Nizar Qabbani

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Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani (Template:Langx, Template:ALA-LC; 21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) was a Syrian poet, diplomat, and publisher. Widely regarded as Syria’s national poet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Qabbani’s work is noted for its blend of simplicity and lyrical elegance, addressing themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, Arab nationalism, and resistance to both foreign imperialism and domestic authoritarianism. He remains one of the most celebrated and influential contemporary poets in the Arab world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Nizar Qabbani 2005">"Nizar Qabbani: From Romance to Exile”, Muhamed Al Khalil, 2005, A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Department of Near Eastern Studies in partial ulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate College of the University of Arizona, USA.</ref> His notable relatives include the playwright Abu Khalil Qabbani, diplomat Sabah Qabbani, writer Rana Kabbani, and translator Yasmine Seale.

Biography

Early life

File:Nizar Kabbani - 1935.jpg
Nizar Qabbani in childhood.

Nizar Qabbani was born in Damascus, the capital of Syria, into a middle-class merchant family of Syrian-Arab origins.<ref>ترجمة نزار قباني، موسوعة الجزيرة Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>ترجمة نزار قباني مرجع الطلاب في النقد التطبيقي - صفحة: 175</ref><ref>عن نزار قباني وأبي خليل القباني - مجلة شؤون عربية - فصلية فكرية تصدرها وحدة المجلات في الأمانة العامة لجامعة الدول العربية - العدد: 155-156</ref><ref>ترجمة نزار قباني - صفحة: 351 - الفيروزية: ثلاثية شامية "الأردن - سوريا - لبنان" - شيرين عادل</ref><ref>ترجمة نزار قباني، إذاعة مونت كارلو الدولية Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>في ميلاد نزار قباني: ذكرى وحي الشعر الأول وكثير من الأسرار، مجلة سيدتي Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>في ميلاد نزار قباني: ذكرى وفاة نزار قباني، عرب تايمز Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>ترجمة نزار قباني، جريدة الأيام السورية Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>ترجمة نزار قباني، إذاعة دبي - مؤسسة دبي للإعلام Template:Webarchive {وصلة مكسورة|تاريخ=2020-10-13|bot=JarBot}</ref><ref>17 عاماً على رحيل شاعر الحب والثورة نزار قباني، جريدة النهار اللبنانية Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>نزار قباني.. 17 عاما علي غياب شاعر التمرد، شبكة الأخبار العربية Template:Webarchive {وصلة مكسورة|تاريخ=2020-10-13|bot=JarBot}</ref> or The Qabbanis were of Turkish origin and came from Konya.<ref name="Sadgrove 2010 loc=267">Template:Citation</ref> He was raised in the Old City of Damascus and attended the National Scientific College School from 1930 to 1941.<ref name=AUB>Template:Cite web</ref> Qabbani later studied law at Damascus University, then known as the Syrian University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in law in 1945.<ref name=AUB/>

The family name Qabbani is derived from the Arabic word Qabban (قبان), meaning "steelyard balance."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

While studying at university, Qabbani published his first collection of poems, The Brunette Told Me, in 1942.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The collection’s inclusion of sexual themes generated considerable controversy.<ref name=AUB/> In response, Qabbani presented the manuscript to Munir al-Ajlani, then Syria’s minister of education and a prominent nationalist figure. Al-Ajlani expressed his approval of the work and wrote the preface to the collection.

File:Nizar Kabbani - 1944.jpg
Qabbani as a law student in Damascus, 1944.

Diplomatic career

Following his graduation from law school, Qabbani joined the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving as consul or cultural attaché in several major cities, including Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Madrid, and London. In 1959, after the formation of the United Arab Republic, he was appointed vice-secretary for the union’s embassies in China. During his diplomatic postings, Qabbani continued to write prolifically, producing several works considered among his finest, including poems inspired by his time in China. He remained in the diplomatic service until his resignation in 1966.

Literary influences

At the age of fifteen, Qabbani’s older sister, Wisal, died under disputed circumstances.<ref>"Poetry as a Social Document: The Social Position of the Arab Woman as Reflected in the Poetry of Nizâr Qabbânî,” Loya Alkhalil, 2005, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Cambridge University Press.</ref> Reflecting on his literary approach, he once stated: “Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set it free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense, and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.”

In 1981, Qabbani’s wife, Balqees al-Rawi, was killed in the 1981 Iraqi embassy bombing in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. Her death had a profound impact on his life and work, inspiring the elegiac poem Balqees, in which he expressed both personal grief and political anger, holding Arab regimes responsible for her death. In the poem, Qabbani described her life as “a sacrifice” and lamented that “after you, poetry will cease and womanhood is out of place,” portraying her loss as a metaphor for the suffering of the Arab people in the Levant.<ref>"Nizar Qabbani: From Romance to Exile,” Muhamed Al Khalil, 2005, A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Department of Near Eastern Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate College of the University of Arizona, USA.</ref><ref name="poemhunter">Template:Cite web</ref>

The city of Damascus remained Qabbani’s most enduring muse, inspiring numerous works, most notably The Jasmine Scent of Damascus<ref name=poemhunter/> While deeply connected to his native city, he also expressed a pan-Arab identity, portraying the Arab world from Mauritania to Iraq as a single community united by a shared history and struggle.

In his poem Umm al-Mu'tazz, Qabbani described every Arab city as part of his “family tree,” evoking images of maternal care, childhood memories, and shared pain, and affirming his solidarity with the people of each city.<ref name="poemhunter" />

Qabbani was a vocal critic of colonial and imperial projects in the Middle East, as well as of the corruption, oppression, and hypocrisy he saw among Arab leaders. His political verse often employed direct and confrontational language. In his poem Sultan, he addressed authoritarian rulers, accusing them of silencing dissent and persecuting those who spoke out.<ref>"Re-historicizing the Six-Day War: The Counter-Poetics of Nizar Qabbani,” Saddik M. Gohar, 2011, E-Journal of Literary Studies [online]. 2011, vol. 3, no. 1 .</ref>

Personal life

File:Nizar Kabbani - 1948.jpg
Qabbani with his family, his parents and brothers.

