TY - JOUR AU - Karim, Fawzi PY - 2014/03/07 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - A Cloudy Scene from Afar JF - Kufa Review (Discontinued) JA - Kufa Rev VL - 4 IS - 1 SE - English Section DO - UR - https://journal.uokufa.edu.iq/index.php/Kufa_Review/article/view/4523 SP - AB - <p>In the mid-sixties, the poet Mustafa Jamal al-Din read a good<br />poem to the audience at the Festival of poetry. These are the<br />opening lines of the poem:<br />بغداد ما اشتبت عليك الأعصر إلا ذوت، ووريقُ عمرك أخضرُ<br />مرت بكِ الدنيا وصبحك مُشمسٌ ودجتْ عليكِ ووجه ليلك مُقمرُ<br />وقستْ عليك الحادثاتُ فراعها أن احتمالك من أذاها أكبرُ<br />O Baghdad,<br />However hard times twist their boughs around you,<br />They wither, and the leaves of your life is green again.<br />The world witnessed your bright morn,<br />And in darkness, the face of your night was illuminated by<br />the moon.<br />Catastrophes were harsh on you, but they were amazed<br />To find that your endurance of agonies exceeded their power<br />to harm.<br />Baghdad here is more powerful than Time.When history<br />turns the shine day of Baghdad into a dark night, it has her fulcomm and ments of the leftist doctrine, which<br />call for optimism.<br />The historical fact says that the themes of<br />the "Monument of Freedom" must exchange<br />their locations. The first dark section, full of the<br />dead, must be the third. And the third lighted<br />section, so full of accomplishments, must be<br />placed as the first. This is what we have seen<br />in reality. I believe that art and poetry do not<br />deal with history but with myth. They must go<br />beyond history, not follow in its footsteps, and<br />contribute to the distortion of the truth.</p> ER -