Zahra Habib
The inauguration ceremony
The book achieved beautiful echoes, which are met by “terrible silence”
Between aviation engineering and word engineering, Bahraini writer Issa Hajras weaved a unique literary experience that culminates in 3 decades of meditation and writing in the second version of the book “Al -Sarayat”, as it is not a traditional book nor a usual literary classification, but rather the cocktail cocktail “scrap” that expresses life in the language of “easy abstaining”.
At a time when the world is crowded with long texts and emotional writing, Bahraini writer Issa Hajras offers a unique experience, based on a group of intellectual and emotional fragments that have been written for more than three decades that started in 1995, with linguistic reduction, poetic sense, and a deep human contemplation.
Hajras assured Al -Watan that “Al -Sarayat” is not a book that is read from the cover to the cover, but rather is closer to a contemplative picnic within an uncomfortable garden, in which it moves from love to the homeland, from wisdom to humor, and from politics to loss, without a map, and every person who reads it in his own way.
Hajras touched on how the idea was born, the meaning of the title, the philosophy of reduction in writing, in addition to the scene of culture in Bahrain, the role of cultural centers, and the echo of the book between friends and the public, in addition to his upcoming projects, as he talks about the impact of his work in aviation engineering on his relationship with the word.
The meeting comes:
When did the idea of ”companies” start in your mind? Are you always planning to publish a book?
In fact, the idea was never a “brilliance project” in the common sense. I did not sit down to plan to issue, nor put a schedule, but rather a life experience, and what happened was that I was writing all the time, or let me say “I register my feeling” and I am one of the people who love to meditate on popular proverbs, reduction and intensification in the same “like” she gave themselves to herself “, and the idea started before 1995, as if I shorten the situation, experience or emotion in one sentence, I write it on a notebook As shots in passing papers, I was doing it out of my own, as if I was breathing in the word.
With the passage of time, I discovered that I had a large amount of short texts, at the beginning of 2000 I started to feel that this accumulation deserved to be collected, but I did not hurry, I kept back, reviewed and filtered “nuggets” and was a variety of garden, so I was impressed that the topics were varying, so I always say: “Sarayat” was not written, but rather matured through age.
“Al -Sarayat” is a remarkable popular title, how did you choose it?
– The word came out of a spontaneous conversation with a friend in Muharraq.
In our dialect, the light winds that precede the storm, or the sporadic flames that do not settle, are an accurate description of the nature of the texts: short thoughts, suddenly raid you, and disappear, you wanted a Bahraini title, in which a popular nature, and not to be a consumer, and the “companies” were the most appropriate.
Among those phrases .. I did not find in the days a time, nor in the distances, and every place is not equal to a tone if the homeland is lost.
The fertility of life and the virility of time gave birth to us a wonderful child named Watan. Also, some people are forgotten by forgetting before they taste memory, and other condensation in phrases.
Your writing method is based on fragrance and reduction, why did you choose this shape without expanding the article or poem?
– I love condensation, I love the sentence that carries more than you say, write what I like to read, and I have always believed that the most difficult thing about writing is the ease of abstaining, and to say a lot with the least amount of words, and this method requires a double effort, because it deals with the language with caution and passion.
I wrote in the introduction a phrase that I see summarizing my philosophy: “How do you bring the depth of the sea in a drop of water?” This is the challenge and in the “Sarayat”, I tried to do this in every text.
Why did you not divide the book into axes? Especially since the reader moves from love to politics, to loss, to irony randomly?
– This is my destination completely, as life does not go according to a specific index, and I wanted to be more like a random garden, in which you walk and the flowers are surprised by unexpected angles, monotony is fatal, and excessive organization kills surprise.
“Sarayat” is an invitation to read unconventional, which opens any page and begins, in which you find love, disappointment, wisdom or humor.
Airlines worked, how did you move from aircraft engineering to engineer the word?
Yes, my work in aviation engineering requires accuracy, logic, and analytical skill, but perhaps because my work is mental and disciplined, so writing for me was the space of creative chaos, it was not against the profession, but rather a complement to it.
Flying gave me a unique relationship with time, waiting, movement, and meditation from above, which is the product of the reflections of an engineer who monitors the world from the top, then writes from the inside.
When did your relationship with the word start? Who inspired you?
– The real entrance was the song. I was fond of the lyrics of songs, especially the words of Fayrouz, Al -Rabana, Abd al -Wahhab and Nizar Qabbani, I was listening to the words, returning it, and trying to imitate its music, then I started reading, and I taste the language.
It was very influenced by the style of Nizar Qabbani, who had in his poetic crop “500 words” and made a language that is the daily loaf, and in the simple language that resembles life, then Gibran, Mahmoud Darwish, and others came, I loved literature as a matter of tasting the word before its thought.
Why did the “Sarayat” writing all these years?
– Because I was not “authored”, but I lived, the texts were not written in a row, but in stages, there are texts from the nineties, and others from 2020, some of them were born in a position, and some of them remained trapped in paper for years.
The book is similar to my notebook, but it is a mortal, passed through many stages of sifting, until I shortened it in more than 200 fragments, representing the summary of Omar feeling, not only time.
How did readers receive the book? Did you feel satisfied with the interaction?
– We held a beautiful and distinguished inauguration ceremony, and more than 400 people attended and the hall was filled with her father’s ball, I received many praises from readers, writers and media, and there was a real presence of people, and this is something that I am proud of.
However, on the other hand, she faced a strange silence from some intellectuals, I expected attention from them, but some did not speak, and some may not have read, or did not want to comment, and this silence is painful, but he was also teaching, I learned not to bet on applause, and not to be silent.
How to evaluate the reality of culture and cultural centers in Bahrain?
– We need to revive the social spirit within the cultural centers, many of which today offer activities without an audience, or an audience without interaction, the diwaniya, the discussion was absent, and the separate show.
Culture is not a hall, a seat, and a microphone, it is communication, spontaneity, discussion after the event, we need to return to the idea of the cultural forum, not only the lecture, and then extinguish the lights and close the doors, and a few of these centers began to be aware of this missing aspect, and work to revive it, as the centers are a crucible for talents and showing experiences.
Currently, Social Media and Electronic Life, had a negative role in the lack of attendance and thirst for knowledge, so everything he needs to find it in the World Wide Web.
What about selling the book at the time of the inauguration? Have you thought about printing it for commercial purposes?
– At the inauguration ceremony, I distributed the book for free. I do not want to say to people: “Come and pay for it.” For me, the book is a cultural meal, not a commodity.
Yes, in libraries sold, and this is normal. But I do not like to convert the writer into a seller, who promotes his book as if it was a consuming product, the word is more valuable than being able to confront in a moment, and some oppose the thought and believes that the book has a “respect” and when it becomes a rumor really reduced its value.
Is there a new book you are working on?
– Yes, I am working on a new project, which differs in the form and content from “Sarayat”, is a grouping of texts that I wrote in more than 20 years articles, reflections, poetic texts, lamentations, poetic clips, and social texts on friendship, women and music.
The next book will be a human mirror, more than literary, and will collect aspects of my personality, experience and dialogues with life.
