinian singer Reem Kilani included one of Rashid's poems in her song "Nostalgia". The song was published on her album " Sprinting Gazelle - Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and Diaspora" . According to Kilani, the title of Hussein's poem translates literally to "Thoughts and Echoes", but she "chose the English title to reflect her personal nostalgia, and perhaps Hussein's longing, for freedom from his personal and collective sense of siege."
Poetry and influences
Hussein's poetry was influenced by the eleventh century Arab poet Abu Ala Al-Maarri and the Lebanese-American poet Elia Abu Madi who lived in the early twentieth century. Marmorestein wrote:
It is clear that the choice of these two figures has to do with the experience of Palestinian Muslims who find themselves transformed from the majority to the minority. Because the skepticism and pessimism of Abu al-Ala al-Maari reflects the era of social decay and political chaos in Islam, while Elia Abu Madi, who immigrated in 1911 to the United States, represents the ability of Arabic literature to survive and be enriched by a non-Arab environment.
His early works had strictly classical Arabic characteristics , but gradually Husayn gained more freedom in his use of classical meter and his poetry became more comical. Hussein used in his prose the spirit of the traditional black comedy of German Jews and Syrian Arabs in the Ottoman era as an introduction to his rhetorical description of the suffering of Arabs in Israel.
His poetic works
- With Dawn (Al-Hakim Press, Nazareth, 1957 AD).
- Missiles (Al-Hakim Press, Nazareth, 1958).
- I am the land, do not deprive me of rain (Palestine Al-Thawra Publications, Beirut, 1976) with an introduction by the Palestinian poet Izz Al-Din Al-Manasrah .
- The second book of poetry: includes the first and second groups; Committee for the Revival of Rashid Hussein's Heritage (Dar Al-Qabas Al-Arabiya, Acre , 1978).
- Palestinian Poems (Revival Committee of Rashid Hussein's Heritage, Cairo, 1980).
- Diwan Rashid Hussein, The Complete Poetic Works (Beirut).
- Well said, Nazareth.
- His works in art
- The poem "Against", sung by George Crimson .
- The poem "The Absent" was sung by Rim Banna .
Translations
- Haim Nachman Bialik: Selected Collections of His Poetry and Prose - Translation from Hebrew (Dvir Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 1966).
- palms and dates; A group of Arabic folk songs, translated in collaboration with a Jewish poet from Arabic into Hebrew.
- The Arabs in Israel: authored by Sabri Jeries / two parts, the poet's translation from Hebrew into Arabic ( Research Center , Beirut 1967).
Written by
- The poetic language of the exile poet: A stylistic study in the poetry of Rashid Hussein, Salah Mahajna, Al Qasimi Complex for Arabic Language and Literature - Al Qasimi Academy.
- Hussein, Hosni Mahmoud. Rashid Hussein: The Poet from Romanticism to Realism, Arab Agency for Distribution and Publishing, 1980.
- Reading in Rashid Hussein’s Poems: An Analytical Study / Ali Faraj Abu Al-Hassan, Bethlehem: Badil - Palestinian Resource Center for Citizenship and Refugee Rights, 2000.
- The Creative Phenomenon in Rashid Hussein's Poetry / Jamal Salsa . Taybeh: The Center for the Revival of Arab Heritage.
- Rashid Hussein: The life and death of a fighter! / Collected and composed by Ibrahim Ghanayem.
- Rashid Hussein: The courted poet with a poem (1936-1977) / Muhammad Ali Taha , Palestinian Center for Research and Strategic Studies, Ramallah.
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To