Guest of the ilb 2003
The poet Saadi Youssef was born in the vicinity of Basra, Iraq, in 1934. In 1948, the year in which the state of Israel was founded, young intellectuals broke with classical Arabic literary tradition and introduced free verse into Arabic poetry. This new style spread, unstoppable like the desert winds, and influenced the ensuing generation of writers, which also included Youssef.
He studied Arabic literature in Bagdad. He later had to leave the country repeatedly due to his political involvement – a fate he shared with the majority of Iraq’s intellectuals. In the late 70’s when Saddam Hussein came to power, Saadi Youssef left Bagdad for good. Today, after years of exile in various countries, he lives in London.
Youssef was influenced by the most important poets of the »free verse« movement, the Iraqis Badr Shakir as-Sayyab and Abdalwahab al-Bayati, who wanted to give poetry a strong position at the phalanx of the progressive, revolutionary powers. In the 50’s and 60’s Youssef wrote political poetry and, like Mahmud Darwish and Amal Dunqul, could claim to be a people’s poet. He sympathized with the anti-imperialist movement, which at the time convened as socialist and communist parties.
In the second half of the 70’s he stopped writing political verse. His poems became increasingly like a Zen-Koan: full of secrets and yet so simple. Like in the children’s game »I spy with my little eye…« he speaks about things of an apparently everyday nature and in doing so, gets at the things behind the things.
Youssef’s language, which is characterised by lyrical realism, is stunningly authentic and direct. As a translator into Arabic of works by Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Garcia Lorca, Jannis Ritsos, Walt Whitman and above all Konstantin Kavafis, he feels a close connection to these poets of world literature. Saadi Youssef is an artist who – given no choice – has taken to the seas and not once cast anchor in his native country. Perpetual longing accompanies him on his travels, the topic of exile and migration is omnipresent: »The pole lost its guiding star – but my distant home still awaits me.«
Today Saadi Youssef speaks, shortly after the end of the Iraq War, in a forthright way about the political future: »We must still, it seems to me, brace ourselves for a possible series of shock waves in the aftermath of the recent seismic upheavals in Iraq.« What makes his poetry so fascinating is that despite the oppressive political reality, it is surprisingly light.
© international literature festival berlin | 
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