This week the Egyptian poet and novelist, Samir Darwish met Heliopolis University students in an open discussion about poetry and music. He was firstly introduced by Dr. Amina Taitoon who briefed the audience about his life and publications.
“The poet is born as a musician first,” said Samir Darwish starting his talk “he then discovers his talent as a poet.” Darwish believes that the successful poet is the one who is able to play music to his listeners through words. Poetry is entirely intermingled with music, as music is the most sophisticated tool of expression. Music is created in poetry by arranging words side by side in a harmonious form. Darwish endorses the Arabic modern poetry that makes his reader walk on water and never sink through its words that flow smoothly without being interrupted by the rigid gaps and forms enforced by the classical rhyme (Qafia).
At the end of the talk, Heliopolis University students started asking questions about how the Arabic poetry has been transformed from the classical form to the modern free verse. Darwish thinks that free verse is more expressive and influential as it communicates the poet’s feelings and thoughts in an easy comprehensible language without the solid restrictions of the classical poem.
Samir Darwish is one of the prominent poetical faces of the 1980s. He has 15 collections of poems. The first of which was “Kutofoha and Sioufi” (1991) and the last one is “Mirrors of New York”. He also published two novels and a book on political thought.
