Language creates consciousness about the world and of course directly influences people
Interview by Taghrid Abdelal, Palestinian writer residing in Lebanon
Mr. Rendón, the major Colombian poet, who supports Palestine, we greet you, as culture House Academy (Palestinian cultural center in Lebanon), in the world poetry movement for your noble and great solidarity for the Palestinian cause.
1- First, we see all the genocide, and we feel that we want to express as writers or cultured people, so we wrote essays, poems and we also donate for Gaza. As a poet can the words influence people in the world to change their altitude or can it reduce the pain of Palestinian?
Language creates consciousness about the world and of course directly influences people. There is a great accumulated force of solidarity with Palestine that supports the resistance of that brotherly people. The great energy of words has grown and they are sincere, subtle, loving words that embrace the pain of the Palestinian people. Since they do not feel alone in their battle against Zionism, since the fraternal words coming from the poets of so many countries constitute a great presence, the words can influence the people of the world, change their attitude and lessen the pain of Palestine.
2- In this world, where the imperialism is damaging human and culture, and as Colombian poet, what can you tell Palestinian youth in the camps concerning the weapon of knowledge and consciousness?
Palestine and the world are pulsating on the ground the brittle power of the invasion. There is growing opposition from the peoples of the land to the massacre against a people of God. And there is a deep division in Israel. No murderer in human history could kill human beings with impunity every day without then being himself a corpse. Memory and patience are weapons of knowledge and conscience. These weapons must be oiled and polished every day. It is necessary to grow in the struggle for liberation. The wait in the struggle for independence is not eternal. Nothing is eternal, not even death.
3- As a Colombian poet, and as we know Latin America poets and writers wrote about struggle in their special language, how you view the relation between poetry and resistance.
Poetry is a great proof of the stubbornness and endurance of the human spirit through centuries of war, plunder, crimes and the very oblivion of the human condition. Humanity has poetized its path of resistance to evil. Poems build an alternate reality to the nightmare that is evident. We resist through poetry that elevates and strengthens the spirit in the midst of the labyrinth of horror. One cannot live without poetry in these conditions. Writing poems, fighting armed with poetry, making poetry the victory is an expression of the daily triumph of resistance.
4- Poets in the world, sometimes criticize poetry and literature of resistance and say that this poetry is full of big issues and modern poetry especially in the west crossed that time. What can you say about Palestine poets and writers who are strugglers?
The West has suffered tragic wars, being especially cruel the one against Hitler and fascism almost 80 years ago. Many poets took up arms against the Nazis and wrote their verses in the trenches to give themselves courage and to strengthen the breath of the European continent. They are a great symbol for today’s world and their poems will never lose their relevance. However, some poets deliberately ignore, perhaps out of convenience, that the cruelty of war today wounds many peoples of the earth. They are also unaware that war is always at Europe’s door, as Europe is always carrying war everywhere, and that a nuclear conflict threatens the world every day. They should understand the meaning and symbolism of the current struggle of Palestinian poets and writers, who are fighting for their country and for the world at this very moment. The poets, writers and artists of the world should surround and embrace Palestine, they should write and create their works to affirm the idea that the fate of the planet is decided in Palestine.
Read: A Poet is born a Politician: Interview with Colombian poet Fernando Rendón
5- Can Silence sometimes be an expression for grief and pain?
Grief and pain sometimes lead us to become mute. It is not easy to write, or to express oneself when suffering pain. Sadness remains in the human soul while suffering, but it is necessary to break this circle of pain and silence. Remembering a verse of a great poet of the last century, I would like to recall: “it is necessary to speak, it is necessary to speak, it is necessary to speak of the slaughter”.
6- As the General coordinator of the poetry movement, we are proud that this movement stands with Palestine and struggles to cooperate with Palestinian culture. Are there any projects for the solidarity of Palestinian people in parallel with the world of poetry? And what are your activities concerning the PDS or against cultural normalization.
The World Poetry Movement recently held the World Conference for Palestine, in which ministers of state, poets and writers, jurists and journalists, and leading Arab and Western intellectuals took part. This Conference opened an avenue for new encounters and dialogues between people whose thinking is influential in contemporary society, around crucial and urgently needed problems in the world. In my recent meeting with Murad Sudani, General Secretary of the Palestinian Writers Union, we agreed to strive for the construction of an International Cultural Front for Palestine with the support of the World Poetry Movement.
7- You say in a poem, that “this zoo is a city of cages”, do you think that world after Zionist genocides in Gaza becomes very narrow.
At the moment the world may seem narrow because of oppression here and there, everywhere, but there are many millions of people struggling in the world for the great dream of humanity. This great struggle is multiplying and must win. Then the world will be wide and ours.
Read: Palestine’s Medal of Culture for the Colombian poet Fernando Rendón
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Taghrid Abdelal, a Palestinian born in the Nahr El Bared refugee camp in Lebanon in 1984, is a visual artist, essayist, the author of three poetry collections, and a recent winner of the Young Poets of Palestine by the Qattan Foundation.
