A man with nomadic tendencies, Youssef Rakha was born in Cairo in 1976. He studied English and philosophy in England, worked in Cairo, lived in Beirut, and, most recently, in Abu Dhabi as a features writer for the English daily, The National. He has interviewed some of the most compelling and contemporary Arab storytellers of our time for the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly – from helmers and novelists to actors and politicians (who, to me, are also storytellers) – laying bare his writings with such meticulousness, voice, and reason that he gives his audience a chance to draw their own conclusions as they observe the idiosyncrasies and prejudices of the speaker.
Formal constraints are limiting in every genre or kind of writing, but they are necessary for sustaining tension; the line through which the exchange takes place has to remain taut. The greater challenge is of course to write well, meaning - as Raymond Carver put it I think - not only to express but to communicate, and for me also to strike the right balance between stating what I have to say and making the reader say something through me, something similar but never the same; it's important to leave that space open inside the text. The idea is always to stretch the form as far as I can - and that applies even to grammatical form: sentence structure and word order etc. - because it's always as if you're looking for something, a tone or a rhythm or a standpoint, something entirely subjective but also objective enough to be recognised. So how to be completely insane but at the same time lucid and articulate. In this sense language itself is limiting but the whole point is to argue with its limitations.
Poetry is the most challenging thing and if I had more integrity I would be a dedicated poet. But I think my medium is the Arabic language regardless of form. I recently came across these wonderful words from the late Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus and they express me perfectly: "Which all goes to say that, for me, the Arabic language is oceanic in nature and can absorb anything into its vast genetic pool… I think the time has finally come to treat Arabic as a great reservoir, a live magnet that can absorb foreign influences today as easily as it did in the past."
How long have you been writing?
I published my first book, Azhar ash Shams, in 1999. I finished what I consider to be my first accomplished piece, the title short story of that book, in 1997. I was 20 or 21. But I started writing many years before, and then I started writing again when I switched to English more or less fully in 2000. I came back to Arabic with Beirut shi mahal in 2005, with only a few poems produced in Arabic in the meantime.
Virginia Woolf said fiction is more likely to tell truth than fact. Would you agree?
I am not sure what that means. Fiction plays with fact. Sometimes fact is fiction or vice versa. Foucault pointed out that there is no such thing as truth, anyway. There are many truths, and to me the truth to be found in writing is more valid than that to be found in the natural sciences, for example, or at least more relevant. But in writing, I happen to know from experience that fact can be at least as interesting as fiction.
If you could live on an island (let’s say… a pre-colonized Sri Lanka) who would you take? Of course, the indigenous people would be with you.
Jean Genet or Mahmoud Darwish?
Genet, of course. I actually happen to hate Darwish, but that is a long story...
Frantz Fanon or Karl Marx?
Fanon. We would have a lot more to talk about.
Fairouz or Leila Khaled?
That's a really hard one. Fairuz, assuming she will be singing to me in the dark.
Sonallah Ibrahim or Emile Habiby?
Habiby would be more fun I think. I mean, I know Sonallah personally but Habiby I never met.
David Lynch or Michael Haneke?
Lynch, of course.
Khadija or Arundhati Roy?
Khadija as in the Prophet's wife? I think I'd rather Arundhati among the natives.
Woody Allen or your unconscious?
Once again, a hard one. I think maybe they're quite similar. But my unconscious would be Arabic-speaking which is always nice.
Father or Mother?
Oh God. Can I say neither. My father is dead, so I would go for Father simply for that reason.
If you could replace whatever infrastructure you wanted in a city – with your only condition being that reduplicating Gulf-kitsch glamorama is off limits – what would you demolish and what would you build?
Finally, what do you anticipate from the Beirut39 Festival?
You know there was a lot of so called debate here in Cairo following the announcement of the winners. A lot of non-winners vented their frustration and even older writers who had nothing to do with the whole thing expressed various reservations and grievances. That did not exactly put a damper on things but it made me wonder what a competition amounts to in the long term, especially thinking about some fellow winners whose work I have never respected but who have always, then as now, been present at every event or conference. It makes me curious about the nature of success in Arabic literature, what it really means to be successful and how much of it has to do with quality of writing as opposed to sheer presence of personages. Of course there are on the list also names I am totally honoured to be associated with. But that is one part of what being part of the festival has done to me, to place me face to face with difficult questions about the value of what I do and how this value is actually measured.
