Ashraf Aboul-Yazid reveals in a brief talk to Gioia Lomasti, poet, translator and editor, Italy
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali) – Egypt, is President, Asia Journalist Association (AJA), since April 2016, Editor in Chief, The Silk Road Literature Series, a member of Egyptian Writers Union, and the National Coordinator of World Poetry Movement (WPM) in Egypt. He won Manhae Grand Prize in Literature, Korea (2014), Arab Journalism Award in Culture, UAE (2015), The Gold Medal in LIFFT Eurasian Literary Festival, Istanbul, Turkey (2021), The Medal of Esteemed Patron of Arts, PAWA, Ibadan, Nigeria (2022), and Sawiris Cultural Award. Children Literature, Cairo, Egypt (2023).
This year marks 35 years since the publication of the first poetry collection by you and it seems that you is preparing to celebrate this occasion!
Indeed, next month, Al-Nasher Publishing House in Egypt, as part of the Silk Road Literature Series, will issue my collection (Poems), a Poetry Anthology (1989 – 2024), which includes poems from my first collection, “The Whisper of the Sea (1989), and the second, “The Shells.” (1996), the third is “The Memory of Silence” (2000), the fourth is “On the Path of Death” (2001), and the fifth is “The Memory of Butterflies” (2004), in addition to selections from two collections published previously in English, namely “The Maps of Mirage” (2013), and “The Monk on the gray mountaintop ” (2023).
I read and translated your poem “The Monk on the gray mountaintop” into Italian. What is the secret of your interest in this poem in particular?
The poem was written down in its final form on my sixtieth birthday, so I included it in the poetry collection. It comes in an appendix of 20 languages, with poetic translations in Translated from English to Sindhi by Nasir Aijaz, Sindh, Pakistan, to Persian by Alireza Bahrami, Iran, to English by Dr. Salwa Goda, Egypt, to French by Prof. Achour Fenni, Algeria, to Korean by (Cherry) Lee Yeon – Sil, Korea, to Chinese by Sue Zhu, NZ/China, to Spanish by Dr. Nadia Gamaleddin, Egypt, to Manipuri by Misna Chanu, India, to Turkish by Caroline Laurent Turunç, Turkey, to Indonesian by Lily Siti Multatuliana, Indonesia, to Serbian by Ana Stjelja, Serbia, to Bengali by Rezauddin Stalin, Bangladesh, to Russian by Eldar Akhadov, Russia- Azerbaijan, to Tajik by Abdukakhor Kosim, Tajikstan, Azerbaijani by Elmaya Cabbarova, Azerbaijan, to Armenian by Mariana Bertizlian, Syria, to Malyalam by Fayrouz Razia, India, to Kyrgyzstani by Sagyn Berkinalieva. Kyrgyzstan, to Urdu by Shabbir Soomro, Pakistan and – of course – to Italian by Alessia Angela Ferrari Dream, in collaboration with you dear Gioia Lomasti, Italy.
I think you have a wealth of translated poetry, right?
My collections have been translated into many languages, a total of 15 poetry collections have been published, including three collections in Persian, translated by Professor Nasreen Chakibi Mumtaz, and two in Spanish translated by Dr. Nadia Gamaleddin, and a collection of poems in Turkish, translated by Metin Fındıkçı, German, Serbian, translated by Dr. Ana Stjelja, Russian, translated by Eldar Akhadov, Azeri, translated by Tirana Muhammad, Sindhi, translated by Nasir Aijaz, Urdu, translated by Shabbir Soomro, and English which I translated its poems myself.
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid| Three Poems
Darkness
When my voice penetrated
The virginity of the night,
The sun flew through my fingers,
To draw a shadow after me.
It was getting taller or shorter,
And taller…
Then, the dark killed me.
***
Homeland
I know a homeland
That is like a visa.
Its flag looks like the night
Of your hair,
With its thousand tails.
It is like a priest who
Gives no forgiveness,
While he is full of sins!
***
Benha*
As a tit on the River Nile’s breast
Benha sleeps, and pours
Its honey in my dreams.
I wonder, when I come home
If I could remember all its roads?
Or if Benha remembers my face
With the new tired roads
Engraved on it?
(*My town on the River Nile)
Published under the International Cooperation Protocol with The AsiaN (Arabic) Seoul, South Korea
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