Kintto Lucas**, Prensa Latina contributor
According to the Christian missionary, people in Syria did not expect that there could be a civil war or even demonstrations. This is how the war was organized. Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, was under siege by US-backed groups, with many neighborhoods reduced to rubble. The missionary told it with astonishment, still amazed at the reality.
musical magic
In Syria, the music is also amazing, which can often be a dream. Sabah Fakhri, a musician born in Aleppo in 1933, is perhaps the musician who has done the most work to research and restore traditional Syrian music. For some, it represents the essence of authentic tarab. The concept of tarab may not have an exact equivalent in other languages, but is often translated as “musical ecstasy” or “enchantment.”
Damascus, the Syrian capital, has traditionally been one of the centers of Arabic music. In recent years, various singer-songwriters have stood out for their contributions to their country’s popular music and to Arabic music. Lena Chamamyan is one of these creators. His voice captures the senses. Scheherazade is one of his magical interpretations. When you listen, a musical magic arises.
That’s all…
For many, music and tarab are part of a distant reality. A child survivor in a Syrian refugee camp said in response to a journalist’s question that police in Europe don’t like Syrians and delivered his message: “Please help Syrians.” Syrians need help now. Just stop the war and we won’t come back to Europe. “Just end the war in Syria.” That’s all…
Autumn leaf
That alone is a lot. Time flies. The word goes. The music is going. Poetry returns from Syria. Born in Salamiya (Syria) in 1934, Muhammad Al Magut is one of the most important contemporary Arab poets and one of the pioneers of the renewal of Arabic poetry. His 1970 poem Winter, long before this other winter now afflicting Syria, is part of his book Poetry is not my professional and reads: Like wolves in a dry season / We sprout everywhere / Loving the rain / Worshiping autumn / One day we even thought about sending a thank you letter to the sky / And instead of a stamp / Attaching an autumn leaf to it. / We believed that the mountains would fade / The seas would fade / Civilizations would fade / But love would remain.
The leopard
From the autumn leaves in Syria we continue towards the dry leaves of the island of Lampedusa. When the NATO intervention in Libya began in 2011, some of us warned that it would lead the country into civil war. We also warned that an intervention in Syria would follow, that this intervention, provoked by the interest of foreign powers in the resources of these countries and in their geostrategic location, would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. Today the reality is sadder than we imagine. Half of the Syrian population survives as displaced persons. Libya is a scene of death and slavery. Hundreds of thousands of people are emigrating to Europe to save their lives. Today the island of Lampedusa is a bridge and a wall in its path.
It is a great paradox, but Il Gatopardo, this extraordinary novel by Giuseppe de Lampedusa, is once again today the best picture of this somewhat cynical Europe, which hides and lies to itself while following the United States. Il Gatopardo is a mirror of Europe.
rmh/kl
*From the book My Trip to Ithaca
**Ecuadorian-Uruguayan journalist, writer and politician
(Taken from selected signatures)