The theatrical trilogy “Bir Masoud” by the poet and playwright Maysara Salah El-din has recently been published
By: Ashraf Aboul-Yazid
The theatrical trilogy “Bir Masoud” by the poet and playwright Maysara Salah El-din has recently been published by Dar Al-Muharrir for Publishing and Distribution.
The dedication written by the author is revealing of the content. We are faced with two sides of a coin of one city, and like a dice player, he throws it high, not knowing which side will remain and which side will disappe ; “To Alexandria, which was lost, to Alexandria, which will live forever.”
In his theatrical trilogy, Maysara Salah El-Din presents three musical plays in a separate and connected framework. The events of the trilogy “Raml Tram”, “Sheikh Ali Bar”, and “Bir Masoud” take place in the city of Alexandria in a way that transcends space and time.
The writer presents, through real and imaginary characters and realistic and artificial events, the story of the city and its people, whose day is intertwined with imagination, truth, reality, drama, nostalgia, hope, and a future characterized by rapid changes and portends much.
A Guide with Love
In an opening scene, he narrates his own history, mixed with the city’s diaries, as an eye witness, or a guide to use transportation:
“Boy 1: My advice is to get on the first line and stand on the stairs that are on the side of the door that doesn’t open at the stations or park at any window. If you don’t catch a staircase or window, stand in the aisle between the chairs. Look for a worried passenger who keeps looking around and asking the person next to him. You know he’s about to get off. Wait next to him for a while and you’ll find him standing up. As soon as he stands up, sit in his place. Sam, if you’re next to the window, take my second piece of advice. When you’re next to the window, don’t look at the people, the crowds, the shops, or the cars. Look at the old buildings and houses on the Ram line. It starts from the first station at Raml and Shatby and keeps increasing until Camp Caesar, Cleopatra, and Sidi Gaber, and continues with you after that. The buildings are really old, but what’s all this beauty? All of them are one-story or four-story, with high ceilings and wide balconies, columns and decorations, sometimes angels, sometimes a lion’s head and sometimes Greek writing.
Girl 1: So, do these engravings and drawings have a meaning?
Boy 1: The angels are to protect the houses from evil spirits and demons, and the lion is to keep away thieves and jinn, and the angels are a symbol of evil.”
Bir Masoud
Bir Masoud is one of the most beautiful areas of Sidi Bishr Beach, Alexandria. In our childhood, most of the city’s residents and visitors had nostalgic memories as we used to visit, throw coins in it (Bir = Well) and wish. The book’s title reminds us with a beloved place currently under a radical change.
The three plays are linked by a group of dramatic lines that are basically composed of real stories of people and places that express different aspects of the city of Alexandria. The author employed popular and oral heritage and the city’s folklore, as well as the characters and heroes of two peoples who lived in the city. He has also tried to monitor the city’s traditional music and the most prominent songs and voices in the city’s modern history, which is full of art, music, human and cognitive wealth, as we read in a song about family, marriage, and growing children:
“When he sees her, he says, “May you also have it.”
When he sees her, he says, “May you also have it.”
Before she goes out on the lap
He is all in his mind, organizing himself
May you also grow up like us,
May you also be among us,
May you also enter university,
May you also go to Marina
Girl 1:
Hey, leave me alone, what do you want from me?
You want me to marry and become a slave girl for our master the Bey
Do you want me to have children or dig in the mountains
Or is it money and pampering that you have your eye on?
Group:
May you get engaged quickly
May you win the lottery
May you also have an apartment and a car
May you also have a veranda that looks at the castle
Girl 2:
I am an independent woman with goals in life
I want to prove myself and my dream grows from its hardship
I want true love and to walk my path at ease
No one to wet my throat and when it comes time, I get lost behind it.”
The Freat Grandfather Sheikh Masoud
The author does not forget to invoke folklore and mythological tales in his play:; the Fresca biscuits seller: (addressing the two young men) By the way, I come from a very grand family, and this well is named after my great grandfather, my great grandfather Sheikh Masoud, he was one of the righteous saints of God. He came from Morocco a long time ago and used to sit in seclusion by the well, and when he got angry with the conditions of the people in the well, he would get angry with them and revolt, and the sea would come out and flood the area. Young man 2: Oh my God!
Broker: Boy, aren’t you going to stop telling fake tales? Stop fabricating stories.”
The Author
It is worth noting that Maysara Salah El-Din is a poet, playwright and translator. He has published many poetry and musical collections and plays, such as “Opera surgeon” and “Al-Ward Al-Balady (The Local Rose)”. He has also received a number of local and Arab awards and honors. He has participated in many cultural and artistic festivals and events, such as the annual literature conference organized by the University of Cleveland in the United States, the Dibba Al-Hisn Festival for Duo Theatre in Sharjah, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the Cairo International Book Fair and others.
Some of Maysara’s poems have been translated into English and Italian, and his collection “Secret Numbers” has been published in Spanish in a series dedicated to world poetry. Many of his texts have also been presented on stage, such as Personal Status, Little Luck and Kafr Abu Salem. He has also made various contributions in the field of translation, as he has translated a number of important literary works, including the novel Shuggie Bain is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020. It tells the story of the youngest of three children, Shuggie, growing up with his alcoholic mother Agnes in 1980s post-industrial working-class Glasgow, Scotland”, which won the International Booker Prize, and Zweig’s “suicide letter”, and The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath and “The Butter and Egg Man” a 1925 play by George S. Kaufman.
Read: The Poetic Gardens of Ko Un
__________________
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is a renowned Egyptian poet, journalist, novelist, travelogue writer and translator. He is author of around three dozen books and Editor-in-Chief of Silk Road Literature Series.