تعطيل سرد القصة او دقائق من وقت القاص: مقابلة مع الكاتب يوسف رخا
ولد يوسف رخا في مصر في العام 1976. بدوي مرتحل بطبعه, درس الإنجليزية و الفلسفة في بريطانيا, عمل في مصر و عاش في بيروت, و أخيرا إستقر في أبو ظبي ككاتب في اليومية الإنجليزية "ذي ناشونال". بدوره قام بإجراء مقابلات مع بعض أهم الكتاب و الصحافيين العرب المعاصرين للطبعة الإنجليزية من الأهرام الأسبوعي: منهم رواة و ممثلون و سياسيون لا يقلون حنكة في رواياتهم. قدم الكاتب أعماله بتأن و دقة و منطقية حيث يعطي القارئ فرصة التوصل الى إستنتاجه الخاص بعيدا عن انحيازات الكاتب.
قابلته سوسن حماد
كتبت في الشعر و القصة و ادب الرحلات كما كتبت التقارير الإخبارية و المقالات: تعد إذا كاتبا ذا اوجه متعددة. ماذا يحدّ من مقدرتك حسب رأيك؟
بالنسبة لي فالشعر هو أكبر تحد لي و لو انني كنت أشد حزما لكرست نفسي له. كون اللغة العربية هي محيطي تجدني غير مكترث بجنس الكتابة. منذ مدة قريبة إكتشفت كلمات رائعة للشاعر العراقي سركون بولص تعبر عني تماما <بما معناه: أنه بالنسبة له فاللغة العربية تحاكي البحر بطبيعتها و تستطيع الإتحاد مع أي عناصر أخرى في محيطها الواسع, لذا فقد حان الوقت لنعامل اللغة العربية ككونها إحتياطي قومي او مغناطيس يشد بإتجاهه التأثيرات الأجنبية تماما كما فعلت في الماضي.>
لا أعلم تمام ما المقصود بهذا القول. الخيال يدغدغ الواقع, أحيانا الواقع هو الخيال و الخيال هو الواقع. فوكو أشار الى انه ليس هنالك ما يعتبر الصدق\ الحقيقة المطلق\ة باي حال. هنالك العديد من الحقائق, و الحقيقة التي نجدها في الكتابة أهم من تلك التي نجدها في العلوم على سبيل المثال, او على الاقل أكثر صلة به. و من تجربتي الشخصية في الكتابة أرى بان الواقع يمكن ان يكون شائقا تماما كالخيال.
سأسرد لك بعض الأسامي و لك أن تقول لي من مِن هؤلاء ستفضل أن يرافقك إن كنت لتسكن على جزيرة نائية (سيريلانكا ما قبل الكولونيالية) على فرض بأن سكان الجزيرة الأصليون سيرافقونك.
جان جينيه أم محمود درويش؟
جينيه بطبيعة الحال لانني بالحقيقة اكره درويش, و لهذه قصة طويلة..
فرانتز فانون ام كارل ماركس؟
فانون. حيث سيكون لدينا الكثير لنتحدث حوله.
هذا خيار صعب. فيروز, إن كانت ستغني لي وحدي بالعتمة.
أتخيل بأن (حبيبي) سيكون ممتعا اكثر, إنني أعرف (صنع الله) شخصيا و لكنني لم أقابل حبيبي مرة في حياتي.
لينش بالطبع.
تعنين بـ (خديجة) زوجة النبي محمد؟ أظن بأنني سأفضل وجود أروندهاتي بين السكان الأصليين.
مرة أخرى, سيكون خيارا صعبا. أظنهما متشابهان الى حد كبير و لكن لاوعيي يتحدث العربية, و هو ما أفضل.
ابوك ام أمك؟
يا الهي! هل أستطيع ألّا آخذ أي منهما؟ أبي ميت, سأختاره لهذا السبب فقط.
أخيرا, ما هي توقعاتك بخصوص مهرجان بيروت39؟
بيني و بين بيروت رابطة قوية ربطتني بها لمدة أربعة أعوام, لذا فإنني متحمس لذهابي اليوم هناك ككاتب معترف بي. املي هو أن يساعدني المهرجان بأن اتخطى العقبة الدائمة و المهمة بالغة الصعوبة في تفريغ بعض الوقت للسفر و للكتابة من خلال صفقات إقامة أو نشر كتاب أو ما شابه.
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