Family

Qabbani had two sisters, Wisal and Haifa, and three brothers, Mu'taz, Rashid, and Sabah. The latter, Sabah Qabbani, became the director of Syrian radio and TV in 1960 and served as Syria's ambassador to the United States in the 1980s.

His father Tawfiq Qabbani had a chocolate factory. he also helped support fighters resisting the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and was imprisoned many times for his views, greatly affecting the upbringing of Nizar into a revolutionary in his own right. Qabbani's grandfather, Abu Khalil Qabbani, was one of the leading innovators in Arab dramatic literature.

Marriages

Qabbani married twice in his life. His first wife was his cousin Zahra Aqbiq; together they had a daughter, Hadba, and a son, Tawfiq. Tawfiq died due to a heart attack when he was 22 years old when he was in London. Qabbani eulogized his son in the famous poem "To the Damascene Prince, Tawfiq Qabbani". Zahra Aqbiq died in 2007. His daughter Hadba,<ref name="wordpress.com">Template:Cite web</ref> born in 1947, was married twice, and lived in London until her death in April 2009.<ref name="wordpress.com"/>

His second marriage was to an Iraqi woman named Balqis al-Rawi, a schoolteacher he met at a poetry recital in Baghdad; she was killed in the 1981 Iraqi embassy bombing in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War on 15 December 1981.<ref name=AUB/><ref name=poemhunter/> Together they had a son, Omar, and a daughter, Zainab. After the death of Balqis, Qabbani did not marry again.

Late life and death

After the death of Balqis, Qabbani left Beirut. He was moving between Geneva and Paris, eventually settling in London, where he spent the last 15 years of his life.<ref name="Nizar Qabbani 2005"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In exile, Qabbani continued to write poems and raise controversies and arguments. Notable and controversial poems from this period in his life include When Will They Announce the Death of Arabs? and Runners. At the age of 75, Qabbani died in London on 30 April 1998 of a heart attack.<ref name=CNNdeath>Template:Cite news</ref> In his will, which he wrote in his hospital bed in London, Qabbani wrote that he wished to be buried in Damascus, which he described in his will as "the womb that taught me poetry, taught me creativity and granted me the alphabet of Jasmine."<ref name=Arnewsdeath>Template:Cite web</ref> He was mourned by Arabs all over the world, with international news broadcasts highlighting his illustrious literary career.<ref name=Arnewsdeath/>

Awards and tributes

Bibliography

Poetry

Qabbani began writing poetry when he was 16 years old; at his own expense, Qabbani published his first book of poems, entitled The Brunette Told Me Template:Lang, while he was a law student at the University of Damascus in 1944.

Over the course of a half-century, Qabbani wrote 34 other books of poetry, including:

Other works

He also composed many works of prose, such as My Story with Poetry Template:Lang, What Poetry Is Template:Lang, and Words Know Anger Template:Lang, On Poetry, Sex, and Revolution Template:Lang, Poetry is a Green Lantern Template:Lang, Birds Don't Require a Visa Template:Lang, I Played Perfectly and Here are my Keys Template:Lang and The Woman in My Poetry and My Life Template:Lang, as well as one play named Republic of Madness Previously Lebanon Template:Lang and lyrics of many famous songs of celebrated Arab singers, including:

And his verses would remain popular after his death, and put to song by Arab pop-music stars such as Kazem al-Saher and Latifa.<ref name=Arnewsdeath/> However, such songs were introduced after filtering the original poems.

Other languages

Many of Qabbani's poems have also been translated into English and other foreign languages, both individually and as collections of selected works.<ref name=AUB/> Some of these collections include:

English
  • "On Entering the Sea" (1998)
  • "Arabian Love Poems" (1998), translated by Bassam Frangieh and Clementina R. Brown
  • "Republic of Love" (2002), translated by Nayef al-Kalali
  • "Journal of An Indifferent Woman" (2015), translated by George Nicolas El-Hage, PhD
Italian
  • "Poesie", a cura di G. Canova, M.A. De Luca, P. Minganti, A. Pellitteri, Istituto per l’Oriente, Roma 1976.
  • "Il fiammifero è in mano mia e le vostre piccole nazioni sono di carta e altri versi", a cura di V. Colombo, San Marco dei Giustiniani, Genova 2001.
  • "Il libro dell’amore", traduzione di M. Avino, in Antologia della letteratura araba contemporanea. Dalla nahda a oggi, a cura di M. Avino, I. Camera d’Afflitto, Alma Salem, Carocci, Roma 2015, pp. 116–117.
  • "Le mie poesie più belle", traduzione dall’arabo a cura di N. Salameh e S. Moresi, postfazione di P. Caridi, Jouvence, Milano 2016.
Nepali

Many of Qabbani's poems have been translated into Nepali by Suman Pokhrel, and are collected in an anthology tilled Manpareka Kehi Kavita.<ref name="Manpareka1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Prof. Abhi Subedi : Sahitya ra Aam Britta p 189, 2014, Template:ISBN</ref>

Hindi

Many of Qabbani's poems are translated into Hindi by Siddheshwar Singh, Arpana Manoj, Manoj Patel, Rinu Talwar and other translators.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Russian

Evgeniy Dyakonov wrote his PhD thesis on the translation of Qabbani's poetry into Russian; Dyakonov's translations were published by Biblos Consulting, Moscow, in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

References

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